Ely Mens 1s Match Report courtesy of Fez
Ely City Mens Ist Team v Bourne Deeping Mens 2s
Ely hosted local rivals Bourne Deeping this Saturday. The Captain, being very much aware of the historically feisty nature of this fixture and the Kane and Abel (Chris and Jason) undercurrents, gave his customary pre-game talk about discipline focus and concentration.
With this reverberating in their ears the Ely team started the game with real intensity. The forward line of Jolly, Grimshaw and Abbas pinning the Bourne Deeping team deep in their own half and forcing several turnovers.
Wells, Dennis and Clarke dominated the midfield battle and were relentless in providing the frontline with numerous through balls and scoring opportunities but alas the finish from the frontline was lacking.
Breakthrough came midway through the first half with Jolly ‘s unique characteristic enthusiasm for hunting the ball forcing the Deeping defence into yet another error. The ball broke to the Captain Abbas at the top of the D, who belying his age, sped past the onrushing Deeping defender and, uncharacteristically, crisply struck the ball past the statuesque Deeping keeper into the bottom left corner - 1-0 Ely.
Sensing Deeping heads go down, Ely ratcheted up the pressure. The defensive backs of Forber and Minns raided down the Deeping flanks while the heavy hitters of Purllant and Reynolds started to rain in ball after ball on the beleaguered Deeping ‘D’.
It was only a matter of time before the inevitable second goal came….Purllant, in a defiant gesture to his elder Deeping sibling, picked out with unerring accuracy the run of Clarke into the Deeping ‘D’ via a long ball. Clarke in turn controlled and majestically swept the ball clinically past the Deeping keeper - 2-0 Ely.
It was this combination that again proved the undoing of the Deeping defence only minutes later. Purllant fired another one of his ballistic long passes into the Deeping D which was met with the deftest of touches from Clarke to nutmeg the Deeping keeper 3-0 Ely and half time.
The second half proved to be a less lively affair, Deeping keen to limit damage sat very deep and Ely continued to waste the opportunities created in front of goal.
As the game continued Ely settled into a comfortable possession game with the Ely defence of Reynolds, Purllant, Minns and Forber being largely untroubled.
On the couple of occasions Deeping did manage to breach the Ely defence - goalkeeper Neil Dodsworth was up to the challenge and even managed not to kick the ball off the back-line, though Dodsworth’s greatest contribution to the occasion was the post game curry.
The game ended with no further score and Ely march on to Wisbech next week with 5 wins from 5.
MoM - Stuart Clarke - 2 goal wonder.
DoD - Fez Abbas - for his post-game curry juggling antics