It’s been a pleasing start to the season for Ely City, and with a newfound confidence, joint-boss Luke McAvoy believes they can beat anyone on their day.

The Robins have lost once from six Thurlow Nunn Premier Division games, but perhaps more impressively, have conceded none from four league outings at the Demcom Stadium so far.

A goalless draw at home to Hadleigh United on Saturday helped Ely climb to a mid-table spot, and McAvoy believes his side are becoming tougher to beat.

“We’ve got our own players in and we’ve had a really good pre-season. Ben’s (Farmer) done loads of work on shape and formation, and the lads are all buying into it and doing as we ask,” he said.

“They are enjoying being a hard team to beat.

“We’ve been really good without the ball, but although it was 0-0, it was probably the best we’ve played with the ball.”

Strengthening in defence has been key to Ely’s progress so far this term, where they hope to be bolstered by the return of Nick Harrison from injury.

City may be without forward Ryan Harnwell who is on holiday, while midfielder Adam Capel is sidelined and Harvey Bullinaria is unable to leave university due to coronavirus restrictions ahead of their league trip to Brantham Athletic on Saturday, October 17, 3pm.

However, with the arrival of Mildenhall Town midfielder Tommy Robinson and draws against sides set to challenge for promotion, McAvoy is confident his side can still compete against their unbeaten opponents.

“It’s all about the shape; we’re very good defensively and we’ve made ourselves hard to beat,” he said.

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“If we can keep plugging away points against the top teams and winning against teams in mid-table and others around us, we’ll be happy.

“Tommy’s been someone we’ve been trying to entice and has been with us for the last two games. He seems happy, so hopefully he can stay with us for a while.

“We don’t fear anyone now. We played Norwich United who are probably the form team in the league, and we matched them.

“We don’t think we’re going to win the league or anything like that. We feel we can give anyone a game and, on our day, we think we can beat anyone as well.”