March Town 3 Ely City 4 ELY Men s first XI came back from 2-0 down to beat arch rivals March Town on Saturday. In an extremely open game, Ely attacked without purpose early on, insightful attacking play from March carved Ely open for the first goal. A com

March Town 3 Ely City 4

ELY Men's first XI came back from 2-0 down to beat arch rivals March Town on Saturday.

In an extremely open game, Ely attacked without purpose early on, insightful attacking play from March carved Ely open for the first goal. A combination of skill and pace left Ely stranded as the March right winger slotted home into an open net. March were 2-0 up minutes later, Ely failed to clear as the ball out of the area, in feel to a March player who struck the ball past Ely keeper Chris Vincett, giving him no chance.

With 10 minutes of the half remaining an excellent pass by Chris Roberts put man-of-the-match Chris Purllant through on goal, he calmly slotted the ball home. Tim Reynolds and Palmer combined well down the right, looking to create chances for the front men. Ely were level minutes later, Roberts turning and reverse-flicking the ball into the net from a defence splitting pass from Nick Wells.

At the half time break, the message was simply, if we play like the final 15 minutes of that half then we will win the game. Ely took the lead in the second half, Chris Purllant drag flicking the ball off the post from a penalty corner to take the score to 3-2. March were down to 10 men minutes later, a yellow card sin bin for dissent after a foul on Tommy Hugo. March equalised from a penalty corner, Rich Vincett unable to deflect a drag flick from a penalty corner, earlier in the game he had made a fantastic save high to his right as the Ely keeper was beaten.

Just as Ely seemed to regain control, March had another player sin-binned for foul-play and dissent.

Ely stole the points as Purllant completed his hat-trick. Good interplay between with Oli Shearing on the left, before smashing a trademark reverse shot low into the bottom corner.

Ely City II 0 St Ives III 1

ALTHOUGH Ely II have achieved their goal of consolation after winning promotion last season, they were disappointed not to have won on Saturday.

St Ives scored from a lucky passage of play, Ely keeper Ian Grange cleared the ball out of the area, straight to a St Ives player. His pass was knocked in first time to seal the game.

Spalding III 2

Ely City Men's III 1

A CRUNCH game for the Ely Men's III who are flirting with relegation for the second season in a row. They have at times played excellent hockey and dominated teams without being able to score the goals to finish teams off.

This game was no exception, Ely attack lead by Pete Jones and backed up by Rob Skelton and Alex Foreman created the chances but just could not put the ball in the back of the net. Man of the match was Foreman.