Ely are off the mark in the Thurlow Nunn First Divison picking up 3 points beating Downham Town 3-0 on Friday night at the Unwin ground in front of a good crowd of 153.

Changes were made to the Ely starting line up from the FA Cup replay on Tuesday night. With Sam Goodge out injured 16 year old Lewis Hook started in midfield, Spencer Saberton returned in defence and Jack Saunders came in.

Downham started the brighter of the two teams and it took Ely 20 minutes to settle into the game and start to take control but the final pass was lacking. Ely thought they had taken the lead when Alex Theobald had a header that looked like it crossed the line but no goal was given. Ely also thought they should of been awarded a penalty for a foul on Jack Saunders but a free kick outside the box was given. Ely did take the lead though in the last minute of the half when Alex Theobald headed home from a Daniel Jeffrey cross.

Into the second half and Ely had to deal with some pressure that Downham were applying with Ely looking tired from their Cup replay. Alex Knowles came on after 65 minutes and had an immediate impact collecting the ball from Liam Griffin and breaking away down the line to square the ball to Craig Neal who finished to put Ely 2-0 up. This soon became 3-0 when Alex Theobald won a penalty and got up to convert it.

Unfortunately the game ended on a sour note when a scuffle amongst the players broke out after a challenge and Ash Walter was shown a red card with Liam Griffin getting a yellow, however no players from Downham were punished.

Ely also handed a competitive first team debut to another 16 year old when Joe Brannan came on for the last 10 minutes at centre back for Josh Sewell.