Ely Hard Done By : Ely City Football Club A-Team

With the same starting eleven as last wednesday Ely felt confident they had enough to take on opponents Soham. The wind was strong and the pitch was covered in sand to fill the large divots, unfortunately this didn't remedy the far from level playing surface.

The game kicked off with Ely playing into the wind. An early break from Soham and a poor defensive line allowed Ben Fuller to hop through and slip one past Gareth (keeper again). Another break saw Liam Eley one on one with Gareth but fortunately he wasn't able to convert. Ely found their footing at the back, 10 minutes in as usual, and the team started to gain momentum. Seekings and Linney were both preying on soham's defensive frailties but found it difficult battling against the wind.

1-0 down at half time Ely were confident they could get the advantage. The wind conveniently died down for the restart and the game remained tight and increasingly physical. Several high feet from both sides went unpunished and the official's view was obstructed when a wild tackle from Steven Dalby went in on Simon Farrow. Stuart McGuire was the first to see red as he retaliated to a late challenge with a spitting offence. Chris Lupson was second to go when his challenge was deemed 'violent conduct', rather a late challenge after just being fouled himself.

The reduced team had to adjust to the challenge. The not so young Steven Pollard came on to replace an injured Adam Scott, and joined Luke Fretwell at center back, but was no sooner moved up the field. Simon was sent to right back, and Ely played with a back three. A striker (Linney) had to be sacrificed, Jules Peachey was brought on as an option wide right to strengthen the depleted midfield. The 3-4-1 formation held strong and looked most likely to score in the closing minutes. Seekings will not want to be reminded of his chances after being so clinical last week.

Before the game Ely probably wouldn't have been too disappointed with a 1-0 lose looking at last years stats but on the day they definitely felt hard done by after putting a battling, if scrappy, performance in.