Ely Tigers endured a nervy last 15 minutes to return to winning ways.

A much-changed squad arrived at Ipswich YM on October 15 before coming away with a 27-17 win in London 1 Eastern Counties League.

Neither side were able to assert control on the game, until Ely took the lead.

After winning a penalty, Tigers pushed the hosts further into their own half as Adam Tallack’s pass to James Buckland found Jim Storey, who crossed over to score.

With no recognised kicker in the squad, Tallack stepped up for the extra points but the ball fell the wrong side of the posts.

Ipswich’s plight was made worse when they were reduced to 14 men after a high tackle.

Tigers took advantage of this as Alfie Ramswell raced to score, despite the following conversion falling short.

The visitors’ third try soon came when a kick from the Ipswich defence was picked up by Ely’s Olly Watts.

Ely Standard: Olly Watts scored for Ely Tigers in their win over Ipswich YM.Olly Watts scored for Ely Tigers in their win over Ipswich YM. (Image: Steve Wells)

He found a route through the YM rearguard to cross over as Ely stormed into a 17-0 lead.

And again, it was the Tigers’ pace that caused problems for Ipswich when Luke Turner was next to score, but the conversion was missed.

The home side began to apply pressure on the Tigers’ back line, and on the stroke of half-time, they got on the scoreboard.

Tigers stood firm after the restart, but were unable to prevent the Suffolk outfit from scoring a second try as well as the converted points to mount a comeback.

Ely were unable to clear, allowing Ipswich to attack when they found a gap to score and cutting the lead to eight points.

Matters were made harder for Ely when Storey was shown a yellow card, and instead of moving into the corner, Ipswich added the points to narrow the gap to five points.

Ely were forced to manage the final stages of the match to ensure the win, but they did better than that.

For a team that had lost their last two league games in as many weeks, they added gloss to the result when Nathan Brooks crossed over late on.

Tigers return to Cambridge Commodities Park for the first home game in four weeks when they welcome third-placed Holt on Saturday, October 22.