Football Gorleston 8 Ely City 1

ELY boss Alan Alsop said he feared the worst for his players as early as the pre-match warm up as their cup winning exploits took their toll against Gorleston at the weekend.

The Robins were 5-0 down within the first 20 minutes on Saturday as they were brought back down to earth with a thump following their 3-0 Cambridgeshire Invitation Cup victory over Cambridge City five days previously.

Richard Chadwick managed a second-half consolation for Ely but it was too little, too late as they were hammered by the Thurlow Nunn Premier Division play-off contenders.

Alsop said: “I could see during the pre-match warm up that there were a lot of tired legs out there and it just turned out to be one of those games where all you can do is sit back and enjoy the sunshine.

“Gorelston are a good side at home and it just looked like we had nothing left to give. A lot of the players said sorry to me in the dressing room after but they were just running on empty.

“I told them that we would just have to take it on the chin because that’s the highs and lows of football. We have got one more game before the end of the season and I hope we can finish on a high, get it out the way and enjoy some time away this summer.”

Christy Finch opened the scoring for the home side less than two minutes into the match, setting the tone for the onslaught to come. Two further goals from Finch, and strikes from Bradley Hough, David Hinton and Keegan Middleton made it 6-0 at half-time as weary Ely battled through.

After the break, Ally McKenna netted to re-establish control for the home side before, just after the hour mark, Middleton scored his second of the game to make it 8-0.

It took until the 70th minute before Ely finally forced a save from home keeper Elliot Pride, as Luke Parkinson fizzed a low shot that was pushed round the post.

The Robins salvaged a scrap of pride with 15 minutes to go as a deep cross was met by substitute Chadwick, who looped his effort over the standed goalkeeper for his 13th goal of the season.

Ely’s season comes to an end today (Thursday) as they travel to fourth-place Brantham Athletic. Kick off is 7.45pm.

Alsop said: “Im down to the bare bones again because of injuries and work commitments but we will go there and give it our best. We can’t finish any higher or lower in the league but we want to give a good account of ourselves.”