Manager Brady Stone is convinced the new Ely City generation will soon climb out of their Thurlow Nunn League Premier Division slump.

The Robins have fallen to seven successive league defeats after going down 1-0 at Whitton last Saturday and succumbing 2-1 at Haverhill Rovers last night (Tuesday).

But the standard of City’s performance in both of those games has given boss Stone plenty of heart.

He is delighted with the way a number of local youngsters have stepped up to first-team level from the club’s reserve side.

“I know that a run of seven defeats in a row looks terrible on paper,” said Stone. “But I’m actually very proud of the way we are playing.

“Hand on heart we’ve been fantastic in the last three of those games.

“We missed two open goals at Whitton when we should have won comfortably and we could easily have scored six or seven at Haverhill as well.

“The young lads who have come in from the reserves have given us a new lease of life.

“I feel so sorry for them that results aren’t going their way because we’ve been dominating games and getting no reward for it.

“We’ve slid down the table into a bit of a relegation scrap, but I’m certainly not concerned at this stage of the season.

“I’d be much more worried if weren’t creating chances, but we’re making between 10-20 good opportunities in almost every game and just have to learn to put them away.

“I’ve told the lads not to get down in the dumps. I know for a fact we’ll perform a lot worse than we have done lately and win games.

We had a fantastic result in the league cup against Histon last week so that shows what’s possible.”

Sam Goodge and Ash Walter spurned the best City chances at Whitton before they were undone by a late goal from the hosts.

They also fell behind at Haverhill before Joe Brannan levelled when converting a Dan Jeffrey corner.

City then saw a host of chances go begging and Josh Lowe had a stonewall penalty appeal ignored before they conceded the decisive goal with 10 minutes to go.

Brannan, Lowe, Scott Callaghan, Rhys Mazey and Fin Logan are the young players to step up into the City first-team squad of late. Reserve goalkeeper Will Beech also played at Whitton.

City host Brantham at the Ellgia Stadium this Saturday, 3pm.