ELY City s grip at the top of the East Hockey League was tightened this week with a narrow 4-3 win away at Wisbech Town. Ely recovered from a disastrous start to wrestle control of the game back from the home side with City s now customary come-back af

ELY City's grip at the top of the East Hockey League was tightened this week with a narrow 4-3 win away at Wisbech Town.

Ely recovered from a disastrous start to wrestle control of the game back from the home side with City's now customary come-back affording them an important win.

Wisbech started the game much the stronger and broke through with an early goal in the first few minutes, putting Ely very much on the back foot. Before the Ely team had managed to settle themselves, Wisbech seized the opportunity to score a second, leaving Ely 2-0 down in the first quarter of an hour.

Ely re-grouped though and managed to pull a goal back courtesy of a Stuart Clarke strike squeezed in from an impossibly tight angle.

At the half time break, skipper Vincett gathered his men for a team talk urging his side to regroup and start afresh, hoping to repeat a comeback as the side had managed in the last two games.

Despite the talk though, the second half did not start well, Ely conceded a third goal from open play making the score 3-1. With Grant Gilmour suffering from a pulled hamstring, and no substitutes to draw from, Ely were forced into changing their formation and effectively playing with ten men.

Chris Vincett dropped into midfield, leaving the injured Gilmour up front inspiring an immediate break through via Feroze Abbas who pulled the ball back into the path of Tom Rutledge, who fired into the back of the net.

A few minutes later, Ely converted a short corner to bring the scores equal, with Stuart Clarke gaining a subtle deflection to guide the ball past the Wisbech goalie.

Ely continued the pressure and won a further short corner. The ball was slipped right and then back to the top of the D, towards Rutledge. With the keeper out to the right of the posts, he spotted the opportunity and wasted no time in sending the ball clean between the posts to put Ely ahead with a lead they would not relinquish.

As a result, Ely maintain their lead at the top of the table with one more game to play before Christmas, at home against Spalding next week.