NATIONAL CUP - SECOND HALF PERFORMANCES NOT ENOUGH

Ely finally got some competitive matches after the Christmas break and a number of postponed tournaments, when they took part in the National Cup qualifiers at Soham.
 
The under 13s had an 8.30 start against Bury. The long break showed from the start with Bury St Edmunds taking an early lead. Despite a long range goal from Nikki Hart Ely never really got into the game and found themselves 6 – 1 down at half time. However the second half showed a different team with some good forward play and teamwork. Ely started to pass the ball around with a good move between Heather Dunnand and Emily Barrow resulting in an excellent goal by Dunnand. Two well taken goals by Jordon Chambers and another by Jake Kendall took the scores to 6 – 5. With Ryan Norton and Chambers making some great breaks from defence Ely couldn’t quite find the opening they needed to bring the scores level.  James Walsh was having a good half in goal but with Ely committing themselves to get the equaliser Bury found two late goals to take the tie 8 – 5.
 
In the under 15s it was a similar story although it was Ely who took the lead inside 30 seconds against Herne Bay United with a well taken goal from Callum Thoday .  Herne Bay hit back with 5 goals in 10 minutes with a single Ely goal by Hattie Ford making  the scores  5 -2 at half time. As with the earlier match Ely dominated in the second half with 2 goals from Max Dunnand and a further one by Thoday bringing the scores level.  Herne Bay however soon took the lead again only for Thoday to bring the scores back level with 5 minutes left. Both teams pushed for a winner but it was Herne Bay who found one with a long range shot with 90 seconds to go, final score 7 - 6