Saturday January 7th 2006

Market Deeping 1st XI (3) v Ely City 1st XI (2)

Ely were a little under strength for this friendly fixture while Deeping paraded their full squad, and it probably showed. On the other hand only five putative places separate Deeping in East league 3NW and Ely in 2N.
Deeping attacked in numbers, flooding the midfield and made no end of chances. Sadly poor finishing and good Ely goalkeeping kept them at bay.
Pinned into their own half,  Ely still looked dangerous on the break, and they took a half chance after 15 minutes of play. Deeping pressure continued without a break and eventually Paul Tancred scored from close range.
The second half showed even more Deeping dominance and chances came and went before Ely retook the lead after some clumsy Deeping defending.
Fortunately Deeping’s Ali Rowledge was crash tackled when shooting at an open goal. The excellent Treeve Wagstaffe converted the resultant penalty.
Five minutes later the ball ran loose to Chris Mann in space in front of goal and he made no mistake in smashing home a raised shot past the sprawling Ely keeper.
Except when caught on the break, Deeping’s defence mainly looked sound, and they rolled around their 13 players with no noticeable loss of shape.
The real business begins again with league hockey at Long Sutton 2nd next week. Deeping also trek to Weymouth later this month to play the second round of the EHA Vase competition.