Ely City boss Brady Stone has called on his men to be fearless as they enter a crucial period in their quest for Thurlow Nunn Premier Division glory.

The Robins experienced a difficult start to the season, losing both of their opening games, but seem to have turned a corner after bagging two away victories in four days against Fakenham Town and Hadleigh United.

Stone’s men now face a tricky run of matches which sees them host Thetford Town (Saturday, 3pm) and Saffron Walden (August 30) at the Unwin before travelling to Great Yarmouth Town (September 3), but the former Robins defender says his side needs to show no fear and keep producing positive results.

“We’ve got a really tough week coming up,” he said.

“It’s always tough, especially as some of the players here have never played at this level.

“But we need to go into this week with no fear and keep ticking the points off.”

The Robins eased to their first win of the season last Wednesday with a 3-1 success at Fakenham Town, before Ash Walter’s header was enough to see off Hadleigh United last Saturday, and Stone says the Robins are beginning to look like the prolific Ely side that went on a run of 11 consecutive victories in Division One last season.

“The table is looking a bit better for us now,” Stone said.

“I think the difference from the start of the season is that we’re more organised. At the start we had a lot of players out through injury and missing because of holidays and we had to bring quite a lot of the new lads in and play them straight away.

“If I’m honest I don’t think we were fit enough but now we are and are looking like the side we were last season who were hard to beat.

“The belief and the desire is there and we’re back playing good football again.”