A lacklustre display from both teams meant Ely City held visitors Walsham le Willows to a 0-0 draw at the Ellgia Stadium.

Due to several injuries, there were a lot of changes in the Ely side particularly in defence, with fullbacks Alex Brown and Dom Hunt coming in, as well as goalkeeper Ben Mayhew.

The Willows almost broke the deadlock early on through Tom Debenham. Creeping in at the back post following Sam Peters’ overhit corner, his effort came crashing back off the post.

It was Brown who was at the heart of Ely’s first opportunity on goal, when he picked out Lewis Hook in the final third. Playing a one-two with Alex Theobald, Hook broke beyond Walsham’s back line, but just lost his footing before he could get a shot away.

Five minutes from half-tine, Robins forward Sam Reed managed to thread the ball through to Matthew Simpson who was open in the 18-yard box, but he rushed his shot and sliced it well over the crossbar.

An Ely counter attack looked promising when Hook chipped over a great through ball in the path of Reed. Running at the defence, his strike across the face of goal crept just wide of the post.

Midway through the second half there was havoc in the Walsham penalty area following an Ely corner. Tom Williams, Ollie Brookes and Alex Theobald all tried to force the ball beyond the goal line but the Willows managed to keep it out in scrappy fashion.

Substitute Kehan Whitby had the chance to steal the game for the visitors in the last few moments when he was first to a long ball over the top.

Blitzing towards Mayhew, he took too much time on the ball and Brown did well to get back in time to block his shot, before it could get anywhere near Mayhew’s net.

Ely manager Brady Stone gave his thoughts on his side’s performance stating:

“Another point with five players out injured and few coming back from injury, it wasn’t a bad result and a fair one. Always nice to keep another clean sheet.”

Now that the Robins midweek fixture against Haverhill Rovers has been rearranged, they travel to Colchester next Saturday to face Stanway Rovers.

Ely: Ben Mayhew, Dominic Hunt, Alex Brown, Josh Sewell, Tom Williams, Ollie Brookes, Lewis Hook, Ash Walter (Liam Griffin, 64), Sam Reed (Jonathan Brown, 74), Alex Theobald, Matthew Simpson (Sam Goodge, 74)

Walsham: Barry Lynn, Jordan Southgate, Andy Cusack, Ed Elers, Callum Dongray, Tom Debenham (Ryan Twinn, 85), Lee Warren, Joe Boulter, Craig Nurse, Jack Brame, Sam Peters (Reece Calnce, 67)

Report by Harry Davies