football rambles

 Well, I have been to a lot of poor games this season including the Solihull Moors one the day before. However, this one was a classic and one that will live in the memories of both sets of fans, but probably longer in Villa fans'.  The game got off to a blistering start when John McGinn found Ollie Watkins in space and crossed the ball for him to head home with only two minutes on the clock. However, if Villa thought it was going to be a rout, they were to be mistaken as Chris Rigg scored on 9 minutes to make it 1-1. For the next period of time Sunderland looked the better of the two teams, but with just under 10 minutes left in the half Ian Maatsen found Ollie Watkins in space for him to head home and put Villa in the lead. Finally, Villa really had the bit between their teeth and looked to increase their advantage before halftime. the second half started as the first half had finished and with the half only 2 minutes old, a lovely placed shot saw Morgan Rogers put Villa 3-1...

On Sunday we were walking past Bramall Lane and we could hear the music on, so thought something must be going on. As it happened Sheffield United were taking on Sunderland in the Women's Super League 2. So what else was I going to do, but get some tickets and check it out? The game itself was exciting enough, but both teams were let down by some poor finishing and action in the final third. Sunderland started off the stronger of the two sides and dominated for the first half an hour and managed to hit the crossbar. United came back into it from that point and were guilty of missing a sitter with both teams going in at the break goalless. Sheffield United started off the second half quite strongly, but the introduction of Sunderland substitutes and in particular Ellen Jones, who looked really lively and started to open up the Blades' defence. The game was ultimately settled in the 85th minute when Jones set up Eleanor Dale for the winner. The goalie perhaps could have done a bi...

 It could be argued that League 1 isn't  a natural fit for either of these clubs, but for very different reasons. Sunderland have aspirations of being in the Premier League and definitely have the support and ground for this, while Cambridge are currently punching above their weight. They are where they are though and Cambridge have already proved this season that they can bloody the nose of more illustrious opponents, they have also proved that they can fold against anyone too, so it really was a game where you couldn't predict what would happen. However, it was the wind that seemed to play the biggest part in the game. Sunderland had the wind giving them the upper hand in the first half and  Alex Pritchard made the most of it to steer the ball in and confuse the U's keeper Dimitar Mitov enough to put the ball in his own net. Cambridge battled back though and Sam Smith equalised on 27 minutes before Nathan Broadhead again used the wind to his advantage to give the Black ...

Brad Guzan - 6 - wasn't that busy and couldn't do too much about the Sunderland goals. His distribution as always was pretty awful though. Alan Hutton - 6 -I am not a big fan of Hutton, but he got forward and provided crosses and defended well when needed. Jordan Amavi - 7 - this guy is something special. Defended well, terrorised the defence and set up Sinclair for his second. Ciaran Clark - 5 - didn't always clear his lines and wasn't that inspiring. Micah Richards - 5- ball watching in defence and to keen to go forward without giving anything up front when he did. Carlos Sanchez -9 - a brilliant performance. He seems to be finally living up to his reputation in Colombia. Ashley Westwood - 6- has bags of ability and showed some great ability, but he needs to go forwards as well as sideways, especially against clubs like Sunderland. Leandro Bacuna - 5 - did a lot of running, but more in the headless chicken rather than in a good way. Was subbed for Carles Gil. Idrisse ...

On Saturday we went to Villa to see Villa take on Sunderland. Hopefully, it's too early to call this a must win game as Villa did everything but win it. The statistics show that Villa dominated, but despite having a collection of decent players aren't quite a team yet. The game got off to a frantic start, but Villa went behind to a superb free kick by M'Vila. Sunderland's lead was short lived though as on 11 minutes, just 3 after the visitors took the lead Scott Sinclair was fouled and took the resulting penalty to restore parity. After this it was an onslaught by Villa with Amavi and Gana creating a spark in midfield with Sanchez also passing the ball around well. Unfortunately, despite his aerial presence Gestede didn't seem to be able to get on the end of anything and you can't help but think that with Benteke it would have been a different story. Not that big Rudy is completely to blame, if some of the other players had looked for a shot instead of a pass ( ...

I  bought these teams in the 1980s from a couple of lads on a market stall who had clearly outgrown the hobby. I can tell that the teams came from 1976 - 1980 due to the boxes that they came in and the fact that they are still clearly hand painted. Sunderland Sunderland achieved promotion in 1976, but despite topping the table for a while they went straight back down. Celtic Celtic were champions of Scotland every year between 1976 and 1982, which is perhaps not that surprising. It was a time when Danny McGrain and Kenny Dalglish were playing for the hoops. The picture below shows Celtic celebrating winning the Scottish FA Cup in 1977. Brazil In the 1978 World Cup there was only ever going to be one winner and the military junta in host nation Argentina were going to make sure that they won it. In the second group stage after a violent 0-0 draw with Argentina, both teams needed a win. A lot has been made of the 0-0 draw played out by Germany and Austria b...