football rambles

 There was a definite feeling of deja vu about this game as Downham again dominated and looked by far the better team in the first half. Despite Downham using the wide men more than going down the centre, they could easily have been 2-0 up after 20 minutes if it hadn't been for the Mildenhall keeper and som of the shots had had a little more power to them. However, as the game progressed and Downham didn't make the most of their chances, Mildenhall started to grow into the game. Infact, if it wasn't for a brilliant save from Congreve, who is now the third keeper to play for Downham this season, it could have been Mildenhall going in ahead at the break. However, the first half finished with both teams failing to score and Downham were probably the team who could feel most aggrieved by not finishing their chances. The second half saw Mildenhall have a lot more of the ball, but their best chances seemed to be made from mistakes by the Downham defence. For Downham Charlie Royle...

 Well, with one thing and another I am only just managing now to catch up with last weekend's games, which started off with Ely taking on Mildenhall in the FA Vase. After a convincing win against March just 3 days before confidence appeared to be high in the team. However despite their best efforts, they didn't manage to get past Mildenhall, who despite having lost the previous two games would have been the favourites. An early goal by Tanner Call settled the game, but both teams had their chances. Ely may have felt slightly aggrieved given that they seemed to have the ball over the line near the end, but this time the decision didn't go their way. 

The stand at Mildenhall's Recreation Way ground. Ely warm up before the game. It's looking like it is going to be a long hard season for Ely City, who are still without a point never mind a win in the Eastern Counties League. I have been away on holiday, but the reports that I have heard are far from encouraging. The team, with the exception of James Seymour, Ian Walter- who has stepped up from the reserves and Richard Gammon who has returned to the fold are pretty much unknown to me at the moment. In fact Richard Gammon went off early with an injury and was replaced by Ian Walter. Of the mass of players who left at the end of the season Chris Sterecki and Adam Murray have gone to Tuesday's opponents Mildenhall, but only Sterecki was playing on Tuesday night. Despite this game ultimately ending in defeat there were some encouraging signs. Ely over the last few seasons have had a bit of a reputation of being a bunch of route 1 bruisers, but at least there were som...

While I was away Ely only registered one win out of four and so I went to this game with not much optimism of the Robins getting a decent result. There doesn't seem to be that many changes in the playing squad and the biggest change seems to be a diversion from the traditional all red kit to an all maroon one. It does however look like it is going to be a long hard season though. Bearing all that in mind, it didn't really come as a great shock when Mildenhall opened the scoring from a scrambled in corner on 12 minutes. However, Ely showed a lot of resilience to come back and equalise on 19 minutes from a terrific volleyed effort by Adam Claydon. After this the possession seemed to equal out, but it was Mildenhall who again took the lead on 90 minutes from a diving header at the far post. Ely did have the chance to go in at half time on level terms, but Mildenhall managed to scramble the ball off the line in stoppage time after a flurry of chances in the box. It was the vi...

When it gets to the middle of March you might expect a bit of rain and it might be a bit cold, but you don't expect it to be sub zero Antarctic weather. I've been to games in March that have been freezing in Ukraine and Russia, but really I was expecting the weather to be a bit better at this time of the season. Anyhow, last night Ely took on Mildenhall in a fixture that is traditionally a bank holiday derby, but the fixtures meant a trip from Woodbridge on a Tuesday wouldn't be great for them so the bank holiday Monday fixture was swapped around. Ely got off to a good enough start and put on most of the pressure in the first half, although Hall were quick on the counter attack and broke through the offside trap on several occasions. The visitors broke dangerously for the first real chance of the game in the 8th minute, but in this instance was caught offside. Ely were also causing problems in the opposite end and a power shot from Nick Impey in the 20th minute was defl...

Today it didn't start raining until later in the afternoon, so it was a good job that Ely's trip to Mildenhall was scheduled for 11 o'clock and although it was cold it was sunny. At the start of the day Mildenhall were top of the league, and Ely were 13th. However, Ely after a poor start to the season have managed to put a decent run of results together and due to the bad weather and an extended run in the Vase they have a fair few games in hand. We were hoping for a belated decking of the Hall, but it was always going to be a tough game. Mildenhall were the team who were fastest out of the blocks and came close from a free kick on 6 minutes. Ely managed to get into the game at about the quarter of an hour mark when Porky Claydon came close with a header. The game was then end to end stuff, but it was Mildenhall who took the lead on 20 minutes when Kris Thomas put the hosts ahead. They only stayed in the lead for 2 minutes though when Adam Murray forced a diving save f...

Today was an FA Cup day, but as Ely were handed an away match on the other side of Northampton we decided to stay in the Eastern Counties League with a match at the Abbey Stadium between CRC and Mildenhall. The game started off with some bad weather, but was clear enough for the first couple of minutes. However for the first 10 minutes or so, the weather got worse .... ... and worse for the first 10 minutes. We did get a bit of a rest bite from the weather though and Mildenhall seemed to settle into the game first of all. On 13 minutes they wasted a gilt-edged chance, but the greasy pitch could have been to blame for this. CRC came back at them and had a decent chance on 18 minutes, but Pope in the Mildenhall goal was as always on excellent form. For the first 35 minutes Hall had the better chances, but were often caught offside. CRC on the other hand looked skilled, but often gave the ball away cheaply when in the Hall half. How the game would have played out though we won...

Ely got the New Year off with a home win today against local rivals Mildenhall Town and despite Ely sitting in 3rd and Mildenhall being in the lower half of the table it wasn't all one way traffic. For the first 20 minutes Ely did dominate possession and the long throw ins from Ben Lawrence and Lewis McDonald as well as a number of corners for Ely put Mildenhall under the kosh. Mildenhall on the other hand couldn't really get past the Ely offside trap or Ben Lawrence who was in impressive form in central defence. That said the only real chance that Ely had came on 19 minutes when Austen Diaper tried to connect with Richard Chadwick, but some how the ball didn't go in. Mildenhall then started to get into the game and appeared to have a shout for a penalty when the ball bounced up and hit McDonald's arm. The decision could have been ball to hand or hand to ball. The referee decided to rule in Ely's favour much to the outrage of the Hall fans in the crowd. Things could...

... And not much goalmouth action were the order of the day at the local derby between Ely and Mildenhall today, which ended in a 0-0 draw. The wind, sun and bounce of the hard pitch made it hard for the teams to settle in the first half and get the run of the game. In the second half the end of a long season, with both teams no longer having anything meaningful to play for seemed to be the main factor. It didn't always look like the game was heading for a 0-0 draw though, especially when after 6 minutes the Hall had the ball in the back of the net. It was given as offside though, but it was very marginal. In fact for the first time in a long while Ely were back to living dangerously by employing an offside trap that past experience can tell us can often end in tears. Anyway, 4 minutes later Ely had a chance to go into the lead, but Luke Parkinson put the ball into orbit rather than into the back of the net. On 22 minutes Luke Parkinson had another chance to put Ely in the lead whe...

Tomorrow is Easter Monday and Ely take on Mildenhall in the traditional bank holiday fixture. That said, although the Easter Monday game usually goes off without a hitch the Christmas / New Year game is usually a rearranged fixture. Over the three seasons that I have lived in Ely, the two teams have been quite equally balanced. This season sees Mildenhall in the ascendancy though. With just two games to go they currently lie in fourth place in the league and have just won the Cambs Invitation Cup for the second year in a row. Earlier in the season they applied to go to the next level, but they seem to have put that idea on hold. Not least I expect because their ground is a little bit crap. It will be the fourth time I have visited this fixture. The first one was on the Easter Bank Holiday of 2009 when Ely lost 4-2 after some almighty whingeing and mad, mad refereeing. Then last season the game at the Unwin was a rescheduled game from Boxing Day that was held on an awful night in Februa...

Last night's game was entertaining enough and Ely deserved to come away with at least a point. The game started off well with both teams creating chances on what was a skiddy and fast surface. However, it was Mildenhall who drew first blood and went ahead on 20 minutes when ex-Ely player John Sands put the ball in the back of the net. After a few more good chances for both sides Ely scored an equaliser on 34 minutes when James Wallace piled the ball in from a 35 yard free kick. Ely could have easily been a head just four minutes later when Chris Sterecki was clear through only to be foiled by the last defender. Unfortunately, the half ended in a bit of stupidity when Richard Chadwick clashed in what looked like an accident with the Mildenhall goalkeeper, it didn't appear that the Mildenhall players and referee agreed and he got booked and Robbie Mason followed him after giving it some back chat. The second half started off lively enough and it was Ely who dominated for long per...

In the right of the photo is the stand at Mildenhall, unfortunately the light was not really up to it, so I changes it to black and white.

Last night saw Mildenhall take on Ely City in the rearranged Boxing Day Derby game, so we went on the relatively short journey. I didn't really know what to expect. They finished second in the league a few years ago, but the money ran out and they seem to have been mid-table ever since. They are a club with ambition, some might say delusions of grandeur: they have applied for promotion despite being in midtable and there being rumours that they couldn't even pay the cleaning lady last month. The ground is a bit of a strange one and despite them wanting to get to Step 4, it looks more like a Step 6 ground when you get in there. As you enter the ground on the left hand side of the pitch is a small covered terrace, a clubhouse and a very small stand, which consists of three rows of benches and offers restricted view if anybody is ordering from the tea hatch. The rest of the ground is open and unterraced. They obviously have some commercial ideas though, as they had a decent stall ...

Last night it was freezing and persisting down, but I had already signed up for a Saturday of work drudgery so there was no way I was missing the chance of a match. Another Tuesday and another rescheduled local Derby as Ely took on Mildenhall Town. As I said the weather was dreadful and for some reason the programme hadn't turned up. Luckily I've got over my programme dependency thanks to the fact I've probably lost most of my Ukrainian and Korean programmes on my travels, but it's still always nice to get one. When I arrived at the ground the referee was in the middle of his fourth pitch inspection and Mildenhall were trying to convince the ref to have the game called off, which seemed a bit strange as it was Ely who had several players missing including the talismanic Robbie Mason. Anyway, it seems that Mildenhall's worries were well founded as Ely took an early lead when David Smith scored on 9 minutes. The rest of the first half saw the home team having slightly...

The result of Ely's game against Mildenhall yesterday was the same result as the reserves on Saturday a 4-2 defeat. If the manner of it wasn't that unusual, some dreadful defending and petulance on the part of the players, the rest of the game was a bit strange. Not least of all in that there was a fairly big crowd and Sean actually behaved himself Simon Charlton, the new Mildenhall manager must have wondered what he had got himself into when Richard Chadwick headed Ely ahead on 8 minutes, but Ely couldn't keep their lead and a couple of minutes later a fantastic free kick from Gareth Simpson found it's way into the top left corner. On 25 minutes Ely's misery was compounded when Simpson put the visitors ahead. Ely continued to fight but couldn't pull a goal back and went in at the break 2-1 down. Trevor Munns obviously told Ely to put up a fight in the second half, but perhaps they shouldn't have taken his advice so literally. Ely certainly came out fighting...

On Monday Ely will take on Mildenhall Town who ome from just over the border in Suffolk. At the time of writing they are 5 points above Ely, but have had a terrible run of late, but ould be buoyed by new manager Simon Charlton. The town of Mildenhall is perhaps more famous for its speedway team the Fen Tigers, who take their name from the mythial beast that roams the Fens occassionally killing sheep and who comes in handy on slow news days when local journalist can interview someone who swears they have seen the beast after 12 pints of Speckled Hen. Anyway, Mildenhall also wear yellow and black, but go under the nickname 'the hall'. They were formed in 1898 and had quite an undistinguished existence in first the Bury and District League and then the Cambridgeshire League, which they joined in 1969 and reached the Premier of in 1975. In 1988 they joined the newly formed Eastern Counties League and had to upgrade their ground, which they had done by the start of the 1994-5 season...