NON-LEAGUE FOOTBALL: Ely City boss Brady Stone hopes Robins can continue impressive recent form

A stunning acrobatic effort from striker Sam Reed saw the Robins hold high-flying Newmarket Town to a 1-1 draw last Friday before they saw off Fakenham Town last night courtesy of a Jonathan Brown double and a Nick Heap strike.

Those two results have seen the Robins fly up the Thurlow Nunn Premier Division standings into ninth, and Stone hopes his side can continue their climb with a win in Suffolk this weekend.

“We knew the Fakenham game was going to be a funny one because of what’s been going on there lately and with their reserves stepping up,” he said.

“To their credit they made the first half tough. We spoke at half time and said we needed to move the ball quicker and we did and got a good win in the end.

“It’s another good result after a positive draw on Friday. We were fantastic against Newmarket. They usually dominate when we play but we played on the front foot and looked like the team that could have gone on to win it.

“We were happy playing Stowmarket at the beginning of the season because they were a new team but they’ve turned a corner lately.

“We know it will be a tough game – it always is going to Stowmarket - but if we can play like we did against Newmarket then there’s no reason why we can’t get a good result.”

Saturday’s game marks the start of three tricky fixtures for Ely, with Haverhill Rovers and Thetford Town set to visit the Ellgia over the next 10 days.

“We’ve got a tough run of fixtures coming up,” Stone admitted.

“I’ve said to the boys that if we can win them then we’ll be looking at the top seven or eight which is fantastic.

“But equally if we lose them we can easily slide down the table so it’s important that we keep winning.”

Ely’s reserve side was also on the winning side at the weekend.

They secured their passage into the next round of the Cliff Bullen Challenge Cup with a 2-0 win over Fulbourn Institute. Luke Mansfield and Charlie McManus found the net in that game.