FOUR red cards and a penalty made for a lively game at the Unwin Ground last night as Ely City lost 4-2 to Mildenhall Town. Despite taking an early lead, three dismissals at key junctures severely hampered Ely s efforts to keep on terms as Simon Charlton

FOUR red cards and a penalty made for a lively game at the Unwin Ground last night as Ely City lost 4-2 to Mildenhall Town.

Despite taking an early lead, three dismissals at key junctures severely hampered Ely's efforts to keep on terms as Simon Charlton's men capitalised on their numerical advantage to record their first win in eight games.

The game started well for Trevor Munn's new team as Richard Chadwick headed home with less than 10 minutes on the clock. The lead wasn't to remain in tact for long however as a floated free kick from Gareth Simpson found its way into the net.

Ely were rattled by the setback and fell behind for the first time midway through the half as Robinson drove home having been sent clear.

Munn's clearly implored his side to come our firing in the second half but their early momentum was stunted as Stone received his marching orders after a deliberate handball which resulted in a penalty.

Ely were buoyed by the miss and buoyed further still when Mildenhall's David Cooper was dismissed to even the numbers.

The Robins pushed hard for the equaliser in the ensuing minutes and were rewarded just shy of the hour mark when Andy Pettit fired home. Once again though, Ely were caught soon after scoring and found themselves behind once more when John Sands nodded home.

Frustrated at having sacrificed their hard fought parity, Ely's play became patchy and they were soon setback yet further when both Dave Smith and Tony Brown saw red to take Ely down to eight men.

Ely defended manfully for the remainder of the game but were unable to stop the visitors from hammering the final nail in the coffin minutes from the end as Tom Youngs tapped in.