Eastern Counties League Premier Division
Demcom Stadium, Ely
Admission: £7.00
Programme: £1.50
Attendance: 83
I was rather undecided where to head to today, shortlisting games at Risborough Rangers, Northampton ON Chenecks, Sheerwater and Ely. In the end, my mind was made up by the assurance that Ely would be producing a printed programme today, combined with wanting to save the plastic of fellow issuers Sheerwater in reserve for the inevitable wet days to come.
The Demcom Stadium is about a half hour, two mile walk north westwards from Ely train station, separated from the city's residential area by the A10 and just beyond Ely Leisure Park, where facilities include various fast food and sit down restaurants, and a cinema. The football ground is part of large sporting complex which also hosts facilities for rugby, hockey, golf, tennis and squash, and entrance to the Demcom Stadiun is gained through a corridor of a low brick extension from the main stand, entering the ground close to the half way line. All of the ground's facilities are located along this length, with the main stand straddling the half way line, accessed via a flight of metal steps to the front. The seating there offers an excellent, elevated view with just the one narrow floodlight pylon partly obscuring one's view. Immediately beyond the stand is a very smart pitch roofed clubhouse building, very roomy and modern inside with a good range of drinks available, while along the front, overhang provides further cover, with benches and tables placed underneath. There is also a tea bar hatch on the outside wall, where chips and savoury bakes, as well as hot drinks, were available. Towards the other corner flag along this length there is a wooden stand covering a flat area, and from this length, Ely Cathedral is visible in the distance. There is just hard standing around the remaining three sides, although decorative pitchside railings, and colourful boards along the perimeter wall, certainly enhance the appearance of the ground. Indeed, there is certainly an abundance of club signage inside, outside and on the approach to thw ground, which is always nice to see, as it gives a ground real identity and belonging. As a Charlton fan, it was also nice to notice a line from the “Red Red Robin” song, which welcomes players onto the pitch ahead of kick off at The Valley, displayed on some signage here. The 40 page programme was a very decent read, easy on the eye, and containing all of the necessary stats and facts and interesting articles.
A glance at the league table suggested that this would be a game between two evenly matched clubs having reasonable campaigns so far. Ely City came into this game in eighth place in the table, following nine wins and three draws from their opening 21 league games, while Norwich United were two places higher in the table, in sixth, following ten wins and five draws from their 20 league games. The reverse fixture of today’s game took place in early October, ending in a 2-2 draw, after Ely had taken a two goal lead.
On a sunny afternoon which became decidedly chilly as the sun set thanks to a stiff breeze, the game kicked off a couple of minutes ahead of schedule, and the first half was an even affair, with several half chances being created at either end. Ely had the first standout chance, on 16 minutes, when Luke Young played a free kick into the box, Ryan Gibbs tapped the ball goalwards, forcing the keeper to make an excellent parried save, with a defender first to the loose ball to knock it behind for a corner. It was Norwich's turn to come close on 25 minutes, when a low pass across the goal just evaded a close range tap in. But immediately after play was restarted following Ely's Josh Townshend receiving treatment, the visitors went on the attack to open the scoring on 44 minutes, Kyle Richardson threading the ball forward for Liam Jackson to run onto, before cooly striking the ball past the keeper.
While Ely could perhaps feel slightly hard done by to be behind at the break, they were probably fortunate to have not fallen further behind in the opening stages of the second half, as Norwich upped the ante and forced the Ely keeper Harry Reynolds into some great saves to keep his side in the game. But as the game neared its conclusion, it was Ely who pushed hard for an equaliser, but saw their efforts on goal either go just off target, evaded a tap in, headed off the line, or drew good saves from the keeper. But in the end time ran out as the visitors claimed a narrow away win.
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