18th April 2022
Ely City vs Thetford Town @ Demcom Stadium - Ely
Thurlow Nunn Premier Division (Step 5)
15:00 KO
£7 entry
Attendance - 172
Half-time score: Ely City 0-1 Thetford Town
Goals:
Thetford Town: Campbell - 17'
Ely City: Townshend - 47' (P)
Thetford Town: Campbell - 63'
Thetford Town: Gilchrist - 78'
Thetford Town: Campbell - 91' (P)
Leigh Simons recorded the goals, see the links below:
Final Score: Ely City 1-4 Thetford Town
With Thetford Town having secured their place in the Thurlow Nunn Premier on Saturday, I made the trip to see them at Ely City in anticipation of an enjoyable game of football, with no pressure. The plan was go on the smooth A-roads to Ely, but traffic down the A11 forced us across the Fens, through Lakenheath, Shippea Hill and through to Prickwillow before we hit Ely, with some nice uneven roads to test out the suspension on. I know these roads well having lived in Soham and Ely previously, although somehow I never went to the Demcom Stadium, a wrong I put right today. Ely City are a difficult team to read, recently beating Walsham-le-Willows and drawing against Wroxham, whilst getting battered by Lakenheath, and Thetford Town in the return fixture a few weeks back, so it was interesting to see which Ely City team turned up on the day.
The ground was decent, with an oddly high main stand, with a great view of the surrounding area, including the famous Ely Cathedral - 'Ship of the Fens', in full view, although it was a bit tricky to see everything, with a floodlight or two getting in the way. The pitch did look a bit bobbly, but other than that it was a glorious sunny day, perfect for a game of football, and we were joined by the Ely 'ultras' in the stand, complete with a big flag and a loud drum in a bid to create some atmosphere in what was actually a very decent turn-out. As ever, I picked up a printed matchday programme, was £1.50 and a nice one glossy one with lots of high quality photographs and match reports.
Featuring a largely unchanged side from the 6-0 win against Whitton United, barring Varela coming in for Cusack, from the off it appeared that Thetford were continuing in the same vein. In the 3rd minute, a deft touch from Campbell played in Gilchrist, but Ely keeper Reynolds was quick off the mark and closed the angle well to smother the incoming shot. In the 7th minute, Varela went on a brilliant, mazy run down the right-wing, where he cut inside the box and unleashed a powerful left-footed strike that flew wide. In the 11th minute, after some more great skill from Varela, he played Campbell through on goal, but Reynolds was off the mark quickly again and closed down the space to save the effort from Campbell. In the 15th minute, Gilchrist stole the ball deep in the Ely half, burst through on goal, but under harassment from the scrambling Ely defence, his strike was unable to make clean contact with the ball. The pressure told, and in the 17th minute, Thetford finally broke through, Elliot Smith ran with the ball through the middle of the field, he found Gilchrist who took a touch, opened up his body and slid in a perfect ball for Campbell to run onto, where from a narrow angle down the right, he fired the ball across the goal and into the side netting, an excellent finish.
Thetford nearly built on their lead shortly afterwards, in the 19th minute, Thetford broke with pace, Varela travelled with the ball, passed to Gilchrist who played Campbell in down the right again, but as before, the keeper was out quickly to force the save. As the half progressed, Ely began to create some chances of their own, the first courtesy of an error at the back, keeper Rodgers had a moment and Jenkins latched on the ball down the right flank, but he seemed unsure what to do, taking too many touches, before deciding to cut the ball back, but it was cleared by the Thetford defenders who had the time to get back to cover. In the 36th minute, Ely City went very close, Thetford somehow managed to clear the ball from a goalmouth scramble following a corner. At the end of the half, Elliot Smith released Campbell, who tried a dinked/chipped effort to beat the onrushing keeper, but it went narrowly over.
In the second half, Thetford came out looking half-asleep, allowing Ely back into the game. In the 47th minute, Ely were awarded a penalty, I did not catch the incident fully as the floodlight was obstructing my view, but Jenkins went down, and apparently it was a little bit of a soft call. Nevertheless, Townshend stepped up and blasted the ball down the middle, crashing into the crossbar and bouncing behind Rodgers and out to be cleared by a Thetford defender. The referee went over to consult with the linesman and quickly awarded a goal, the ball must have bounced over the line, and somewhat fortuitously, Ely were back level with Thetford Town at 1-1.
Ely had an excellent 10 minutes, and went close to bagging their second to take the lead. In the 51st minute, Chambers-Shaw was almost able to release Jenkins, but his through ball was too heavy and the chance went begging. In the 53rd minute, Jenkins fired in a cross from the right, and substitute Young powered in a bullet header, directed to the ground, that was miraculously stopped by a great reaction save from Rodgers with his leg, a fine moment to keep Thetford in the game. In the 56th minute, a long throw-in from Townshend fell to Tait whose headed effort was also well saved.
Having weathered the pressure, Thetford got back into the game, and began putting the Ely defence under pressure, and in the 63rd minute, they broke through courtesy of a well placed lobbed ball over the Ely back-line from Gilchrist, Campbell sprinted beyond the Ely defence, latched onto the ball and fired the ball home to make it 2-1 to restore Thetford's lead.
Thetford went close again in the 71st minute, a long ball from Elliot Smith was fired towards Varela down the right, the Ely defender missed the ball, Varela cleared up and charged through on goal, but his touch was a little heavy, allowing the defender to come back and concede the corner. Ely broke rapidly from the corner, and substitute Young was found down the right, he got into the corner of the box, and cracked a dangerous strike that flew just outside of the far upright. In the 78th minute, Thetford had pinned Ely into their box, substitute Delgado was weaving around the outside of the box, he found Felgueiras down the left wing who squared the ball into Gilchrist, he chipped the ball, turned and volleyed towards the bottom left corner, keeper Reynolds got down well to push the ball into the post, but it rolled across the line just before it was cleared by the defender, as confirmed by the linesman as Ely attempted to play on, thus putting some space between Thetford and Ely with a 3-1 lead. The 3rd goal appeared to deflate Ely, and Thetford comfortably closed out the game, having a big penalty shout in the 83rd minute as Varela was brought down, and adding the icing on the cake in the 90th minute when a dangerous curling cross in from Lake was handled by a Ely defender. Up stepped none other than Campbell, a man on his hattrick, and he calmly slotted into the side netting to complete the feat, and cap a fine day for Thetford Town for an emphatic away win which secured the double over Ely, scoring 8 goals in the process, and 10 over the Bank Holiday weekend, including 5 from that man Campbell, and 3 from his foil Gilchrist, we really have been spoilt!
Well, that performance and result confirms that Thetford Town have come a long way from the start of the season, although I stand by my comments that they should really be higher up the table, that victory taking the goal difference to 0, much better than the teams in and around them. They are really beginning to build something down at Mundford Road, and that was a fun, no pressure game to watch, and Gilchrist and Campbell are forming a fearsome partnership up front. the two upfront are running defences ragged, starting from some good long balls being hit over the backline from Lake, Smith and Morton to name a few, but also backed up by great work in the middle of the park and down the wings again. It is somewhat disappointing that the season is coming to close already just as they begin to get some momentum, but Town have one more game to go, a big test against high-flying Mulbarton Wanderers, it will be a great game to gauge where Thetford currently are, and a result in this game will cap a roller-coaster ride of a season, full of lots of excellent performances, punctuated with some poor runs of form, some heart-achingly painful losses and a big dose of poor luck at times, so UP THE TOWN!!!
Line-Ups:
ELY CITY: Harry Reynolds, Josh Revell, Adam Capel, Josh Townshend, Tom Williams (C), Luke Crisp, Louis Jenkins, Ash Walter, Ryan Gibbs, Ben Tait, Callum Chambers-Shaw. SUBS: Dom Hunt, Taylor Hastings, Luke Young, Jordan Foster.
THETFORD TOWN: Macauley Rodgers, Sam Bond (C), Matt Morton, Elliot Smith, Joao Varela, Jordan Lake, Jake Mann, Artur Visocanskis, Bernardo Felgueiras, Michael Campbell, Dan Gilchrist. SUBS: Marley Delgado, Daniel Williams, Santi Davies, Adam Laker, John Taylor.
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