football rambles

 After a disappointing result against Harrogate last week, the Us looked to get back to winning ways when Bristol Rovers visited on Saturday. It was the first day of the year that it hadn't rained here and we actually saw some sunshine too. The game started off in a scrappy manner and it was The Gas who created the first chance in the first minute, when Cambridge goalkeeper Jake Eastwood foiled an attempt from Fabrizio Cavegn. It was then pretty much end to end stuff despite the whistle happy referee doing his best to break up the play. When Cambridge broke through on 34 minutes with Ben Knight finishing off a move started by Sullay Kaikai, you felt that they would be able to turn the screw a bit and add to their advantage. Indeed Kaikai should have made it 2-0 a few minutes later only to see his shot go wide.  The referee had other ideas and with the last play of the half awarded a penalty to Joe Quigley, who fell over in the box after a long throw and 'won' the penalty. H...

 After losing to Stevenage on Tuesday it was back to the Abbey to see if Cambridge could bounce back against Bristol Rovers. They did and in doing so went to the top of the league. It is obviously early doors and Cambridge are probably still amongst the favourites to go down, it is important for them to get points early on, as teams with smaller squads do go through a rough patch at some point in the season when injuries and fatigue start to set in. Anyway, probably best to enjoy the Us being at the top of the league for now! The game itself was pretty frustrating for the most part. Neither side created much in the first half. Rovers had the majority of the possession, but didn't seem in any hurry to force the issue and actually go for goal. Cambridge meanwhile didn't seem like they could breakthrough a sturdy Rovers back line, who were too often allowed to mess around with the ball at the back. In the opening games I had been impressed with Gassan Ahadme up front, but he seeme...

 Things got off to a surprise start in the game against Bristol Rovers on Saturday, but ultimately it was a case of the same old story at the Abbey. Sam Smith opened the scoring for the Us on the 5th minute after he met a fine cross from Harvey Knibbs to put the ball in the back of the net. It made a nice change for Cambridge to score never mind take the lead. However, it was not to last. On 21 minutes Josh Coburn got the equaliser after Cambridge had had the early pressure. Rovers second shot on target was their second goal when Scott Sinclair rolled back the years to give the visitors the lead with a well taken goal that went under Will Mannion.  For the rest of the game it followed a familiar pattern where Cambridge huffed and puffed and created very little. You'd have to hope that Mark Bonner has a creative midfielder on his January shopping list to fill the Wes Hoolihan shaped hole in the team.

 On Saturday we took the long trek across country from Ely to Bristol. Another weekend of train strikes and no other games that were remotely interesting anywhere that we could have got to led to us making this decision. That said, I had been planning one mental away trip and as this one was at least winnable on paper it seemed like worth going to. However, taking the coach did mean that we left at 7:30 am and got back at midnight. The Bristol Rovers ground is  worth a visit, if just because it is so weird. Understandably the one stand looks like a rugby stand given that for most of its history Memorial Stadium was the home of Bristol Rugby Club.  The stand opposite the away end at least resembles a traditional terrace To the left of the away end is something that looks more like a cricket pavilion And then you have the away stand and one next to the cricket pavilion that look like the type of temporary seating that you might see at a carnival or parade. As for the footba...

 On Saturday we went to what was probably one of the lesser glamorous ties in the FA Cup Third Round, as Peterborough, who are struggling in the Championship took on League 2 Bristol Rovers, both teams had been hit by Covid outbreaks, so had missed quite a few games going into this one. for a number of reasons, this was my first trip to London Road since November 2019 when the Posh beat Burton in League 1. Recently, we have been following Cambridge more and ironically they had the glamour tie of  Newcastle away, which they won 1-0. Meanwhile at London Road, Peterborough were quick getting out of the blocks and Bristol Rovers also looked pretty determined. Neither team looked like they were  particularly rusty. It did however take Peterborough a while to put together a proper attack and force a goal. Well, 20 minutes, but to be honest I had been expecting quite an easy win! Sammy Szmodics, who was on great form scored the opening goal and he was causing all sorts of proble...

Peterborough get the second half underway. Peterborough attack. Aaron McLean (number 9) tries to recover from his celebration which made it 2-0. He and George Boyd (number 10) celebrated that one for a few minutes!

Yesterday saw the start of the season for the league excluding the Premier league and step 5 and 6 of non-league football. Ely were away, so I went to London Road to see Peterborough take on Bristol Rovers. Last season was a bit of a nightmare for Peterborough with a managerial merry go round and relegation from the Championship looking almost certain as early as Christmas. Posh were relegated back to League 1, but they have managed to keep star players George Boyd and Aaron McLean and added some signings that make the club look stronger than when they played in the Championship. Also with Gary Johnson taking over as the manager they have a very experienced and able leader. That said, it was hard to predict before kick off what the score would be with Bristol Rovers being one of the dark horses of the division. From the start it looked like Bristol Rovers were going to try and contain Peterborough and hit them on the break. The first 20 minutes was quite a turgid affair, but after that...

When you think of quartered shirts you usually think of Rugby. However, a lot of football clubs also had quartered shirts in the nineteenth century. Strangely though the club that most famously wear this pattern in England, Bristol Rovers, didn't start wearing their distinctive blue and white quarters until 1931. Bristol Rovers started off life as the Black Arabs in 1883 and wore a black shirt with a gold sash. In 1893 the Black Arabs became Eastville Rovers and wore white with black shorts and later a sort of dirty green and yellow halved shirt. In 1897 they became known as Bristol Eastville Rovers and one year later became simply Bristol Rovers. From 1897 to 1900 the club wore blue and white hoops. Bristol Rovers alternated between kits of black and white stripes and blue and white hoops during the first 31 years of the 20th Century and then in 1931 they introduced the blue and white quarters for the first time. The shirt design became that iconic that Bristol Rovers didn't b...