Close games for seniors at Manningtree

The Ely Senior team played their latest tournament at Manningtree. The 3rd Division champions have found the going tough in the Men’s 2nd Division of the Eastern Counties League, but this tournament showed some promising signs for the very young team, most of which are still under 17s. Match 1 was against a strong Farnham team, who had beaten Ely comprehensively earlier in the season, this time goals for Hart and Gillet and an 8 – 2 loss was very respectable.

 The second game against the England Ladies team was a close encounter but Ely always had the edge and eventually won 5 – 2 with 2 goals for Gillet and one each for Cox, Hart and Salisbury.
 

Match 3 was the highlight of the day against Colchester who later beat Farnham. Ely played superbly in the first half and established a surprise 5 – 3 lead at half time. Pushing for more goals in the second half seemed to undo Ely and they got caught with 3 forward several times. This gave the opposition several 2 on 1 chances and 4 of Colchester goals came this way for an 8 -5 loss but nevertheless a fantastic performance from Ely (goals Salisbury 3, Hart & Gillet).
 
In the last match against Norwich, Ely again started well and matched the opposition for most of the 1st half. A poor defensive spell just before half time gave Norwich a lead which they held to the end for a 10 – 6 win.
 
 Hannah Barrow playing for the England Ladies scored one of their goals in a 7 – 2 loss the Farnham. The ladies also lost a close encounter with Norwich.