On a hot Saturday afternoon Ely,playing host to Hadley FC, soon got into there stride with some fluent passing especially through the midfield.

 After a couple of friendlies in the last week the team seem to be gelling quite well and that showed in the performance. The midfield of Johnson,Smith,Beck and Impey really shone in the first half and with some very intricate passing between them the lads created a number of chances.

The impressive Tony Beck released Johnson down the left wing after the half hour mark,who then in turn produced a suprising pinpoint cross to the right foot of Robins who cooley volleyed home from 8 yards out.

With the crowd getting more and more excited by what football they were seeing displayed at the Unwin ground,the best was yet to come just before the half time whistle. Dicko chipped the ball forward to the head of Robins who flicked the ball on to centre half Wazza ( on the right wing) who picked Mason out with yet another good cross, and Mason then nodded the ball into the bottom corner from 12 yards. HALF-TIME.

 In the second half Ely still played some attractive football and created some more good chances. Den and Alan had a squad on the day of 19 players all of which played some part in the game, and with the season just around the corner, they have some selection headaches with alot of players putting in some decent performances.

Midway through the second half Hadley got a goal against the run of play after there left winger seemed to have run the ball out of play,only for the linesman not to see it.He then laid the ball across the 6 yard box for the striker to pass the ball into the net.

FULL-TIME Ely City 2-1 Hadley FC

All in all a good display from Ely and some good attractive football played! I really feel we have the attitude and the ability this season to break into the top 8 and improve on last seasons 9th place finish. Lastly a big thanks to the Hadley team for travelling up to play us and good luck to them for the coming season!

SW