A day of grit and disappointment

It was a frosty morning, the players turned up to the pitch, cold, but full of excitement and anticipation for the first post-Christmas game. After the four weeks off most returned fully rested and injury free, although there were a few who had indulged in the Christmas fayer a bit too much. The exception was Neil Dodsworth, he had a pulled groin. He assured the other players as he resigned himself to only being able to muster an enthusiastic hobble, that he developed it during some dedicated training to stay in shape.

After an intense and fluent warm up they lined up to face Cambridge city. The game started as expected with Cambridge on the attack quickly but Ely’s defence stood firm with some robust tackling and mixed in with some enthusiastic scampering down the line from Marc Hunt, (sometimes a little to eagerly, leaving the rest of the team behind on the half way line.)

So drew to the end a rather uneventful half lacking in any real excitement apart from Dave Williams hobbling off after five minutes because he had tried to stop the ball with his foot rather than his stick , but more importantly with the score still at 0-0. So onto the second half and despite the promise of Tim Reynolds the sun still shone brightly. The second half continued much as the first, with few clear cut chances and more resolute defending. It did serve up one moment of controversy, when Simon Webb popped out of Sam Dunkley’s pocket to put the ball in the goal. A decision which after some debate was correctly disallowed for the preceding free hit not being taken from the correct place.

So into the dying minutes and with Ely keen to gain a valuable point in the bid to avoid relegation the game petered out to a goalless draw. By this time the temperature was beginning to drop and as the players trudged off with eager anticipation to see what HOT delight would be served up for teas. Only to be met by some feeble excuses and distinctly un-hot food. This did however serve to make the DOD vote somewhat easier.

And so to welcome Long Sutton next Saturday in the search of more points. Although I may be playing for the 3XI after this report.

Robert "The Scribe" Minns.