football rambles

 So on Sunday, Downham won the playoffs and will now play at the highest level they have in their history. Downham who finished third took on Walsham who finished fifth after wins against Ely and Fakenham in the semifinals. Downham perhaps went into the game as favourites after finishing higher and a convincing win against Ely. Walsham had finished fifth and had scraped past Fakenham who had an injured keeper for a significant part of the second half. Things didn't start as planned though with Walsham taking the lead after only four minutes.  The wind really wasn't helping though and on 12 minutes, it was all equal when a Langy cross was met by Dylan Edge to convert and the teams were on level terms. The rest of the half followed a similar pattern with attack and counter attack and the wind playing havoc. Both teams seemed to elect to put the ball in the air when playing it on the ground would have probably resulted in more predictable passages of play. There was some good def...

 First in the bank holiday of football was Aston Villa v Fulham on Saturday. It really was a must win game and felt a bit odd with it being a lunchtime kickoff. The game was decided by a Youri Tielemans header from a John Mc Ginn corner in the 12th minute. In truth Villa dominated the first half and Ollie Watkins was a bit wasteful in front of goal, but at least he was getting in the right positions. Matty Cash and Ian Maatsen were good at getting forward on the wings and the midfield battle was being won by McGinn and Tielemans. At halftime, you kind of wondered if Villa would regret not making more of their chances. The second half saw Fulham attacking with more intent, but Villa were more troubled by their own style of defending than the opposition, however it was a bit nerve wracking at times. That said, the best opportunities of this half went to Villa. Watkins should have converted a chance that Rogers set up for him; Torres missed a golden opportunity that a more attacking m...

 Saturday saw Downham take on Ely in the Eastern Counties League Play off Semifinal. Downham having finished higher had the advantage of playing at home and gave the Ely contingent the excuse of blaming everyone and everything apart from themselves in what was a routine win for Downham over a spineless Ely team. The first half was a cagey event, but when Sivakumar's shot was parried away and Edge jumped on it to give Downham the lead there was no looking back. For the rest of the half Downham dominated the Ely half, but you felt like they needed to put another chance away to make sure because Ely couldn't be that bad all game, could they? The answer to that question was no - for about 10 minutes. Ely came out firing in the first 10 minutes of the second half but didn't really worry the Downham defence. After this initial burst of energy from the visitors things went back to how they had been with Downham fully on top. On 68 minutes Royle burst through the fragile Ely defenc...

 Easter Monday saw Downham take on Heacham in a local derby. Downham were assured a place in the playoffs but still had an outside chance of winning the league. Unfortunately, a massive win for Brantham means that now if they are to get promoted, they'll have to do it the hard way. They also had to do it the hard way in this game. Despite starting the game kicking towards their favoured Wimbotsham End, they went down 1-0 within a few seconds of kick off. Downham fought back though and were level when some good work by Charlie Royle saw him finish off his own move and put the sides level. After this it was mainly Downham who were in the ascendancy but were perhaps trying a bit too hard to force the issue. They were given another lifeline late in the half when Heacham were reduced to 10 men when a stray elbow broke the nose of Matt Castellan  and the offending defender was given his marching orders. The second half continued in a very similar vain to the first with Downham attac...

 The bumper bank holiday weekend of football kicked off with play-off chasing King's Lynn playing at home to top of the table Scunthorpe. I don't think many people would have expected King's Lynn to win but an end to end game was settled by an Omotoya Gold goal on 16 minutes. It was a really good performance and a great day out.