Comberton United A vs AFC Ely
In what is becoming an unwelcome and worrying theme for AFC Ely, this match was fraught with missed opportunities for the away side: within the opening twenty minutes AFC Ely could have established clear daylight between themselves and the hosts, however, the inordinate amount of chances spurned would ultimately come back to bite the visitors.
AFC Ely’s ability to create chances shouldn’t be the focus of questioning here, but instead, their ability to convert such golden opportunities: far too often in this match (and the match previous) AFC Ely found themselves in fantastic goal scoring areas, but the lack of finesse and killer instinct in attack is abundantly clear.
As such, it was left to midfielder Max Wright to do the scoring and even then this was not enough on the day. Clinical is perhaps not the correct way to describe AFC Ely’s hosts, Comberton: the home side were everything AFC Ely were not – ruthless. The players of the away side were far too caught up in the emotion of the game and this led to several bookings and even a red card; this also showed in AFC Ely’s incessant squandering of openings. Simply put, this was an unembellished display in end product from the Ely-based outfit.
Comberton were able to punish AFC Ely’s wastefulness in the opening thirty minutes of the match via a turnover that resulted in a swift breakaway. Travelling all of forty yards to arrive at the edge of the AFC Ely box, the home attacker was faced up by a defender and was forced to take a pot shot that should have been saved: instead, the ball evaded the glove of Damian Geldenhuys and snuck in at the near post.
An equaliser was certainly on the cards for AFC Ely in the early exchanges of second-half, as was an opener in the first-half until that failed to materialise: the first big chance coming from a header that hit the bar following an excellent cross from Max Wright. It was Wright’s brilliance again that saw a swing finally go in the right direction for the visitors; the midfielder’s persistence was rewarded when he produced a neat finish from an acute angle, restoring parity for his team.
A sublime response came from the home side, however. Shortly after conceding, Comberton upped their levels and restored the lead. With the ball cleared from a corner, AFC Ely were slow to react as the ball fell to the feet of a Comberton man: as he jinxed past two, an opening appeared and he powered an effort through several bodies that flew past the hapless Geldenhuys. Not too soon after, Comberton extended their lead to 3-1 when finishing tidily at the far post. A consolation goal followed from Wright, securing his brace, but when AFC Ely were reduced to nine men, due to a red card and sinbin respectively, the game was lost and Comberton took the spoils.
Full-time result: Comberton United A 3-2 AFC Ely.
AFC Ely Man of the Match: Max Wright.
AFC Ely will hope to respond when they take on Stretham Reserves at the Paradise next Saturday – kick off is at 2:00pm.
Press release from AFC Ely
Written by Oliver Jennings
oliverjennings98@outlook.com
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