Ely City L1 vs Broadlands.

Match report: Ely City vs Broadlands.
The first match of the season saw Ely ladies 1st team trek across east Anglia to new lands to face Broadlands. Despite falling behind, twice, Ely fought in the feisty games to source their first victory of the season.
Ely came out fresh faced, keen to improve on their pre season performances. The first fifteen minutes consisted of positive play up the pitch, weaving the ball through the opposition, unfortunately this promising play was not fruitful. Broadlands also pumped up by the start of the season were on the attack and in close succession managed to net two goals. Ely undeterred by the 2-0 deficit kept their composure, and with solid play from the whole team the ball was worked through to the D. Pam managed to find a gap in the gap of the Broadlands defence, dodging the incoming tackles achieving a reverse shot at goal, which Jo deflected with perfect angling into the bottom corner of the goal. Spurred on by this triumph, Ely took on a new form of determination and despite some unfortunate umpiring decisions, Ely got a short corner after a run away break. Some solid play from Ely saw Joanna Rayners second goal from the short corner.
The wing back surged forward from deep in the defence to clear up Broadlands threatening play. Annie and Lauren showed their promise in both defence and attack. Ely took the lead for the first time when Narissa cemented her man of the match performance with her first goal for Ely. Like the rest of her gamed she was completely fearless in front of the heavily Broadland crowded goal and despite the scraps on the line, Narissa prevailed to find the back board of the goal. Ely, perhaps becoming over confidant, with key defender Emily Radcliffe getting over confidant leaving a gap in the middle of the pitch, Broadlands immediately capitalised on the situation, leveling the score lines. Radcliffe later received Muppet of the match for a multitude of errors, perhaps her 54 years and 11 months where starting to catch up on her.
Tensions rising on both sides at this point, saw end to end play and tireless tracking back and surging forwards from all players on the Ely side.
This game saw a welcome return to captain Ali Chapman- not only for her inspirational team talks that spurred us on to victory but also her aggression up the right hand side, no doubt adding to our victory goal. Where Ely found themselves scrambling for the ball in the oppositions D, only to find the ball to be being knocked back out to the top of the d where fortunately Jess was ready and waiting and took a shot on goal only to be denied her first returning goal for Ely by the keeper, thankfully Joanna Rayner was there again to score her 3rd goal of the match where she tapped the ball in defeating the Broadlands scrappy defence. This winning goal left Ely to spend the last ten minutes maintaining their well deserved lead. An excellent team performance all round led to a 4-3 victory to the visiting team.