On a rather bleak, windswept afternoon at the edge of the Fens, South lost their four-match unbeaten record to a well-organised and confident Ely side who scored three first-half goals and never threatened to be overtaken.

Having said that, there was more than an element of misfortune in two of those goals, particularly the first one when keeper Steve Parker stood his ground to make a fine stop after a defensive giveaway only to see the ball ricochet back into the net off a South leg. This reverse after just three minutes put South on the back foot as Ely maintained their policy of spreading the ball wide at pace and looking for gaps to squeeze through.

Superb close tackles by Chris Massey and Chris Graveling and a solid hip-check by Graveling that sent his opponent sprawling preceded two strong runs by Lukas Snetler, who beavered away throughout despite suffocating attention from the Ely defence. Parker then had to make another point-blank save on the ground, scooping the ball away with his pad like a pinball flipper, before South had their first real concerted attack, masterminded by skipper Chris Baker and Rob Garrett.

Further pressure led to South's first short but, after Garrett had cocked the trigger, Baker just failed to deliver the killer shot as the Ely keeper splayed out in front of him. Rupert Webb and Garrett then worked a sensible shift up the right flank after Matt Readman had metaphorically rolled his sleeves up with a crunching tackle in the middle.

But Ely soon stepped on the gas again, forcing a good glove save from Parker, and then won a series of three shorts, the first a booming drive blocked by Parker and the second a canny slip well read by Graveling and cleared by Massey. The third, awarded following a marginal five-yard infringement at a free hit, was a flubbed drag-flick which wrong-footed the South defence, opening up a black hole for an opportunist close-range conversion which Parker did well just to get a stick on.

South battled hard to regain lost ground, with Graveling tackling ferociously and then making a goal-line save after Parker had succeeded in disarming a twin-pronged attack that had burst through the ranks. The visitors had the ball in the back of the Ely net after twenty minutes – unfortunately from outside the D via an Ely stick – but generally continued to have difficulty in making progress beyond the twenty-five, suffering two further turnovers which led to cast-iron chances for the rampant Ely forwards. Parker raced out decisively to block off the first, then reverse-tackled the second and beat off a couple of heavy follow-ups to prevent further damage.

But neither he nor the overworked South defence could do anything about the third goal, a top-class one-timer from a pinpoint cross from the right wing. Ely pressed relentlessly forward, with the visiting defenders struggling to set themselves, and bore down on Parker, who again got down well to save before Webb provided last-ditch, goal-saving defiance. There was a glimmer of hope just before half-time as South found some of their characteristic passing touch, smoothing the ball to the edge of the Ely D through a six-man move, but the Ely defence proved as well-organised as its attack and kept the scoreline at 3-0 as the two teams went into the break.

In the second half, South took a bolder approach and started to play with a bit more self-belief, though it was still sometimes hard to disrupt Ely's slick one-timers. Snetler nearly got a shot off after a good build-up involving Eliot Read, Massey and the unflagging Baker, and the last two combined effectively a couple of minutes later to set up Garrett after Parker had bought time for a defensive regrouping by chasing an Ely striker virtually out of the D following a penalty corner.

A determined run up the left wing by Read brought a third South short, with Baker driving into the keeper and Snetler attempting to bury the rebound, but South then had to blunt further swift incursions as Jim Thorpe defused an awkward aerial with practised economy and Parker once more hijacked a clean-through striker, thwarting an attempted lift-over by chesting the ball down and sweeping it away with the stick.

South had their chances over the next few minutes as strikes from Snetler and Baker after a penalty corner tested the Ely keeper, who then did well to kick away a Snetler reverse going to his right. Meanwhile, Read had raced back to make a last-gasp clearance after Parker had held the Ely advance up with a diving tackle well out in the D and Webb had grittily held on to the ball under pressure. The home team produced two or three further promising moves, first with Read and Snetler and then with Garrett as South attempted to close the gap.

A fifth South short on 60 minutes provided the ideal opportunity for a late fightback but Baker's shot from a Garrett slip was stopped and no-one could roof any of the three rebounds as the keeper remained prone. Both Graveling, sinuously, and Readman, surgingly, made determined counter-attacks from deep positions in the last ten minutes and, after Webb had underscored South's never-say-die attitude with a great retrieving save on the line as Parker rushed a loose attacker into a hasty bobbler, the visitors put together a sweeping pitch-length move which ended with Garrett just failing to get on the end of a good cross. In the last meaningful action of the game, a South charge into the D was thwarted by the keeper coming out, leaving South to reflect on a game which, though it yielded them neither goals nor points, should not dishearten them too much.

Though Ely were unarguably the better side on the day, with their swift link play matched by solid defensive capabilities, South could count themselves slightly unfortunate on two of the goals conceded and they were also disadvantaged by the absence of two key strikers. The defence, though constantly challenged, covered back nobly in extremis and man-of-the-match Chris Massey, playing a more defensive role than usual after the departure of Mike Thorogood, showed a cool collectedness which suggests he could prosper in this position. An ability to finish off rebounds in the opposition D might well have put a different complexion on the game and South are convinced that, like last season, they can muster the wherewithal to reverse the away result in the second half of the campaign.