football rambles

 This was another good performance that could have easily been turned into 3 points by the home team against a strong Wroxham side, who are doing pretty well in the league. Both sides had plenty of chances in the first half, but it was Wroxham who struck first with a goal from Asa McGeachey on the 23rd minute. It was a pity as Downham had been playing well and passing it around with confidence in the first half. Up front Charlie Royle was causing all sorts of problems for the Wroxham defence, with him back in a wide position rather than the more central position he's been playing lately. It was Royle who equalised on 34 minutes with a fantastic strike from distance that gave the keeper no chance. The second half saw chances few and far between with both sides cancelling each other out. One positive is that in this game Downham held their own against one of the stronger teams in the division and this came on the back of a win away at Stanway on Saturday.  

 It's been a while since I have made the trip up the road to Thetford for a game, mainly due to the pandemic, but also because they always seem to clash with Ely games. This time though both Ely teams were away, so it was a good opportunity to visit a club that I have enjoyed watching in the past and a clubhouse that I also really like.  The clubhouse was great and after a Shed Head, I also sank a few Stellas. The game was also good and exceeded expectations in front of a really decent crowd. Wroxham ahead of the game were second in the league - and still are with Ely losing to leaders Gorleston on the same day - and Town had what can be best described as a patched up team. The game however was pretty equally matched. Thetford actually started off the brightest, but as the half progressed Wroxham grew into the game and took the lead through Ryan Miles on 24 minutes - no wonder he's keeping Grant Holt out of the starting line up!  Thetford initially responded well, but Wro...

At least this includes a photo of CRC on the attack.

The photos here all show Wroxham on the attack and one where they have just missed the target. It was impossible to take any photos of CRC attacks because of the angle of the sun.

Here follows a few photos from CRC V Wroxham. This one is from the team line up.

Yesterday we saw a game that led to Ely going back to the top of the league without seeing Ely play. The game in question was CRC V Wroxham at the Abbey. It was the first footballing Saturday of Spring and when the weather improves at the tail end of the season the local non-league football starts to deteriorate, mainly because the teams I follow never have much to play for. This season is different though with Ely challenging at the top of the Eastern Counties Premier and Thetford going for promotion from the first. They both have finals to look forward to with Ely taking on Soham in the Cambridgeshire Invitation Cup and Thetford facing Gorleston in the Norfolk Cup. Yesterday CRC who are in 4th might have been excused for taking their foot off the pedal a bit, especially after a fixture full couple of weeks and playing on a particularly hot day. Wroxham on the other hand have everything to play for and are hopeful of promotion to the Ryman League. Therefore it was a bit of a shock tha...

Last night Ely took on Wroxham in a game that would go a long way to decide who would win the Eastern Counties League. It is a comment on just how far Ely have come this season that we are now considering them as possible Champions. We started the season hoping that they would pick up enough points to stay up, when that milestone was met we hoped for mid table security and the more recently we've been talking about top 3 and now we are considering them for the championship. Standing their way are Wroxham who had a chance to close the gap yesterday. The match started at a frantic speed and was played at a break neck speed for the whole 96 minutes that it lasted. Ely had a couple of decent chances at the start with Chadwick coming close from a long throw on 5 minutes and Wroxham goalkeeper Scott Howie made a fantastic save with his feet from Josh Bridgeman on 12. Ely were going to have to do better than that though to beat the best keeper in the league, who once cost Norwich City £30...

Premier Division : League Table Ely City 31 21 7 3 66 38 +28 70 Wroxham 29 20 5 4 71 23 +48 65 Brantham Athletic 31 20 4 7 73 37 +36 64 Wisbech Town 29 18 3 8 65 41 +24 57 CRC 33 17 6 10 72 53 +19 57 Norwich United 31 15 7 9 44 34 +10 52 Dereham Town 30 16 3 11 56 42 +14 51 Stanway Rovers 30 15 4 11 60 43 +17 49 FC Clacton 29 15 4 10 57 46 +11 49 Mildenhall Town 31 14 5 12 61 51 +10 47 Haverhill Rovers 30 14 4 12 62 54 +8 46 Woodbridge Town 31 12 8 11 62 48 +14 44 Hadleigh United 32 12 5 15 60 66 -6 41 Gorleston 28 11 6 11 43 50 -7 39 Diss Town 31 10 7 14 30 41 -11 37 Felixstowe & Walton 30 10 6 14 54 51 +3 36 Kirkley & Pakefield 33 8 9 16 50 57 -7 33 Walsham 31 8...

Ely are now 8 points clear at the top of the Eastern Counties League after some fine away wins at Newmarket and Hadleigh. Tonight they take on fellow contenders Wroxham at the Unwin.

Last night Ely took on Wroxham in what could only be called by the media as a good old fashioned game of football. The game was played in the freezing cold on a pitch that has seen better days, especially after a few days of torrential rain and was big on commitment and the more physical side of the game. I wasn't sure whether to applaud the referee for letting the game flow or be a bit appauled for him only giving out two yellow cards and a straight red. The only thing that the game lacked was a few goals. In fact there weren't any goals, but it was an entertaining enough affair and Ely would probably have settled for a 0-0 draw before the game started. As I suggested before there were a lot of hard tackles going in during the game, some which were fair, but would have probably been penalised at a higher level and some which were definitely outside the laws of football. One criticism that could be levelled towards Wroxham is that they gave away a lot of freekicks that put thei...

It's been a quietcouple of weeks on the live football front, although there has been plenty of it on the TV. Last Saturday I was working and yesterday there wasn't much locally on and most of the matches got hit by the torrential rain. So it was good news when I heard that Ely have got a rearranged match against Wroxham on Tuesday. It's going to be a tricky game for the Robins against one of the in form sides of the Eastern Counties League. Wroxham are currently in second place in the League and have been consistently in the top 6 for the last 20 years. Last year they also reached the FA Vase final where they lost to to Whitley Bay. Wroxham were formed in 1892 by a Mr.G.E Preston who was the ex-captain of the Norfolk team. Their original colours were pink and black, so the current players are probably glad that at some point in the past they changed their colours to blue and white. They did however also gain the nickname 'The Yachtsmen' pretty early on in their hist...

On Tuesday night Ely City took on Wroxham in the FA Cup Preliminary Round replay. The game was only been being played because despite Ely being 2-0 up in the game on Saturday and then they let Wroxham get back to 2-2 despite Wroxham being down to ten men. Anyway, as you may have guessed a mid week cup tie at the Unwin was never going to be settled after just 90 minutes and I had taken both the kids with me, so I'm expecting the NSPCC to knock on the door at any moment. The first half was a fairly turgid affair with neither side really getting a grasp on the game, although Richard Chadwick was causing some problems for the Wroxham defence. However, the deadlock never really looked like being broken and at half time at 0-0. The second half was more of the same, although Simon Warren finally broke the deadlock on 72 minutes. Ely needed to shut up shop and keep a rather impotent Wroxham at bay. However, they didn't manage to keep them out and on 80 minutes Wroxham equalised. There ...

Ely brought their losing streak to an end last week with a 1-0 away win at Walsham Le Willows, however they couldn't improve again this week and like in the last game with CRC they played well, but couldn't get a result. Ely started off brightly enough and the game was fairly open until the 28th minute when Badcock in the Ely goal seemed to catch the ball from a Wroxham cross and then throw it in to the back of his net. It wasyet another embarrassing mistake that saw the Robins go a goal behing. Wroxham then went on to extend their lead with a superb volley at the end of the first half. Again luck wasn't with Ely, there could be no arguements with the goal which was really well taken, but the ball bounced fotuitously for the Yachtsmen to extend their lead. The second half started with Ely conceding a penalty after the ball was handled in the box - 3-0 to Wroxham. It didn't look like the Robins would get back in to the game, but with the return of Nick Impey, who started...