The end of the cup run

To be honest if it hadn't been for the endless games against Shelford it wouldn't have been such a long running cup run. After beating Soham Town Rangers in the last round, Ely City took on Cambridge City away in the semifinals.

Soham are a step above Ely, but Cambridge City are 2 steps above and where as Ely are stuck in a relegation battle,the Lilywhites of Cambridge are in the promotion mix at the top of the Southern League. Most fans of both teams predicted a big win for Cambridge, but things turned out differently.

The evening started off well enough, with a trip to Champion of the Thames and some fish and chips a Tommy Tucker's, but then the weather went bad and we had to put up with more idiocy from Cambridge City, something that it would appear that this club specialise in.

All of the familiar faces from Ely were present, as was a bloke who I met at the first Shelford game, but hadn't seen since. He didn't seem to recognise me though. There were also a load of German groundhoppers at the game, and you have to admire their ability for drinking and hardcore score on what was a fixture that most Cambridge City fans couldn't be arsed with. Infact the didn't even bother reporting on the game ontheir website. It was definitely a case of German Groundhoppers 2 Dutch groundhoppers 0 in both the boozing and hardcore stakes.

As for the match itself, as I already eluded to Ely matched Cambridge for most of the match. Cambridge took an early lead through Steve Gentle, but they weren't able to run away with it as just 5 minutes later Wayne Goddard converted a goal for the Robins from the spot and put them back on level terms.

The weather continued to worsen, and Cambridge brought on some reinforcements with plenty of experience with an eye to extending their lead. They did early in the second half when Scott Neilson put them ahead. This was a sign for Cambridge to start show boating and acting like Boca Juniors rather than a team from the Southern League. Being a smart arse hardly ever pays off though, and Ely were level on 80 minutes when a Ben Lawrence trademark long throw found Lee Dixon to send the game into extra time.

Why is it that extra time only ever occurs when the weather is crap?

Unfortunately Ely were very unlucky when in the second half of extra time Ben Lawrence miss kicked the ball to put it in his own net and Ely were left concentrating on the league. Fortunately on Saturday they got down to the job at hand with an important 3-2 win at home to Norwich United

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