The first league game of the season was away to Spalding, unsure of whether they had been relegated or promoted; the game was met with caution by most.

The long drive, via empty petrol stations and for some a trip to McDonalds was the perfect refreshment for such athletes as Ely men’s hockey team, supposedly the first team, more like the only 11 players the club could muster!

The warm up wasn’t the most spectacular and Dan Jolly’s enthusiasm was missed, by some anyway. The game started with Ely having most of the possession and chances, finishing wasn’t high on our achievements on the day.

After Ely continually asserting pressure, Spalding had a dubious short corner awarded against the run of play, credit to their striker, he screamed the ball past a helpless and planted goalkeeper, well Neil Dodsworth.

This clearly rattled the Ely men and quickly the pressure told and the ball was swept home by Tom “Goal Machine” Grimshaw. Several more chances went begging and Ely were level at the break and deservedly so having all the pressure and chances.

A change of players moving around positions saw a much improved performance in the second half, more chances went begging, think we need to be more clinical and practise our shooting at training, oh yea training, that’s on Wed evenings at 8:00 for those of you who have forgotten.

Another slick move from defence from Tim Reynolds through the midfield maestro of Fez Abbas created and swift break down the right and deft deflection from Chris Rea saw Ely go into the lead for the first time this season. There then was a call of “half court press” from the defence, swiftly followed by “forget that” as it went horribly wrong.

Ely finished the game as the winners and three points in the bag, although a last minute strike of the post from Spalding gave us all squeaky bum time, the game should have been out of sight long before! A good team performance and something to build on for the rest of the season so get along to training and let’s get better week on week.