An early start on an overcast morning is never something to look forward to, special mention goes to Dave Williams who arrived late after forgetting much to everyones amusements his shorts.

Ely have been slowly improving this year holding the ball a little better and varying their attacks, this started to get results Chris, Warren and Marc linking well as always.

Marc perhaps coming closest after a pass from Warren set him up for a one on one with the Deeping keeper, Marc looked odds on to score but the ball deflected wide off the head of the sliding keeper.

Ely built again, a great pass from centre forward Chris Beaumont finding Warren who should have scored but an illegal sliding block from a defender only resulted in a short corner.

The Deeping keeper, probably the player of the half forced a number of saves from Tim Reynolds at short corners the variety perhaps something Ely need to work on at training.

The half finished 0:0 with Ely down to 10 after a bizarre decision saw Tim Reynolds see a yellow card for a perceived high stick.

The second started and Deeping took an early lead from a short corner, the initial shot was saved by Ian Grange but dropped back into the danger area, the Ely defenders slower to react than Jason Purllant who fired home from a few yards, frustratingly against the play.

With the lead gained Deeping adjusted their tactics, dropping deep and allowing Ely to attack, the wall of defenders proving hard to break down. Ely struggled to break down the defence despite having the lions share of possession, eventually the pressure was too much Chris Beaumont finishing only to see his goal disallowed for an illegal hand, another bizarre decision.

Deeping's second goal came from another short corner, the shot going wide was deflected just inside the post by Shaun whose left foot volley wouldn't have looked out of place on tonights match of the day.

Ely still didn't give up, Marc creating another chance beating a number of defenders to cross to Chris who snatched at the cross and missed an open goal, it just wasn't to be… the game ending with Ely's second defeat of the season.

Captain Neil Dodsworth made special mention to Martin Brown recently returned to hockey and deserved man of the match, his energy and skill will be a huge benefit to the team this season.

Next week Ely face St Ives 2, a difficult game but one which Ely have every chance of winning.