This was an interesting fixture, the previous match had ended in a 1-9 thrashing by Ely 3s, but the 5s were confident that they could improve upon that score. Unfortunately for South they had to make-do with 3 double ups (Charlie, Simon J and Tom R) who had played earlier in the day. From the start you could see how Ely had earnt their place in the battle for promotion, they were throwing out aerials and making great runs through our defence, but Rob was wise to these runs and darted out to meet the players before anything could become too dangerous, Rob had a cracking game considering the result.

South had some decent attacks as well, the Ely defence was left open after they overloaded their attack, which allowed James M to counter with pace and get some early balls into the opposition D. Ely scored the opener but South's heads didn't drop and we kept attacking the Ely D - once such attack found the Ely goal keeper outside the D and sweeping a ball away from James M, which resulted in a yellow card for playing the ball outside the D with his pads. The resulting free hit was passed back to James Bridge who fired a balled to Simon F who slotted home the equaliser. 10 men on the field could only be a positive for South, but Ely were quick to press forward and were very good at boxing us in on our 16s giving Ian very few options. They managed to get a short corner from this pressure and convert it neatly with a drag flick. The game nearly went from bad to worse moments later when John blocked a goal on the line and a flick was  awarded. However Rob was not prepared to have a repeat of the St Neots flick in the last game and managed to parry the ball onto the post with his stick. Halftime - 2-1 Ely, not too bad.

The second half was to be expected, Ely were clearly the stronger side with some very skilful players in the middle providing all the balls though to the attackers. Unfortunately they scored another 6 goals, but John Dakin also managed to score two for South. The final result was 8-3 to Ely, an improvement on the previous game, if only a little. John Sharp received the lemon of the match for falling over Rob and generally getting in the way (Rob was also nominated for tackling his own players but we felt that it was the defender's job to get out of his way). We discovered Simon J has a turbo feature that only kicks in after recovering from cramp. James M played outstandingly in the middle of the pitch earning him MoM nominations. Rob has progressed really well (he's started buy his own kit!) and being constantly worked by these teams can only be good in the long run, but he earned Man of the match for some cracking saves and of course the penalty flick save. John Dakin scored two goals making him the 5s second best goal scorer after only 3 games. Simon F scored another goal putting him joint top of the goal kings table once again. And the 5s scored more goals in a game since the friendlies. There are positives to look at from a tough game like that and there is definite improvement from the 5s.