On a dank, dark and damp afternoon at the ‘Unwin’, the ‘Robins’ entertained the ‘Scholars’ from CRC. The pitch was extremely heavy after all the rain and the floodlights were on right from the start. The conditions said it would be a dour game and difficult to play good flowing football and it turned out to be exactly that.
The early exchanges were mainly in the middle of the pitch but the 10th minute brought the first of two lengthy hold-ups. George Coe the CRC defender jumped for the ball and after landing badly had to be stretchered off with a suspected broken ankle. (We all wish him a speedy recovery) The game restarted with play continuing in a similar fashion. The CRC lads were all very fit and very quick and used this pace to attack the Ely defence. Apart from long range efforts the first real danger to either goal was by CRC in the 25th minute. The striker latched on to a through ball down the centre but as he advanced on goal Lee Pacey came out, narrowed the angle and made a good save. Ely replied with a good break down the left by Richard Chadwick but the resulting cross was cleared. On 35 minutes CRC had another good chance with a left wing break, this time their front man steered the cross wide of ‘Pace’s’ right hand upright. Virtually straight away Ely replied and won a corner out on their left, as the corner came into the crowded box an Ely head guided the ball goal wards but it thudded against the bar rebounded out to the right hand edge of the box only to be lashed back in this time hitting the upright before eventually CRC cleared the ball up field. Ely maintained pressure on the goal for the final 5 minutes until, with virtually the last kick of the half, another fast CRC break brought another good save from ‘Pace’. The teams turned round all square.
Ely came out of the blocks fastest as the second period started and after 5 minutes brought a very good double save out of the CRC keeper. The resulting corner saw a second corner awarded and from this the ball ended up in the net but the Ref deemed a foul on the keeper. Three minutes later ‘Chads’ had the ball in the net again but this time it was deemed he had “come back from an offside position” first. On 56 minutes ‘Chads’ made way for Austen Diaper who immediately got his head to a cross but the keeper saved well under the bar. Andrew Claydon had the next effort on 64 minutes but he was unable to keeper his header down and the effort went over the bar. A minute later Taz Chisango was replaced by Josh Curry. And two minutes after this Ely went ahead. More pressure on the CRC defence saw another free kick awarded out on the ’Robins’ left. It was swung in deep by Sam Parkinson towards the back post and Darren Coe powered a header into the net 1 - 0
Ely got another free kick a minute later, this time the ball was swung in but ‘Tino’s’ header went over the top. On 69 minutes ‘Porky’ Claydon made way for Richard Gammon. On 71 minutes Luke Parkinson had a good run down the left cutting in and putting in a good shoot. CRC’s keeper got down well to save and as the ball ran lose he and ‘Tino’ collided resulting in another longish delay and Dunne the keeper having to leave the field and be replaced in goal by one of the outfield players Liam Hurst. On 82 minutes CRC equalised, a long back pass was played back onto the edge of the Ely box, ‘Pace’ unfortunately miskicked on the heavy turf, the ball stayed on the ground and went straight to a CRC’s Ryan Horne in the centre circle., he immediately and hopefully lobbed it back goal wards. ‘Pace was back peddling like mad but the ball dropped just over his outstretched hand and just under the bar and into the net. 1 - 1
Straight from the kick off Ely went back on the attack and Luke Parkinson had another fierce effort but this one was well over the bar but the ‘Robins’ kept going forward and on 87 minutes were rewarded. They were awarded another corner, taken by Luke Parkinson again it went towards the back post, this time it was ‘Tino’ who forced a bullet header into the net. 2 - 1
The Ref. played 7 minutes of injury time but there were no more real chances and some very tired legs were pleased to hear the final whistle. Both teams put in a tremendous amount of effort and hard work in such heavy conditions but it was Ely who had the three points in the bag. This win moved the Robins up in the right direction to 11th place and hopefully breeds more confidence for games to come