football rambles

 At the weekend I was in Birmingham for a double header as Sutton took on Corby in the Northern Premier Midlands Division and Villa took on Wolverhampton in the Premier League. Going into the game Sutton had recently had some poor results, so it came as a slight surprise that they started to look the most likely side to take the lead in the opening exchanges including missing wha was pretty much an open goal in the second minute. Corby were starting to moan a bit as the Royals continued to push them, but all that was about to change.  On 23 minutes Corby floated a ball in from a corner and it seemed like a number of arms went up including that of Sutton defender Ryan Jordan. It hit Jordan's arm and a penalty was awarded. Jordan was also given his marching orders and shown a red. I am not entirely, if it was just for the handball, which in my opinion probably only warranted a yellow or for something that was said or something else the referee saw in. Whatever. It was from my pe...

 Saturday saw King's Lynn supposedly take on Macclesfield in what should have been a good match. Unfortunately, it was pouring down, but with no information coming from the clubs about it being off, I got on the train. The rain was getting worse and worse so I popped into the Fenman and got chatting to some Macc fans. At 2:40 we arrived at the ground. The DJ was rather sarcastically playing 'I do my crying in the rain'. Only for them to announce on our arrival that the game was off. A bit of a disappointment and a crap result fro the Macclesfield fans who had  a long journey for no football. Understandable though as it didn't stop raining and the photos coming out of the club would suggest that the pitch was unplayable even though both wanted the game to go ahead.

 Saturday saw King's Lynn take on Harrow in the FA Trophy, in what, despite all of the turmoil at the club recently, should have been a standard win for the Linnets. It definitely felt like that would be the case at the start of the game. The opening exchanges saw Harlow pushed back into their own half with a relentless wave of attacks from Lynn. Ross Crane opened the scoring on 10 minutes and Gold Omotayo made it 2 from the spot on 20 minutes. The rest of the half continued in a similar vein with Tom Clark in the Harrow goal keeping Lynn at bay. The teams went in at halftime with Lynn still holding a 2-0 lead, but at this point it didn't feel like Lynn were in any danger of sacrificing their lead. The opening exchanges in the second half were a rather scrappy affair with neither team really getting on the ball. Then on the 65th minute Dernell Wynter pulled one back for Harrow. All of a sudden Harrow had some belief that they could actually get something from the game. They pus...

 This was another good performance that could have easily been turned into 3 points by the home team against a strong Wroxham side, who are doing pretty well in the league. Both sides had plenty of chances in the first half, but it was Wroxham who struck first with a goal from Asa McGeachey on the 23rd minute. It was a pity as Downham had been playing well and passing it around with confidence in the first half. Up front Charlie Royle was causing all sorts of problems for the Wroxham defence, with him back in a wide position rather than the more central position he's been playing lately. It was Royle who equalised on 34 minutes with a fantastic strike from distance that gave the keeper no chance. The second half saw chances few and far between with both sides cancelling each other out. One positive is that in this game Downham held their own against one of the stronger teams in the division and this came on the back of a win away at Stanway on Saturday.  

 A bright day for November saw us take a trip to the seaside to see Heacham take on Soham Town Rangers in the Eastern Counties League. A trip to the beach, followed by some excellent brewed on the premises beer at the Fox and Hounds (a rum infused bitter and a samphire infused stout) was followed up by a trip to the game. Going into the game Soham were on a rich vein of form and they seemed to have brought more fans than Heacham, who are struggling at the end of the table. In the opening encounters Soham seemed more up for it, but Heacham seemed to be playing the ball around with more aplomb. However, there was a feeling of inevitably when Soham took the lead through Taffari Passley after 10 minutes. Heacham fought back though and just before the half hour mark Toby Hilliard levelled things up from a corner. The rest of the half was end to end stuff, but chances were few and far between. Heacham came out firing in the second half  and were on top for most of it as Soham grew m...

 It hasn't been an easy start to life for Downham in the Isthmian Division 1 North, so when they took on Tilbury on Wednesday night, it really was a bit of a six pointer as Tilbury are also struggling at the wrong end of the table. Downham started off shakily and were under pressure for the first 15 minutes. However, they grew into the game and a couple of tougth tackles from Jake Miller, who returned to the team laid down a bit of a marker. For the rest of the half Downham were the dominant team, however a questionable penalty on 37 minutes saw them back on the back foot as Tilbury took the lead. Downham came out firing in the second half and with better finishing could have been ahead before Owain McQuaid fired in an equaliser with a decent half volley with 30 minutes to go.  Downham continued to give a spirited performance and were unlucky not to make the pressure count. Despite the number of injuries and the fact that the majority of the players are playing at a much highe...