football rambles

 On Saturday we went to see Championship Norwich take on Premiership Brighton in the 3rd Round of the FA Cup and it was a very one sided affair with the Premier League running out 4-0 winners. Norwich had very few chances and the game was settled by four Brighton goals after a barrage of pressure from them. Two goals towards the end of the first half from Georginio Rutter were added to in the second half by Julio Encisco and Solly March to give the Seagulls a comfortable victory.

 When I bought the tickets for this game I wasn't expecting too much from it. Villa were on an atrocious run of form, and not looking like getting back on track. A lot of Villa fans will disagree, but when Dean Smith was sacked after we lost 1-0 to Southampton, it was probably for the best that he departed. In the meantime Steven Gerrard was given the job and it made for what looked like a more intriguing fixture and for me gave us some hope. I predicted a 2-0 victory and I was not to be disappointed, even though Villa left it until late. For large parts of the game this still seemed like the Dean Smith performances of late, but with the ever impressive Emi Martinez in better form and making some key saves. For me the midfield looks a bit week and Marvelous isn't the answer although his break away led to the Watkins goal. Targett looked out of sorts for a big part of the season at left back and despite playing better today, you have to think he is probably the type of fullback ...

Peterborough started off the game tearing into the Brighton defence with Kenneth Mc Evoy and Jon Taylor causing all sorts of problems down the wings. It was always clear though that with the soaring temperatures that they wouldn't be able to keep it going at this pace for the whole match. The other problem was that the players in the middle were finding it hard to convert the chances that the wide men were serving them up. It was Brighton who broke the deadlock on though when Shamir Fenelon flicked a cross from Chris O'Grady through the legs of Ben Alnwick in Posh's goal. The rest of the first half saw Posh create the better chances with Casper Ankergen in the denying Conor Washington with a brilliant save and Britt Assombalonga coming close, but not close enough on several occasions. Asombalonga picked himself up in the second half though and headed home from a Taylor corner early in the second half. Posh also introduced 9 new faces to the team and although the startin...

Yesterday the hot preseason continued with Peterborough taking on Brighton at London Road. Here are a few photos from the game, a few more and match report to follow. Peterborough push forward. Posh get ready for a free kick. The second half starts

What do you do on a wet and windy day by the seaside when you are sick of the amusements and fish and chips? Go to the local museum of course. Earlier this week I was down in Brighton for a break rather than the tedious work trips that take place in Brighton. The second day was pretty rubbish as far as the weather was concerned and we found ourselves in the local museum. Now don't get me wrong I enjoy a bit of history, but local museums tend to have the same series of themes running through them: A bit of history about how the town was formed (i.e. Vikings / Saxons / Normans, etc.); some famous battle (War of the Roses, Civil War); a look at the towns glory years and some of the harsh realities of the time (Usually always the Victorian era) and then some stuff about the two world wars abd their aftermath and its impact on the local community. Therefore I was pleasently surprised that in Brighton as well as the usual stuff there was a lot more about the more social side of histor...