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Goals from Ant Blandford and Sam Green gave Steve Taylor a win on his first return to former club Ely as Haverhill progressed into the second round of the Ridgeons League, Knockout Cup with a 2-1 win at the Unwin Gound on Tuesday night.

Ely made a good start to go in front on four minutes when Robbie mason headed in from a Jamie Thurlbourne long ball.

But Haverhill settled and were level on 30 minutes when Blandford drifted in from the left and chipped the ball over Robins' keeper Leigh Follen.

Green, who was recalled from a loan spell at Long Melford last week, then popped up midway through the second half to hit the winner for Taylor's side.

Nick Impey hit the post for the home side late on, and Paul Shaw could have extended Rovers' lead, but he failed to find the target.

Rovers' boss Taylor, who won this competition with current Robins boss Dennis Lightning and his former side Ely in 2005, said: "It is nice to go back and get a result against one of your old teams and the result keeps the winning run going and should give us some confidence.

"We had a weakened side, but they played really well, to be fair, against a strong Ely team.

"We deserved to win. We had a lot of possession and we did well after going a goal down so early"

Lee Reed and Marcus Hunt were on the scoresheet to give Haverhill their first Ridgeons League, First Division, victory since September 9 when they won 2-0 at Hadleigh on Saturday.

They took the lead after 24 minutes. Joe Harvey put Paul Shaw through on goal, but he had his heels clipped in the area, and Reed made no mistake from the spot, firing into the bottom right-hand corner.

Hadleigh's keeper was kept busy, having to make saves to deny Reed and Harvey, while Shaw had a header cleared off the line. But the decisive second arrived in the 73rd minute.

Lee Wilson's corner was met by a firm header from Hunt and despite the efforts of the keeper, the ball went in.