Its 1st April, april fools day (enough said) here at the Unwin and todays visitors are Woodbridge Town. It’s a cool but bright afternoon, the pitch has been rolled and is fairly flat but there is very little grass out there. The Robins have a number of changes due to unavailability and it was a fairly sparse crowd for a bank holiday. Unfortunately those that were there, would in fact have turned up to watch Ely’s worst performance of the season.
It was in fact in the first minute that this was born out that this was going to be one of those days. Kenny Smith attempted a back pass only for it to fall into the path of a Woodpeckers forward. He made ground but the advancing Lee Pacey, who would turn out to be the busiest player on the park, and also Man of the Match, was able to smother the shot. The visitors had a corner that was cleared and then it was Ely’s turn for a corner on the left, it was far too long and went straight out by the right corner flag for a goal kick, another indication of how the afternoon would go. Two minutes later Porky Claydon had Ely’s first shot but it was high wide and handsome. Woodbridge caused Pace some problems on 12 minutes with a near post corner but the defence managed to clear. Ely then caused the visitors a problem when Adam Murray headed just over from a free kick. It was in fact only set pieces by either side that seemed to bring any type of chance or goalmouth action and it was a rather boring game for the spectators as there was hardly a single shot on goal. When the half time whistle went it was very pleasing to get that warming cuppa inside you and the tea was probably the most exciting thing in the whole first half.
The 2nd period was only to get worse for the Robins, Darren Coe did not reappear due to a dead leg. He was replaced by young Ian Walters who was to work his socks off for little reward as he slotted into central midfield with Josh Curry dropping back into central defence. It was the visitors who went into attack mode and to be fair it was them that went forward for the rest of the game. On 48 minutes Pace had to make a good save from a stinging shot getting low down to his left. Three minutes later he was again in action making another good save from a free kick but there was little he could do on 53 minutes as Woodbridge took the lead. To be fair it was a rather scruffy goal but they all count. They attacked down the left the cross was only cleared back to the left edge of the box, it was lobbed back into the mix, Ely defenders let it bounce and this allowed the visitors Stuart to get to it and lob over Pace into the top right hand corner of the net 0 - 1
On 58 minutes another visitors corner was only cleared to the edge of the box and again Pace had to dive to his right to put it round the post for another corner. On 61 minutes Ely did have a shot, the only one of the half, but Luke Parkinson’s effort was wide. The visitors continued to dominate with Ely unable to do anything to stem the tide. A Woodbridge corner was headed goal wards but was cleared off the line, Ely players were becoming frustrated, on 68 minutes Richard Chadwick, who was playing out of position at left back, went into the Refs notebook for a foul and three minutes later Luke Parkinson was replaced by Taz Chisango. On 73 minutes Pace had to tip a fierce free kick on to the bar and over to keep it out, It was all Woodbridge. Adam Murray saw yellow on 77 minutes for a fairly innocuous foul and a minute later another goalmouth scramble found him and Pace having to force the ball away. On 79 minutes Mussa received his marching orders when he pulled a forward back. The Ref produced another yellow card and of course he was off.
On 81 minutes another scramble in the Ely 6 yard box that was eventually cleared, the Robins are hanging on a bit now but more frustration. This time on 65 minutes its Liam Bolton who sees yellow. A minute later Woodbridge double their lead. They had a free kick out on their right, it found its way out to the left flank, the player advanced down his wing and put in a low cross along the 6 yard box and there was Gilfedder, unmarked and able to fire home for a simple goal. 0 - 2
Taz did try to get forward from the restart but the keeper was able to deal with the effort and it was the Woodpeckers who had the last shot of the game that saw Lee Pacey have to make yet another save. The Refs. whistle thankfully drew proceedings to an end, a very poor effort from Ely.
This was ‘a very bad day at the office’ for the men in red, a big improvement is needed for Saturday.