The first silverware of the season, or not?
Last night Ely took on Soham Town Rangers for the Doug Unwin memorial trophy and what a performance for the Robins it was. They have looked quite impressive in preseason, but this game was the iceing on the cake. Ely started with what is expected to be the starting line up for Saturday's opening game in The Eastern Counties and the only surprise was perhaps that Robbie Mason didn't start and there wasn't a place for Tony Beck, who has also looked pretty sharp in preseason so far.
Simon Warren who had missed the previous preseason games that I had been to did start and made an impact early on by heading the Robins ahead on 3 minutes. In fact it was all Ely from start to finish and on 25 minutes Chadwick playing in only his second game of preseason doubled the score. Ely could have finished the game by half time, but it was only 2-0, which set up what might have been a tense second half with Ely's propensity in the past to mess up in defence and Lightning's tendency to change most of the team at half time in preseason.
Lightning did change most of the team and Mason and Beck came on, but Ely continued to dominate and didn't look much different to in the first half. The biggest change was from a 4-4-2 system to a 4-5-1 with Mason playing up front as the lone striker.
It was Mason who extended the scoreline early on in the second half and Ely continued to press forward an reverted to 4-4-2 when Andy Pettit came on. It was a switch which also seemed to work as Pettit made it 4-0 on 75 minutes.
Soham got a concellation goal on 88 minutes when Lee Pacey fouled a Soham forward. Dubi Ogbanna stepped forward for the Greens, Pacey saved, but Ogbanna got the rebound.
It finished 4-1 and we hoped to see Ely lift the trophy, but Soham had left it in their clubhouse, so we had to make do with seeing the players presented with mini trophies.
Simon Warren who had missed the previous preseason games that I had been to did start and made an impact early on by heading the Robins ahead on 3 minutes. In fact it was all Ely from start to finish and on 25 minutes Chadwick playing in only his second game of preseason doubled the score. Ely could have finished the game by half time, but it was only 2-0, which set up what might have been a tense second half with Ely's propensity in the past to mess up in defence and Lightning's tendency to change most of the team at half time in preseason.
Lightning did change most of the team and Mason and Beck came on, but Ely continued to dominate and didn't look much different to in the first half. The biggest change was from a 4-4-2 system to a 4-5-1 with Mason playing up front as the lone striker.
It was Mason who extended the scoreline early on in the second half and Ely continued to press forward an reverted to 4-4-2 when Andy Pettit came on. It was a switch which also seemed to work as Pettit made it 4-0 on 75 minutes.
Soham got a concellation goal on 88 minutes when Lee Pacey fouled a Soham forward. Dubi Ogbanna stepped forward for the Greens, Pacey saved, but Ogbanna got the rebound.
It finished 4-1 and we hoped to see Ely lift the trophy, but Soham had left it in their clubhouse, so we had to make do with seeing the players presented with mini trophies.
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