Ely City snapped their drought with a dramatic success last Friday night.

Brady Stone's men produced a rousing late fightback to snatch a 3-2 victory at Haverhill Rovers in a 'must-win' Thurlow Nunn League Premier Division clash.

Summer signing Luke Crisp pounced for a last-gasp winner as a 17-game barren spell was brought to an end.

And Stone admitted there was a mixture of relief and delight as his side were able to savour that winning feeling for the first time since August 6.

"It felt great to win a game of football," admitted the Robins chief. "And to do it in the way we did - coming from behind and showing so much character - made it even better.

"It was brilliant to be able to walk into the dressing room after a match and see smiling faces rather than heads down."

City hit the front early on when captain Jamie Alsop's corner was punched into his own net by Rovers keeper Toby Egan.

Another own goal levelled the contest on the hour as City defender Tom Williams inadvertently headed past Harry Reynolds and Ely then fell behind to a breakaway goal.

That could easily have been the cue for a collapse, but it triggered an impressive response as homegrown talent Charlie Tunnell struck his first goal at first-team level to equalise within seconds.

And the late turnaround was completed thanks to another first as Crisp opened his Robins account after substitute Marcio Pereira knocked down an Ardened Hida cross into his path.

"We could easily have gone under at 2-1 down with 15 minutes to go," added Stone. "But we showed huge amounts of fight and courage to turn it around.

"It has been a really tough time for everyone connected to the club and the challenge now is to ensure we kick on."

City have what Stone described as a 'massive' game this Saturday when hosting Brantham Athletic at the Demcom Stadium, 3pm.

The East coast side are level on points with Ely in the bottom six and another positive result would be a huge boost.

"I described the Haverhill game as a must-win and we did it," continued Stone. "The home fixture against Brantham is just as big and hopefully we can come out of it with another three points."

There was another injury blow for City last weekend when striker Alex Theobald suffered a recurrence of a knee problem when playing for the club's reserve team.