Keeping it in reserve
Saturday morning and I had a dilemma. I was pretty skint but needed a football fix. A quick look at the fixtures confirmed what I already knew: Ely were away, Thetford were away, Soham were away and King's Lynn were also away. I toyed with the idea of going to March Town United, a ground that seems to strike fear into the hearts of most nonleague fans who have ventured there, but they were also away, so I'll have to find out another day what the problem there is. I wasn't in the mood for Newmarket Town, which was probably just as well as they drew 0-0 with the omnipresent Diss. I toyed with the idea of going to Yaxley, but the transport options didn't look great. The other games on offer were Cambridge United V Hayes and Yeading and Histon V Corby. The weather was bad, neither of the fixtures inspired me and to be honest if I'm not meeting up with anybody I tend to avoid Cambridge if I'm on holiday. Therefore my last, but very cheap option was Ely City Reserves against Foxton in the Cambridgeshire Senior League Premier Division.
I don't venture to the reserves that often, but it's usually not too bad if the weather is OK and by kick off time it was. The one strange thing is that there seems to be no communication whatsoever between the first team and the reserves. Most of the bad blood boiling over when last winter the reserves had a game at Waterbeach and they asked for some first teamers, but none of them turned up. It also seems odd that the first team get players from other lower teams, but don't often give their own reserves or A-Team a chance. Anyway, I did recognise one player, the Ely left back who had played for the first team a couple of times, so maybe I am exaggerating the lack of communication.
It was the visitors who started the game the more lively of the two sides with their left winger Asher Wilson looking especially lively and it was indeed Foxton who took the lead on 6 minutes through Adam Farenden. Ely also applied plenty of pressure, but they seemed to lack fire power up front, which was starnge as the previous week they had fired 7 past Newmarket Reserves. Nevertheless the rest of the first half saw Ely going forward without really threatening and Foxton hitting them on the counter attack and always looking more likely to score.
The second half continued in the same way that the first half had and Asher Wilson had the ball in the back of the net to put Foxton 2-0 up on 57 minutes after the Ely defence made a mess of clearing a corner. After this Foxton sat back and defended with the proviso from their captain that they must not concede. Ely finally came close on 70 minutes, but the Foxton keeper managed to save it. Ely's best chance of all came on 79 minutes, but Foxton cleared the ball off the line and the last 10 minutes were played out with Foxton defending to the hilt and Ely throwing the kitchen sink at it without really threatening. So the game finished 2-0 to Foxton and it's back to the dizzying heights of the Eastern Counties League on Tuesday where Ely take on Diss yet again.
I don't venture to the reserves that often, but it's usually not too bad if the weather is OK and by kick off time it was. The one strange thing is that there seems to be no communication whatsoever between the first team and the reserves. Most of the bad blood boiling over when last winter the reserves had a game at Waterbeach and they asked for some first teamers, but none of them turned up. It also seems odd that the first team get players from other lower teams, but don't often give their own reserves or A-Team a chance. Anyway, I did recognise one player, the Ely left back who had played for the first team a couple of times, so maybe I am exaggerating the lack of communication.
It was the visitors who started the game the more lively of the two sides with their left winger Asher Wilson looking especially lively and it was indeed Foxton who took the lead on 6 minutes through Adam Farenden. Ely also applied plenty of pressure, but they seemed to lack fire power up front, which was starnge as the previous week they had fired 7 past Newmarket Reserves. Nevertheless the rest of the first half saw Ely going forward without really threatening and Foxton hitting them on the counter attack and always looking more likely to score.
The second half continued in the same way that the first half had and Asher Wilson had the ball in the back of the net to put Foxton 2-0 up on 57 minutes after the Ely defence made a mess of clearing a corner. After this Foxton sat back and defended with the proviso from their captain that they must not concede. Ely finally came close on 70 minutes, but the Foxton keeper managed to save it. Ely's best chance of all came on 79 minutes, but Foxton cleared the ball off the line and the last 10 minutes were played out with Foxton defending to the hilt and Ely throwing the kitchen sink at it without really threatening. So the game finished 2-0 to Foxton and it's back to the dizzying heights of the Eastern Counties League on Tuesday where Ely take on Diss yet again.
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