It was a very warm afternoon down at the ‘Hawthorns’ in deepest Essex. This was to be an important game for both teams as neither had had the start they had wished for. In the end it would be Stanway’s fortunes that would be favoured.
Both teams were led out on to the field by Stanways own lovely Zoe Newson. Zoe was resplendent wearing her London 2012 Paralympics Bronze Medal that she won in the 40kg power lifting event. This was a nice gesture for both the Clubs, the teams, Zoe and sport in general
At 3pm the whistle went and we were down to football. Ely went on to the attack straight away and in the first minute Richard Chadwick got away from the defence but his shot was straight at the keeper. Stanway had to make an early substitution after 5 minutes when one of their player was injured in an accidental collision with Josh Curry The game was played mainly in a robust Stanway, half with Ely going forward, On 7 minutes Andrew Calydon (Porky) hit a shot on the turn that was blocked and again 3 minutes later he battled his way through and was unlucky when his shot went just wide. Jamie Greygoose only had one scare in the first 40 minutes and that was on 11 minutes when he had to deal twice with a ball that was spinning about after an effort from Stanways Lee Townrow. Some of the Refs decision’s were puzzling to say the least and the Stanway team’s tackling and pushing went unpunished. On 15 minutes another Ely effort saw a low snap shot by Josh Bridgeman, hit from outside the box, which took the keeper unawares but unfortunately it was just wide of the upright. Stanway were relying on quick breaks mainly down the flanks but still not causing a great deal of danger. On 24 minutes there was quite a long break while Darren Coe was treated for an injury after being crunched in a late tackle. On 28 minutes Rutherford in the Stanway goal mishandled and as the ball fell to ’Porky’, he prodded it goal wards but a Stanway defender cleared . On 29 minutes ‘Porky’ again had another good effort when he got on the end of a cross to the near post but unfortunately his effort went into the side netting. Real chances were few but Ely appeared to have most of the possession but it was to be Stanway’s afternoon On 46 minutes a break down the right led to the opening goal. The ball came in from a wide position on the Stanway right and was aimed at the far post, Mussa (Adam Murray) and Townrow jumped and the ball spun goalwards from their heads, Jamie got a hand to it and it went upwards before he scrambled it away. The assistant referee deemed that the ball had crossed the line so Ely went into the interval one down.
Darren Coe was unable to come out for the second half due to his injury. He was replaced by Sam Parkinson, his first game back now he has recovered from injury, and it was good to see him back on the field again. Straight away an Ely free kick just flashed across goal but no one got a touch. Soon a corner followed but a header was wide of the post. On the hour ‘Macca’ (Lewis McDonald) saw yellow for blocking a quick Stanway free kick, Josh Curry who had been carrying a knock for some minutes was replaced by Taz Chisongo. Luke Parkinson got a cross in from the left it pinged about and eventually fell to Josh Bridgeman on the right hand corner of the box but his effort sailed high over the bar. Stanway seemed to work out the Ely defence and pushed on more. This produced a couple of corners for them but they produced nothing. Ely had a corner of their own and after a melee in the 6 yard area the Ely players claimed the ball was over the line but this time the eagle eyed assistant was unable to spot if the ball crossed the line. On 75 minutes Stanway got a player in on goal but as Jamie advanced he shot wide and again they had a further effort a minute later and this time Jamie saved well. Another Stanway attack on 78 minutes was cleared, Sam Parkinson got the ball away down the left wing to Taz, he travelled put the ball over a defender and ’Tino’, Austin Diaper ran on to it and lobbed the advancing keeper to equalise. On 79 minutes ‘Chads’ was replaced by Richard Gammon . A minute later Luke Parkinson saw yellow when the petty Ref booked him for allegedly kicking the ball away. Ely were going forward more now but were still getting caught on the break maybe even more so. In the 85th minute the inevitable happened, Stanway got away down their right flank and when a good cross came in McLeod was allowed to run in unchallenged and head powerfully home from about 5 yards. It was not good defending and of course this was the winning goal. Ely continued to try but the remaining minutes were played out before the final whistle went and the game ended with another disappointing result.
The team worked hard on a warm afternoon and had much the majority of possession and did well to get back level after going behind but as usual they had no luck. It appears to me that last season things fell for the Robins whereas this season the ball hits post or bar, last season they went in. This year the ball always falls for the opposition, the Refs decisions on 50/50 things go against us. Injuries, unavailability and suspensions have really been against the team, especially injury as it appears at least one player gets injured in a game to the degree that they miss the next game at least if not more. It also appears that teams saw how well Ely did last term, they are now much more determined and forceful against us feeling maybe that a good result against us is an indication of how well they are advancing. There is a lot of good football being played by the Robins and I do feel that with a bit of a change in luck, confidence will return and then I think some team or another will get a good walloping