football rambles

 On Saturday I went on what was a surprisingly arduous journey to Dereham to see two of the stronger teams in the division take on each other and it was a fairly even match, which although scrappy at times saw both teams have chances. It didn't look like that would be the case at the start of the game though. Shortly after kick off George Diggins was brought down in the box by the keeper and awarded a penalty. The Dereham keeper saved though, so it remained 0-0. That didn't las long though as a couple of minutes after Diggins got through again and managed to put Thetford in the lead. It was only surprising that there were no further goals in the game and it ended 1-0 to the visitors who maintained their lead at the top of the table.

 Downham managed to put the disappointment of losing to Castle Acre in midweek behind them with a fine win over a strong Dereham side on Saturday. They didn't make it easy on themselves though with Jake Miller getting sent off before halftime for the second league game in a row. Dereham started the better of the two teams but Downham grew into it. They probably had the majority of the play in first half, but there were no real openings as Downham seemed to want to walk it into the goal. Given the number of long range shots they've scored from this season, you'd think that they would perhaps shoot on site more often. The second half saw midfielder Eoin McQuaid taken off with Ben Smith coming to try and plug the gap in defence left by Miller's dismissal. If Dereham thought that Downham were going to settle for a draw though they were very mistaken. Downham took the game by the scruff of the neck and try and push for a winner. Rudy Da Rocha was especially giving a slow Der...

Tuesday night Ely took on Champions elect Dereham Town and with the retirement of Nick Impey and several key injuries it looked like Ely might struggle. Ely had the first chance though when Chadwick came close on 5 minutes, but Dereham looked particularly effective down the left wing. The equilibrium and balance of the game was about to change though when a minute later there was an altercation between Coe and a Dereham player, which led to both of them seeing red. If that wasn't bad enough something happened in the tunnel between the two players and one of the Dereham players charged down there. This resulted in a 22 man brawl. The referee went off in a huff and it looked like the game might be abandoned. They managed to sort out their differences though and 20 minutes later they were back on the pitch. The referee was clearly not going to take any more and when Ben Lawrence went in with a strong tackle he also picked up a booking. The result was that the sting was completely...

Yesterday Ely took on a strong Dereham side at the Unwin and the team played a lot better than they have of late, but unfortunateley they didn't get the reslult needed. All the team played well, but Lee Dixon and Nick Impey probably impressed the most. Ely fell behind early on with Dereham scoring from their first attack of the match on 4 minuites. However the Robins showed determination and a beautifully taken shot by Nick Impey that was both powerful and accurate put the teams on level terms on 18 minuites. One of the most pleasing things about the first half performance was that the players didn't let their heads drop when they went behind and the midfield was engaged with the match and equal to a Dereham side who beat them 3-1 a couple of weeks ago and who are unbeaten this season. The second half was also pretty evenly balanced game with Robbie Mason and Andy Pettit both coming close and Lee Pacey making a couple of good saves from the Dereham forwards. The midfield might ...

Last night in Ely's 3-1 defeat to Dereham Town the ref was really the star performer with a series of strange decisions. First of all was Ely's goal. It wasn't clear who scored it and in fact it didn't even appear to cross the line, but the goal was given and we were glad for the Ely lead. Obviously a few minutes later the ref saw the error of his ways and decided to give Dereham a penalty with an imaginary hand ball in the box. So at half time it was 1-1 with neither of the goals being deserved. The second half started off with Ely somehow contriving to concede a corner from the kick off and a headed goal going in for Dereham. This was probably the only deserved goal of the game and was certainly the only one the ref wasn't involved in. It did however underline that although the ref made himself be the pantomine villain there were plenty of attitude problems in the Ely squad and players who were performing under par. The third goal for Dereham was due to a strange ...