No goals at the Unwin again
The day started off as a nice Spring's day and I thought that it might be the first nice day of the year for football. However, by the time the game kicked off the storm clouds had gathered (although luckily they didn't break) and the temperature had dropped. Ely were taking on Norwich United and the storm clouds seemed to be a metaphor of what I expected to witness. Norwich United are the form team of the Ridgeons League recently and Ely have been eratic to say the least. I've missed the last couple of games, one away and one at home on Tuesday night, but have been told by the unbiased views of committee members, ex-players and hardcore fans that the Robins were unlucky to lose these games. It didn't look like their luck was going to change yesterday either. The forward line was dilapidated with Mason, Impey and Ebanks-Blake all missing and in defence Ben Lawrence had to withdraw, which left Ely with having to make call ups from the A-Team. For some churlish reason the first team and reserves have hardly anything to do with each other, so a call for reserve players went unanswered despite them not having a game.
Ely started off brighly enough in the first half with Richard Chadwick who had moved from his wide position to centre forward causing problems for the Norwich defence and Sam Goodge and Sam Parkinson causing problems from defence with several decent chances. To be honest though none of the chances looked like seriously bothering the Norwich defence. Ely were clearly not aided by Chadders having to play up front on his own and a linesman who seemed to struggle with the off-side rule and seemed to take his queue from the Norwich defence rather than any rule book. The referee, to be honest was also having a stinker, not in a biased way, just in an incompetent way. It therefore came as no surprise that there was a referee's assessor in the stands. Whenever there is an assessor about the referee seems to take complete leave of his senses.
Anyway, the first half as you may have deciphered from my elaborate description of the performance of the officials was not exactly goal mouth action and I don't think that either of the keepers had a difficult save to make, although I think that the Robins perhaps had the upper-hand in this half.
The second half was more of the same, although Norwich seemed to be more on the attack, but they didn't seem to be able to get past Adam Murray in the Ely defence. At the other end Chadwick caused the Norwich defence problems without really looking like scoring. However, on 60 minutes Ely were given the chance to take the game by the scruff of the neck when they were awarded a free kick on the edge of the box and the Norwich goalkeeper was given his marching orders for denying Chadwick a clear goal scoring opportunity. In my opinion the referee got both of these decisions wrong. I think that the challenge was definitely in the box, but that the ball was moving away from the goal. A penalty and a yellow card would have probably been a better decision. Obviously Norwich were disadvantaged by this decision and with an outfield player having to go in goals Ely should have pressed their advantage. Ely's first shot against the new keeper ricocheted off his knees to go for a corner, which might have suggested he was a bit dodgy, however a few minutes later he plucked the ball from the air in a nochalant manner that suggested that he might have known what he was doing. We will never know though, as Ely didn't create anymore chances and Norwich seemed to think that attack was the best form of defence given the circumstances , although their only meaningful shot came on 84 minutes and was brilliantly saved by Lee Pacey. The game finished 0-0, which was probably a fair result and under the circumstances that both teams found themselves in was probably satisfactory to both teams.
After only having witnessed one 0-0 draw in a game played by Ely before last month I've now seen two in a row. As Ely were clearly short of strikers going into this game it's probably not surprising they found it hard to find the net. I think that a bit more bravery after the sending off might not have gone amiss though, Andy Pettit, who used to be something of a goal scoring machine around these parts was on the bench, as was Ben Lawrence. As I said Ben Lawrence was withdrawn from the game, but still found himself on the bench. The reason for his withdrawal was a case of the squits, but he spent the whole of the game on the bench, so if that was the case unless he had a bucket under his seat he could have played for the last 20 minutes. His long throws could have perhaps put more pressure on the novice in nets. That said it was a fine defensive performance and Ely's improvements in this area this season should not go unremarked on. However the player of the previous two season, Brady Stone, who joined Kings Lynn at the start of this one has recently pitched up at Littleport and I'm sure that everyone at the Unwin would like to see him back in an Ely shirt next season.
On another matter totally unconnected to this game it was good to see Dynamo beat Manchester City on Thursday in the Europa league and I think that they could have scored more than two if Milevskiy had had his scoring boots on. A great performance by the whole team playing the traditional Dynamo style of Lobanovskiy and it was good to see Sheva on the scoresheet. I just hope that they can finish off the result this week and won't woe the missed chances.
Ely started off brighly enough in the first half with Richard Chadwick who had moved from his wide position to centre forward causing problems for the Norwich defence and Sam Goodge and Sam Parkinson causing problems from defence with several decent chances. To be honest though none of the chances looked like seriously bothering the Norwich defence. Ely were clearly not aided by Chadders having to play up front on his own and a linesman who seemed to struggle with the off-side rule and seemed to take his queue from the Norwich defence rather than any rule book. The referee, to be honest was also having a stinker, not in a biased way, just in an incompetent way. It therefore came as no surprise that there was a referee's assessor in the stands. Whenever there is an assessor about the referee seems to take complete leave of his senses.
Anyway, the first half as you may have deciphered from my elaborate description of the performance of the officials was not exactly goal mouth action and I don't think that either of the keepers had a difficult save to make, although I think that the Robins perhaps had the upper-hand in this half.
The second half was more of the same, although Norwich seemed to be more on the attack, but they didn't seem to be able to get past Adam Murray in the Ely defence. At the other end Chadwick caused the Norwich defence problems without really looking like scoring. However, on 60 minutes Ely were given the chance to take the game by the scruff of the neck when they were awarded a free kick on the edge of the box and the Norwich goalkeeper was given his marching orders for denying Chadwick a clear goal scoring opportunity. In my opinion the referee got both of these decisions wrong. I think that the challenge was definitely in the box, but that the ball was moving away from the goal. A penalty and a yellow card would have probably been a better decision. Obviously Norwich were disadvantaged by this decision and with an outfield player having to go in goals Ely should have pressed their advantage. Ely's first shot against the new keeper ricocheted off his knees to go for a corner, which might have suggested he was a bit dodgy, however a few minutes later he plucked the ball from the air in a nochalant manner that suggested that he might have known what he was doing. We will never know though, as Ely didn't create anymore chances and Norwich seemed to think that attack was the best form of defence given the circumstances , although their only meaningful shot came on 84 minutes and was brilliantly saved by Lee Pacey. The game finished 0-0, which was probably a fair result and under the circumstances that both teams found themselves in was probably satisfactory to both teams.
After only having witnessed one 0-0 draw in a game played by Ely before last month I've now seen two in a row. As Ely were clearly short of strikers going into this game it's probably not surprising they found it hard to find the net. I think that a bit more bravery after the sending off might not have gone amiss though, Andy Pettit, who used to be something of a goal scoring machine around these parts was on the bench, as was Ben Lawrence. As I said Ben Lawrence was withdrawn from the game, but still found himself on the bench. The reason for his withdrawal was a case of the squits, but he spent the whole of the game on the bench, so if that was the case unless he had a bucket under his seat he could have played for the last 20 minutes. His long throws could have perhaps put more pressure on the novice in nets. That said it was a fine defensive performance and Ely's improvements in this area this season should not go unremarked on. However the player of the previous two season, Brady Stone, who joined Kings Lynn at the start of this one has recently pitched up at Littleport and I'm sure that everyone at the Unwin would like to see him back in an Ely shirt next season.
On another matter totally unconnected to this game it was good to see Dynamo beat Manchester City on Thursday in the Europa league and I think that they could have scored more than two if Milevskiy had had his scoring boots on. A great performance by the whole team playing the traditional Dynamo style of Lobanovskiy and it was good to see Sheva on the scoresheet. I just hope that they can finish off the result this week and won't woe the missed chances.
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