football rambles

 A nice sunny day saw Downham take on early league leaders Stowmarket at the Memorial Fields. Stowmarket started the game showing why they were top of the league going into the game. Downham faced attack after attack. Fortunately, Charlie Congreve in goals for Downham kept them at bay. The game was turned on its head in the 41 minute when Tobi Lawal was brought down as the last man by Hayden Baker and was given a red card. Lawal had been the one player who had been giving Stowmarket something to think about. One criticism of Stowmarket, who clearly have a good team is that they can be quite physical. Things got worse for Stow on the stroke of half time when Eoin Mc.Quaid scrambled the ball home to give Downham the lead going into the break. The second half saw Downham take control of the match with the man advantage, although chances were few and far between for both teams. At one point Downham had a two man advantage when another Stow player was sinbinned for 10 minutes, but they ...

 This was my first FA Cup game of the season as Hitchin welcomed Leiston to Top Fields in what looked like the best fixture of the weekend that I could get to. Although, I do have to admit the real highlight was seeing Villa beat Spurs in a Spurs pub in the early kick off ahead of us going to the ground. The game started with Hitchin on the attack and they were all over Leiston for the first 10 minutes. However, as the half progressed Leiston looked the most likely to take the lead and on 28 minutes the visitors took the lead from a well worked cross that Adam Mills struck home.  This seemed to give Leiston the impetus and Adam Marriot (remember him) and Seb Dunbar gave Hitchin a few things to think about before the two teams went in at the break with Leiston having a one goal advantage. The second half started quite slowly with both teams looking a little laboured, but Hitchin seemed to be the most likely to score and so it was. Blue Joy (yes that's his name) scored from clos...

 This really was a game of two halves with Reading dominating the first half and taking the lead on 38 minutes through ex-Posh player Jack Marriot (needless to say he enjoyed scoring that one). To be honest, it was probably what the Royals deserved after the sustained pressure of the first half. The second half saw Cambridge come out looking for a response and they found one when Liam Bennet - one of the shortest blokes on the pitch - scored a header from a Callum Perry Cross on the 52nd minute. Ten minutes later and another defender converted for the Us when Kelland Watts headed home from a Mpanzu cross. This time it was probably the tallest player scoring from a header rather than the shortest, but it did highlight a weakness that Cambridge had clearly targeted at half time.  Reading pushed for an equaliser but the two scorers were also pretty active in defence in stopping Reading make much progress, a good result and a good performance, especially from Watts and Bennet.

 So, we came a long way to not see any goals! However, it was a good day out and the atmosphere at the game was great from both sets of fans, although we were quite near the Genk fans who were pretty relentless. There was considerably more life in the stands than there was in front of goal at Lotto Park on Sunday evening, as Anderlecht and Genk played out a goalless draw in the fifth round of the Jupiler Pro League. The atmosphere around the ground was good, with the occasion having the feel of an important fixture, but the match itself never quite reached the same level. Anderlecht can nevertheless consider themselves the more disappointed of the two sides. They had the better of the game for long periods, created the clearer opportunities and, on the balance of play, deserved to take all three points. What they lacked was the decisive touch in front of goal. The opening half was relatively cautious. Genk enjoyed slightly more possession early on and neither side was able to estab...

 On Saturday, we went to see Anderlecht take on Genk and ahead of the game we tried some of the football themed bars around the ground and some around the square a bit further out. I would say if you want a decent pint of Belgian beer at a reasonable price rather than an overpriced Jupiler or Stella in a plastic cup on a match day then the square is a much better bet. Of the football themed bars to visit, the best is probably La Coupe near the ground, but it might be better to go there when there isn't a match on given the amount of memorabilia that there is, but it is a bit difficult to take in on a crowded day when the football is on.                                                  

 Cambridge are probably disappointed with the final result of this game on Saturday, however they can take plenty from the fact that they held their own with one of the stronger teams in League 1. For most of the game both sides cancelled each other out, however I thought that Cambridge were the stronger of the two teams for large periods of the game. Huddersfield put some useful crosses in during the early encounters but the Us were equal to what was being thrown at them. However, the first real chance of the game fell to Town who hit the crossbar from a Ashley Fletcher shot from 25 yards. The second half was for the most part a game that ebbed and flowed with neither side really creating a clear chance. As time started to tick down, Cambridge could clearly smell blood as they started to pepper the Huddersfield area. On 80 minutes Zak Bradshaw finally got the breakthrough. Owen Moxon, who had only been on the pitch for a few minutes found Raees Bangura- Williams, who had also been...