strong>The 1st half:

I do not want to talk about this.

Nevertheless, South started poorly and could not get their team to gel, not helped by constant substitutions. Ely broke the South defence twice. I had a great view of the 1st from the bench as the Ely midfielder ran into the D, was pushed wide and mis-hit his reverse stick shot into the ground resulting in a high bounce past Shabaz in goal. Howells also managed to get a green card for a tackle that I believe is called “the Oren”. The 2nd was a result of sloppy marking resulting in a free player and a simple finish. South came into half time braced from the sure bollocking from the returned skipper. He was surprisingly calm and did not shout, this means he was particularly furious...

The 2nd half:

A re-jig to the substitution plan and suddenly South came out of the blocks flying. Slick passing, a great press and a new look highly organised South had Ely on the back foot. In fact they barely touched the ball for the 1st 25 minutes of the half. After 10 minutes Erlebach picked up a loose ball in midfield and played it to Chalk in the centre. A quick 1-2 with Venner left Chalk driving down the base line. As the keeper came to greet him a simple pull back to Paley allowed him to score a simple tap in to the open net. More of this please. Midway through the half South were level. Another drive down the base line by Chalk led to the pass back being cut out with the back of an Ely stick. Dom produced a fine injection and Howells slipped the ball left to Snetler as planned. Lucas was then meant to shoot at the goal, but being Lucas he had to let the ball role across his body onto his reverse stick allowing the Ely defence to close him down. Just as his team mates had given up and were falling back into defensive positions, he pulls out a fantastic reverse stick pass back to the injector, gifting Dom an easy deflection to level the score.

It's a shame this could not last and shortly afterwards more substitutions caused confusion in the midfield (ie let's play 2 players on the left and none on the right, Ely will not expect that). There was also a fair few dodgy challenges around the D. From one of these an Ely played drove around the D and fired a reverse stick cross into the goal. Despite 3 South players on hand to help the umpire with his decision it was ruled inside the D and the goal given. This player also got the 1st goal and got the Ely LoM for never having scored with his reverse stick before today. South then went back to playing the way they did in the 1st half so I will gloss over that again. Ely scored a 4th with 5 minutes to play as a through ball was mis-controlled by a forward and the South player in goal (naming no names) stepped on his own pads preventing himself from moving as it trickled past him and over the line. Another card for South for poor attitude and a yellow for Ely for breaking down play were not enough for South to get back into the game despite dropping a defender to play with yet another forward. A game to forget, next week let's play like they are City again please lads.