ELY seized the upper hand in the battle for league survival this season after picking up a narrow win over basement side Ipswich and East Suffolk.

Hockey

Ipswich and East Suffolk 1

Ely City 2

ELY seized the upper hand in the battle for league survival this season after picking up a narrow win over basement side Ipswich and East Suffolk.

Ely started well and pinned the opposition in their own half. The visitors came within inches of opening the scoring early on as a short corner was switched to the right for skipper Chris Purllant to fire in a rasping shot that hit the motionless Ipswich keeper and squeezed past the outside of the post.

Ely continued to apply pressure on the Ipswich defence for the remainder of the first half but, lacking the finishing touch, the scores remained level at the break.

Purllant’s charges continued to press ahead in the second half and tempers from the home side started to fray but Ely maintained full composure. Midway through the second half a sharp flicked cross from Gilmour on the left caught the Ipswich keeper momentarily sleeping, his late reactions only managing to deflect the ball into the roof of his own net to open the scoring for Ely.

Shortly after, the roles were reversed as Dodsworth in the Ely goal, with virtually the whole pitch available for a simple clearance, managed to find the sole Ipswich striker on the top of the circle, who rounded to the stranded defence to level the scores.

Ely’s advantage was eventually restored with a trademark short corner strike from Purllant at the top of the circle finding the mark inches inside the left hand post to take all three points back to Ely.