Today the ‘Robins’ returned to their nest at the ‘Unwin Field’ for the first time in eight weeks. The opponents are a much changed FC Clacton team. They have 6 new faces in the starting eleven to when we played at their ground a couple of months ago. They may be the bottom team in the league but have recently started to put together some good results so it was obviously going to be a hard afternoon.
As the match got underway the sun was quite bright, there was a bit of a breeze but it was unseasonably warm for January. The pitch was a bit spongy due to all the rain but not too bad at all. Ely again made 5 changes from last weeks starting line up with Adam Murray, Austen Diaper Liam Bolton Josh Curry and Richard Gammon coming in for David Wilson with Josh Bridgeman Richard Chadwick and the Parkinson brothers all dropping to the bench.
The first 10 minutes saw mainly Ely pressure. In 2nd minute a corner saw Andrew Claydon send a near post header goal wards but it was cleared by a defender. The clearance was only to the edge of the box and in pinball fashion Ely had three more blocked shots at goal before the Clacton keeper could get the ball in his hands. On 7 minutes ‘Porky’ Claydon got through in the middle but the ball has taken off his toe by Nick Impey who shot powerfully but wide. The Clacton keeper then managed to drop Lee Pacey’s long free kick but no ‘Robins’ played could get on the end of it. Two minutes later ‘Tino’ Diaper’s shot was deflected behind. The resulting corner from Josh Curry saw ‘Mussa’ head on to the bar. One more minute later and the best chance of all, ‘Imps’ came in from the left and fired in a fierce shot which the keeper could only parry, ‘Gammo was on hand for the rebound but he could only turn the ball over the bar from 6 yards
This miss seemed to give Clacton confidence and they came more into the game having more possession but in all honesty they did not cause too much trouble to ‘Pace’ in the Ely goal. One headed effort was given offside and a shot the keeper had to turn behind. Ely were getting down the wings but the crossing was poor. Things were to change in the 29th minute. Imps and Gammo both had shots blocked, the second of these resulted in a corner on the left. The ball was swung in, deep, towards the back post and Darren Coe got up highest to head the ball back across the goal and into the far corner of the net. 1 - 0
Clacton to their credit did not cave in and continued to attack and were very soon level. On 33 minutes a ball out the defence went over ‘Coey’ and dropped to Clacton’s Condon. He was tackled by ‘Mussa’ but the ball fell kindly to Condon who made ground to the edge of the box and then sent in a great lob over the advancing ‘Pace’ and into the far corner of the net. 1 - 1
Ely now did most of the attacking for the rest of the half but the finishing was poor and did not trouble the Clacton keeper too much so that the teams went in at half time all square.
The second period got under way and the ‘Seasiders’ started the quickest and the most determined. They quickly had a corner then they got away down the right with Condon again. This time he cut in and was able to go round the quickly advancing ’Pace’ but this got Chris Sterecki time to get back on the line and save Condon’s shot with his chest before clearing the ball, a great piece of defensive work. Both teams were going forward now but there was nothing too dramatic in the goal mouths.
On 55 minutes Sam Parkinson came on for ‘Coey’, going in at left back with Ben Lawrence switching to central defence. Four minutes later Richard Chadwick came on for ‘Gammo’. On 62 minutes Clacton went into the lead. They were awarded a fairly soft free kick about 10 yards outside the box. Ely lined up a wall but were caught napping with the execution of the set piece. J Clowsley ran from the left over the ball and down the right of the wall, another player then slipped the kick to him, he then cut back in and fired a shot across ‘Pace’ into the left hand corner of the net. A good move and finish but not a great bit of defending. 2 - 1
This time it was Ely who went straight on the attack and it only took two minutes for the ‘Robins’ to equalise with an excellent goal from ‘Imps’. Ely were awarded a free kick out on the right on the halfway line. The ball arrived at ‘Imps’ foot just inside the right hand corner of the box, he swivelled, moved forward and shot in one movement powering his shot past the keeper into the net. 2 - 2
It took only three more minutes for it to get even better for the ‘Robins’ with a great goal from Chads to give them the lead. A throw in, out on the left was headed on by Andrew Claydon, ‘Chads’ raced on to the ball out near the left hand edge of box before hitting a great shot past the keeper into the right hand corner of the net. 3 - 2
On 70 minutes ‘Porky Claydon was replaced by Luke Parkinson. Clacton had an effort with a shot cum lob but it was just over the bar. Ely then had a corner when ‘Chads’ had another effort but this time his shot hit the side netting. On 82 minutes Sam Parkinson slid into a challenge that the Ref. saw as dangerous believing it to be two footed and off the ground. He showed a straight red to Sam. ( I spoke to Sam after the game and he felt that it was not two footed and said he was on the ground the whole time. I also know there was no bad intentions from Sam as he is not that sort of lad but these things happen in football in the heat of a game) The Clacton lad was not seriously hurt and able to carry on fortunately.
Clacton then put in a couple of spirited attacks against the 10 men but the defence was firm. Things were a bit heated now and both ‘Tino’ and ‘Mussa’ were shown yellow cards for descent . In the 88th minute a long ball towards the edge of the Clacton box saw a race between the keeper and ’Chads’. ’Chads’ got to the ball first and as he pushed it past the keeper he was brought down. The keeper was shown a yellow card. So for the second time in two games the last man has brought down an Ely attacker and both times it was yellow. The Ref. said the ball was going away from goal, if you push the ball past the keeper at the edge of the box and have an empty goal in front of you with no other player anywhere near that is ’a goal scoring opportunity’ in anyone’s language. (Now for the second time, I will say again, I don’t enjoy seeing anyone red carded but for goodness sake lets have some consistency from Referees when it comes to ’The Laws of the Game’, its getting ridiculous.)
Ely were to score again. It was in the 90th minute, a throw from the left touchline saw Josh Curry escape down the wing and get to the bye line. He pulled the ball back perfectly, right into the path of ’Chads’ run, ’Chads’ was able to force the ball easily into the net from 5 yards. 4 - 2
The Ref played another 5 minutes of added time before the final whistle. This was another 3 points but the Robins did make hard work of this, mainly due some poor finishing early on when they were dominant. If the team can capitalise more on early pressure then it will benefit them throughout the game. Good luck to all with the Histon game on Tuesday.

Photo taken from Ely Standard