Brady Stone says he was delighted with the reaction his Ely City players showed in their 1-1 draw with Wivenhoe Town on Saturday.

The Ely boss had challenged the Robins to show more fight in their performances after their disappointing 2-0 defeat to Godmanchester Rovers last week, and Stone admitted that he couldn’t fault his side’s display on Saturday after they returned from Essex with a point courtesy of Tom Williams’ second half header.

“I couldn’t have asked for more,” he said. “In the first 20 minutes they really came out at us but we grew into the game and in the second half we started really well.

“The reaction when we went 1-0 down was fantastic. My only criticism is that we need to be more ruthless in front of goal.

“We haven’t scored enough goals this year and we need to start converting our chances.”

Stone is hoping his men can go one better this Saturday and get a win in their meeting with Gorleston (3pm).

The Norfolk outfit are one place above Ely in the standings in eighth but have played three games less, and Stone expects this weekend’s opposition to challenge for promotion.

“They’re a good side and I think they’ll be up there towards the top come the end of the season,” he said.

“We beat them 2-1 at home last season but then got spanked 5-0 by them on the last day of the season so we know how good they are but hopefully we can get the win.

“What I’ve learned from the season so far is that everyone is beating everyone, which means every point is going to be crucial.

“It’s going to be a long, tough season but if we carry on playing the way we are then there’s no reason why we can’t stay up, which is still the aim.

“We have a much smaller budget than a lot of the other sides in the league but we’ve definitely moved forward since we came in four years ago.

“Hopefully we can get the reserves out of the Cambs League, build a solid squad and then we can go forward and really start to challenge.”