Alex Knowles scored the decisive goal to give Ely a 1-0 home victory over Haverhill Borough in the Saturday evening game as part of a non-league ground hopping day.

Ely went into the game without the suspended Ash Walter, James Seymour and Ed Richardson aswell as goalkeeper Craig Galbraith being unavailable. That meant a debut in goal for 16 year old Jake Alsop who plays for the clubs under 18s. Sam Goodge returned to the squad after being out for a month through injury.

A bumper crowd of 157 witnessed Ely dominate the first half of this game playing at high tempo and pressuring Haverhill high up the pitch. Ely lost Craig Neal after 15 minutes due to a collision with the dugout injuring his knee with Sam Goodge coming on to replace him. Ely were testing the Haverhill with a number of long range efforts and from several corners and set pieces. Jack Saunders was causing the away defence lots of problems cutting in from the right hand side. After 30 minutes Lewis Hook and Liam Griffin combined to break up play and push Ely forward giving the ball to Jack whose shot come cross only needed a touch from Alex Knowles to find the net but unfortunately he was unable to connect. Sam Goodge then won the ball in the box and set up Alex Theobald but his shot was blocked by the Haverhill defender with appeals of handball. Alex Theobald shortly followed this up with an effort from outside the box that went just past the post. Haverhill were committing a number of fouls to break up Ely’s momentum and Jake Alsop in the Ely goal was generally a spectator for much of the first half apart from one chance that the Haverhill forward headed over the bar. Ely continued to push but could not find the breakthrough so went in at half time 0-0.

The second half started with Haverhill coming out stronger and put Ely under some Ely pressure. Jake Alsop was called into action in the Ely goal after 55mins making a great save down low to his left from the Haverhill striker who had broken through the Ely backline. This kicked Ely back into gear and they started applying the pressure again. A free kick was won on the right hand side and the delivery was only partially cleared by the Haverhill defence. Jack Saunders put the ball back into the box and has it came to Alex Knowles he manged to get his shot away at the second attempt and found the bottom corner of the gaol to give Ely the lead in the 65th minute. After taking the lead Ely were able to control the game and were looking dangerous on the counter attack has Haverhill pushed forward for an equaliser. However neither side were able to create any clear cut chances as the game came to a close.

Overall it was a deserved 3 points for Ely for the dominant first half display and the way in which the game was controlled after taking the lead. The depth of the squad was tested with a number of key players out but this test was passed and with three 16 year olds in the squad the future looks positive. Next week we face a very test tough away to Great Yarmouth nut can go into the game positively on the back of 3 wins.