Parkinson made no mistake from the spot and Ely held firm to stretch their unbeaten league run into its eighth game. A pulsating start to the match from Alan Alsop’s men saw them in the ascendancy from the outset, with Dave Smith seeing two shots well saved early on.

Ely City 1

Wivenhoe 0

A SAM Parkinson penalty handed Ely City all three points in a nail-biting tussle with Wivenhoe.

A string of excellent stops and near misses looked to have frustrated the home side only for a game-changing penalty to be awarded with 20 minutes to go.

Parkinson made no mistake from the spot and Ely held firm to stretch their unbeaten league run into its eighth game.

A pulsating start to the match from Alan Alsop’s men saw them in the ascendancy from the outset, with Dave Smith seeing two shots well saved early on.

Josh Bridgeman came closest to opening the scoring after 23 minutes only for his shot from 16 yards to thunder off the bar.

Austen Diaper was an ever-present threat for Ely on the break and he almost caught the visitors napping in the dying stages of the half as he was given space to turn in the box and fire at goal.

Unfortunately for the striker though, his shot took a deflection off a defender and cannoned off the bar.

It took until the opening minutes of the second half for Wivenhoe to fashion their first real chance of note, with a striker catching Ely cold with a direct run and shot which slipped inches wide of the goal with Lee Pacey beaten.

Ely’s breakthrough came with 20 minutes to go as Diaper was adjudged to have been pulled back by the defender when through on goal.

Parkinson’s penalty settled a few nerves but Wivenhoe refused to roll over and the home side had Pacey to thank for keeping their lead in tact as he saved low from a fizzing drive.

Chadwick saw a powerful header superbly saved and substitute Taz Chisango spurned a one-on-one chance late on as Ely held on for the win.