Report provided by http://thecoldend.blogspot.co.uk/

Ely City went into Saturday's Buildbase FA Vase Third Round game against Welwyn Garden City as clear underdogs - The Robins are currently in nineteenth place of the Thurlow Nunn Premier Division with The Citizens starting the day in third place of the Spartan South Midlands League Premier Division. In league form Ely had won just four of their seventeen games played compared to WGC's ten in seventeen. In the build up to the game Ely's manager Brady Stone had said he had no intention to "park the bus" and that he wanted his player's to go out and enjoy the game and how they did that in a highly entertaining ninety minutes of cup football. The result looks even better for The Robins as they had five players missing from their squad and had Dean Grogan starting in goal who is actually a centre-back/defender and usually turns out for their reserve side.

The away side put in a tremendously hard working team performance especially at the back where so many blocks and tackles going in over the course of the game. The difference between the two teams was Ely City winger Kelvin Enaro who switched from left to right numerous times and showed some brilliant control and pace taking people on with the Welwyn player's struggling to deal with his skill and trickery - I think one of their back four shouting 'Go on Kelv....show us some more magic' when he had the ball at his feet in the second half summed up how good he was yesterday. Kelvin has played for Newmarket Town, Cottenham United and Mildenhall Town and on this showing Ely have a very good player on their books.

Welwyn had showed some good play up front but didn't work Grogan as much as they would of liked in the first half. Ely took the lead on forty minutes when Enaro dribbled the ball in from the left hand side and squared the ball across the edge of the box for George Darling to confidently hit the back of the net. It was 1-1 by half time when Welwyn were given a penalty - Grogan had made an excellent save from a close range shot only for the ball to land at the feet of Josh Bronti who was tackled from behind right in front goal. Bronti dusted himself down and scored from the spot to make things all square.

On 52 minutes Ely made it 1-2 when Craig Neal scored a great goal from the edge of the box which the on-looking ex England goalkeeper David James described as 'bent in like Beckham'. It got better for Ely just three minutes later when after a Citizen's corner they broke down field and after an interchange of passes that man Enaro was able to score a third from close range.

Welwyn really put the pressure on Ely from then on and scored a second when defender John McGrandles headed home a free kick into the box on 58 minutes. Shortly after they had a header rattle the top of the crossbar but it was a highly committed performance from then on especially at the back by Stone's side who saw out a famous win for their club to the absolute delight of their travelling fans. A special mention goes out to the fans of Welwyn Garden City who, despite a disappointing result and their road to Wembley ending, stayed and clapped the away team off the field wishing them all the best which was fantastic to see and demonstrates what a great football club they are.

Highlights of the game are also available at http://thecoldend.blogspot.co.uk/