football rambles

 Last night Downham took on Castle Acre in the second round of the Norfolk Senior Cup. The banner behind where I was standing announced that Downham were the current holders of the cup and most of the talk around me was about how many Downham were going to win by. You could perhaps understand the confidence with Downham showing some good form especially, especially at home, in the Eastern Counties League Premier with Castle Acre having an average time 3 divisions below in Division 1 of the Anglia Combination. The confidence however was misplaced. Downham started off the brighter of the two teams and had several chances. However, it was Castle Acre who hit them on the break after a period of concerted pressure to take the lead on 13 minutes. Castle Acre remained a danger with some quick counterattacks but Downham continued to pile on the pressure. They hit the woodwork twice and the keeper was forced into some fine saves. Downham did get the equaliser eventually in the last minute of th

 In this game Downham scored a couple of wonder goals with Valtar Da Rocha giving them the lead and Harley Murkin rounding off the game with a goal late in the second half after he had come on as sub. The other goal came from Nick Castellan in stoppage time in the first half. I also thought that Sivakumar had a really good game. Despite the result, the win wasn't as straightforward as it sounds, although some of that was down to the referee rather than a concerted effort by Long Melford. When one Melford player went down like he'd been shot, Downham right back, Jake Miller got his marching orders. The fact that referee didn't appear to see what had happened was more infuriating and at the time Downham who were 1-0 up were looking at playing with 10 players for more than an hour. The referee did even things up in the second half when he sent off a Melford player with 30 minutes left, again for something innocuous.  A good game and a good win for Downham, but why do referees

 The rain poured down for the entirety of this game between my new local team and old local team and it was the new local team who were singing in the rain. Downham completely outplayed Ely in the first half. They played a good passing game and should have been 3 or 4 up at halftime. Sivakumar put the Town up on 11 minutes from a wonder shot. Unfortunately other opportunities were ruled offside or incorrectly not over the line, so it was only 1-0 at the break. In the second half Downham were a lot less composed and allowed Ely to come at them. They were still the better team, but did allow Ely to have a fair few chances by being less composed, maybe because of the driving rain. That didn't matter in the end as the Ely keeper thought he was Neuer rushed out to the half way line to make a clearance, realised he wasn't Neuer and sliced the ball to Murkin who scored to make it 2-0 in stoppage time.

 Despite being just 10 miles away, I went on the convoluted trip of a train to King's Lynn and then a bus to Wisbech in order to get to the game on Saturday. I had been meaning to go to the Fenland Stadium since it opened 10 years ago, but this was the first time I actually mad it. After some light refreshments in town, we made our way up yet another Lynn Road to get to what was a pretty nice little ground.  Neither team had really been setting the league alight this season with Wisbech having won their first game of the season the week before when they put four past Sleaford. I decided to stand with the away fans, just out of a bit of Midlands solidarity and that I used to enjoy the Bass Charity Shield at Gresley back in the 80s. It seemed particularly fitting after the passing of Gary Shaw, who I saw play for Villa at their ground. As a few games have already been this season, this was a game of two halves. Gresley looked like they had the taking of Wisbech in the first half and

 Finally a home game across the road I could go to. Due to sharing with a cricket team, Downham have been playing away games since the last time I went there after just moving in in April. They did have one other home game, but I was in Italy at the time. Stowmarket are a team that I also saw at the end of last season when they were relegated Isthmian North back into the Eastern Counties Premier. On that occasion they lost to Enfield 4-0, who themselves were also relegated but to the Essex Senior League. On Saturday's performance it doesn't look like they are going to turn much around despite now being in a league lower. Downham dominated the first half and could have been 5 or 6 up. Stowmarket managed a solitary shop that was easily saved. Downham went in at the break two goals to the good, Rudy Da Rocha scoring the first and Harley Murkin marking his debut with a goal. Chances were few and far between in the second half, but Downham must have felt it was job well done and it

 Last week was a quiet week for football with me between a forest and the sea on the Tuscan coast. It was also an international break, so football chances were limited. We visited the Leaning Tower in nearby Pisa, but spotted not far away were the floodlights of Arena Garibaldi, so I had to go and have a look. Pisa are currently top of Serie B, but it is early days yet. I remember them being in Serie A in the 1980s when Paul Elliot went and joined them and then when I went to Italy they were on the verge of bankruptcy in C1. Their fate seems to always be in direct opposition to nearby rivals Livorno. Livorno are currently in Serie D, so can Pisa get back to Serie A? I'll be watching to see how that progresses.