After last weeks comprehensive victory at home to Long Melford Brady Stone was rightly confident going into the game against Suffolk side Brantham Athletic. The Ely manager also had the luxury of naming an unchanged starting eleven and with last years top goalscorer Alex Theobald returning to the bench after missing the game through injury.Dominic Hunt and Joe Brannan made up the rest of the bench.

Ely started where they left off from last week and started very brightly on the front foot. Within a couple of minutes a good run and cross by Kelvin Enaro eluded the keeper and came back off the bar to safety. .Minutes later it was good link up play between Craig Neal and Enaro that produced a quality cross by the winger into the six yard box, but no one was on hand to take advantage.Captain James Seymour also had a shot on target in the early stages, but did not trouble the keeper.

At the other end a spilled shot by Harry Reynolds almost presented the Brantham forward with a second chance, but the referee deemed that Reynolds had been fouled on the follow through. Daniel Jeffrey was replaced by Joe Brannan after suffering a knock to his knee after 30 minutes.

The first half settled down with either side really producing much quality and it was a very sloppy defensive goal that the Robins conceded towards the end of the half A long throw on the Robins right was flicked on at the near post and post Ollie Brookes and Tom Williams could not react quickly enough to clear and the ball dropped to a Brantham player who shot passed the advancing Brannan and keeper Reynolds.

The second half was again another disappointing half for the Robins as Brantham seemed to more dangerous on the counter attack than in the first half. We seemed to result in playing longer balls up to the lonesome George Darling without players getting on the ball and moving their opponents around The home side had one effort early on while George Darling had a long range effort just passing the post.

The second goal of game came when Ely had a free kick mid way into the Brantham half . Tom Williams won the initial header, but the ball broke out to the edge of the box and Brantham once again counter attacked, This time a ball played into the box for the advancing forward unfortunately hit Joe Brannan's heal and the ball went straight into the path of the forward who calmly knocked the ball past Reynolds to make it 2-0

George Darling had a great chance to reduce the effort after good work by Alex Theobald, but his shot rebounded off the post. Ely never really once again looked or believed they could get back into the game and the game drifted on with Brantham looking the more likely to get a third.

A promising start to the match ending in a another disappointing second half performance . The side now move on to their big cup game next Saturday in the Buildbase F.A. Vase away to Northampton On Chenecks 1st Round