A LATE own goal cost Ely City a share of the spoils at the weekend as they lost out 2-1 to a strong Stanway side. Missing several key players, Ely were always up against it but kept pace with the visitors until the dying minutes when a quick breakaway fou

A LATE own goal cost Ely City a share of the spoils at the weekend as they lost out 2-1 to a strong Stanway side.

Missing several key players, Ely were always up against it but kept pace with the visitors until the dying minutes when a quick breakaway found it's way home with more than a little help from an Ely player.

Boss Trevor Munns said, "Stanway are a good side and we were missing at least three first team players this week which made it difficult.

"To be fair though we played well and showed a lot of improvement from the game at Norwich United I think a draw would have been a fair result."

In the corresponding fixture back in January, Stanway proved too good for Ely and cruised to a 3-0 win with a dominant performance. They didn't have things all their own way on this occasion, as Ely started brightly.

Some good early work was undone though, midway through the half as keeper Sean Greygoose was caught stranded yards from the safety of his line and was powerless to act as Sam Newson executed a fine lob to open the scoring.

To their credit the home side were unfazed by the setback and could have pulled level minutes short of the half when they were awarded a penalty. Andy Pettit's resulting spot kick fell flat however and was pushed to safety by the visiting keeper.

The miss proved a blessing in disguise though, as, from the subsequent corner, Brady Stone nodded home to restore an arguably deserved parity.

The match remained finely poised after the break with both teams enjoying periods of possession whilst launching tentative attacking forays. The decisive moments weren't to come until the last five minutes though as Tom Pell missed an excellent opportunity to steal the points from close range.

To rub salt into an already gaping wound Stanway broke away from Ely's attack and managed to squeeze home to take the points.