Ely travelled away to Upminster on a blustery Saturday morning with a bare eleven knowing that this was a game that was targeted as a must win to kick start their season. With several key players unavailable it was always going to be a tough fixture but the return of Myles Forber and a season debut for Sam Dunkley went a good way to compensate. A good warm up saw the visitors ready to take on the challenge ahead.

The whistle signalled the start of the game and that's when it all went wrong for Ely. Inside two minutes an Ariel from the home side was assisted by the high winds, bouncing past d.o.t.d Tom Grimshaw and gathered by a forward who was met by keeper Stuart Parker. What happened next was missed by the umpires as the attacker gathered the ball from Parkers save using his foot to slot it into the net. Ely had been caught napping. This should have been the wake up Ely needed but three minutes later Grimshaw miss hit a ball across his own circle much to the delight of the Upminster striker who buried the ball high in the Ely goal.

If the first goal wasn't the wake up Ely needed surely the second would be.......? After just ten minutes of the game Grimshaw was tackled trying to force the play away from the 23 forcing another save from Parker but the home side reacted quicker to the next phase to follow up and make it three.

This DID wake up a shell shocked Ely who started to make probing runs and had the majority of the possession until Grimshaw was shown a yellow card for a dubious high stick offence (it was the first of many 'interesting' decisions). With Ely down to ten they continued to pressure the home side creating a couple of chances. Ruairidh Macdonald saw a green card and a minute later, just as Ely returned to full strength, he saw a yellow for a repeat offence.

The second half started with Ely dominating play until an Upminster break against the run of play saw a shot bounce off the hand of Parker and loop into the goal. At 4-0 Ely should have been buried but the resolve that is oozing through this team currently saw them battle on, and when Feroze Abbas kept his cool in front of goal to slip to Chris Purllant the visitors pulled one back. The next few minutes saw more cards for both sides including a yellow for Abbas as the umpires tried to......well no one knew what they were trying to do!!!!!

With just a minute left on the clock man of the match and skipper Nick Wells scored Ely's second from a short corner to narrow the deficit.

Ely take on top of the league Old Southendians at Ely next week. 1230hrs meet for a 1330hrs pb.