football rambles

As usual I've made a mix for New Year's Eve and here it is. This time available on Spotify. It's going to be the year of the Tiger and they have this beer on in the Minster at the moment (pub not the actual Minster), so I dare say I will see the New Year in with a few pints of it. Fluke – Atom Bomb Deadmau5 – Strobe The Chap – I Got Flattened By a Pig Farmer Hot Chip – Shake A Fist New Order – Confusion A Certain Ratio – The Big E Friendly Fires – Paris Kraftwerk – Musique Non Stop LCD Soundsystem – Daft Punk Is Playing At My House Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Heads Will Roll Mexican Institute Of Sound – Dub-A El Tiempo Es Muy Largo Booka Shade – Outskirts Fever Ray – Keep The Streets Empty For Me Little Boots – Stuck On Repeat Ellen Allien – Einsteigen Apparat – Can't Computerize It Future Prophecies – Thunder & Lightning Burial – Unite No Bra – Super Subway Comedian Mouse On Mars – Wipe That Sound Passion Pit – I've Got Your Number Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Love Burn

This year saw me see go to 41 games the vast majority of which were at the Unwin Ground in Ely. Unlike last year where there were plenty of foreign football trips to some of the more obscure outposts of Eatern Europe, this year all of my football was concentrated in England and more often than not Eastern England. In the Premier League I visited Villa Park and Craven Cottage , the only other league ground being Peterborough's London Road . The second most visited ground after the Unwin was Cambridge United's Abbey Stadium . The other grounds were all non league and included Julius Martin Lane (Soham Town Rangers), Milton Road (Cambridge City), The Walks (home of the hopefully temporarily defunct King's Lynn), The Nest in Outwell (home of Outwell Swifts, but at the moment being used by Wisbech), and a couple of trips to Sherbourne Stadium home of Newmarket Town. Highlights Highlights of January were Cambridge United beating Woking 4-1 with Rodders in attendance on what w

Well it's been a cold and snowy Christmas period. I had toyed with the idea of going to Port Vale v Burton today, but was put off after a few public transport problems in Stoke over the last week. The weather has improved here, but Rocester's game against Biddulph was still called off, so here I am without a match to go to on what is probably the most boring day of the year. It looks like the Villa v Hull game on 12 December was the last game of the year.

Kings Lynn have unfortunately gone out of business and this seems to mean that their reserves will also fold, despite rumours earlier in the week that the reserves might take the place of the first team. It's a shame as Kings Lynn has got a decent history of football, in fact I think if my memory serves me that it was the first town to have a newspaper dedicated to football. The Walks where they played their home games for many years will be sorely missed, although I presume some bastard developers have had their eyes on it for a while. Let's hope something can be done, I've also heard that the bloke who runs the speedway is interested in doing something with football, but we'll have to wait and see.

It's not often that I get to write 'another Ely win' at the top of the post, although to be honest they made a hash of the Vase game at St.Ives on Saturday and lost 3-0, but I was at Villa and it wasn't the league. On Tuesday night the Robins played Newmarket in a game that was previously a draw, but was replayed after Ely had been found to have an illegible player on the pitch, and ironically it was Ely who prospered with Newmarket now losing a point from the fixture and Ely gaining 2. Ely started off brightly and had a number of the opening chances with Newmarket being hemmed in at the back, however we feared that Ely could be hit on the break and that is exactly what happened, and on 43 minutes after a very bright start for Ely, Stephen Bell made it 1-0 to Newmarket, which was another ironical twist and one that we predicted. He'd played for Ely up until recently and quite often for the reserves, he was a player I thought deserved more of a chance, he obviously d

I had to steal this picture from the Birmingham Mail and it just shows a minature version of the ststue that has recently appeared outside Villa park at the corner where the Trinity Stand meets the North Stand, so more about this later.

On Saturday I was up at Villa park for the clash between Villa and Hull. I can't get up there that often, so I had originally pencilled in the Hull match as one of those that Villa should win. However, Hull have hit form over the last few weeks and as Villa seem to struggle against the teams that they'd be expected to beat it was a calculated gamble. Fortunately Hull must have read my mind and didn't put up much of a fight at all. Villa had most of the play and Hull didn't get a shot on goal even though the referee seemed intent on taking the names of all the Villa players and turning a blind eye to infringements by Hull players, it was still a bit too easy for the Villa. Richard Dunne put Villa ahead with a shot that looked like he was imaganing the ball was Thierry Henry's head. Then on 28 minutes James Milner who was again on fire (Gareth who?) took the opportunity when Myhill came out to clear the ball for a throw in. Sidwell who wasn't playing reacted quick

Well, Ely City have had a few good results of late. I missed a couple of games, when I went to Cambridge United v Kettering and then the weekend after when I was in Poznan, but the Robins carried on with their good form on Saturday. Things got off to a flyer against Norwich United when Chadwick fired the ball home from inside a crowded box to put the Robins 1-0 up on 7 minutes. Ely could have and should have extended this lead with Grant Robbins and Chadders again coming close in the 10 minutes that followed. The Ely forwards looked a bit makeshift with Grant Robbins and Scott Fielding stepping in for a suspended Robbie Mason ( no surprises there we have a sweepstake on how many cards he will pick up this season) and an awol and not sorely missed Nick Impey, but after 40 minutes they realistically have had 4 goals. For once the midfield looked solid and with Big Ben Lawrence making his come back Ely looked a bit more solid in defence. However, as often happens Ely decided to implode. O

Here’s a playlist of artists who appeared on the Factory record label. Unfortunately I couldn’t find any Stockholm Monsters’ stuff or anything by Crispy Ambulance, but there are still a few decent tunes here: Joy Division - Digital The Durutti Column - The Fields of Athenry Cabaret Voltaire - Baader Meinhof Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark - Talking Loud And Clear New Order - Bizarre Love Triangle Happy Mondays - W.F.L. A Certain Ratio - The Big E Section 25 - Inspiration E.S.G. - Bam Bam Jam The Wake - Carbrain Quando Quango - Love Tempo - Remix James - Hymn From A Village Anna Domino - Land of My Dreams The Railway Children - Something So Good Electronic - Idiot Country The Other Two - Superhighways spotify:user:jim_bomb:playlist:4PFiSkv4stOPMtqzGe60nI http://open.spotify.com/user/jim_bomb/playlist/4PFiSkv4stOPMtqzGe60nI

Yesterday we went to see Kettering Town play Cambridge United, so I thought it might be good to look at a club who have hit the headlines on several occassions over the last few years. Poppies chairman Imraan Ladak must be saddened to see that Mark Cooper will be moving to replace Darren Ferguson in his role of manager at Peterborough. Especially as Cooper got Kettering promoted from the Conference North and has now fired them to the higher echelons of the Conference National. This was after a couple of ill fated managers who seemed like pblicity stunts filling the role at Rockingham Park with both ex player Ron Atkinson and Paul Gascoigne failing to ignite anything on the field. In fact the 39 days that Gazza was in charge at Kettering were perhaps some of the most bizarre and he was finall made to quit after one bottle of booze too many. A little known fact is that Kettering are one of the oldest clubs in the World being formed in 1872. They climbed through 12 divisions to reach the

Yesterday me and Sean finally got to what many others wouldn't term as proper football, but when you have suffered so many games at the Unwin, it's definitely what we would term proper football. The game was Cambridge United v Kettering and it was an entertaining game even if the result and the weather conditions weren't exactly ideal. Just before the game started I saw a few bos with Sky cameras and someone who looked like Barry the barstad Fry stood out side the place for the suits. Now Barry Fry is not the most popular person at Cambridge United, so I took no notice and thought that I had been mistaken. However, it turns out that it was the last game in charge of Kettering for manager Mark Cooper, who will be joining Barry and the boys at the not very posh Peterborough club as of today. Anyway, his team gave him a fairly decent send off and went 1-0 up on 90 seconds with an own goal bouncing over the unfortunate Danny Potter's head. Cambridge tried to hit back at Ket

A few days ago I said that I was longing for some proper football and I did toy with the idea of going to Cambridge V Kidderminster, but I wouldn't have had time to get back for the bonfire night display, so I decided to go even further down the pyramid and visit Ely Reserves against Lakenheath in the Cambridgeshire league. The crowd was pretty low as you would expect, but the standard was not much different to the Ridgeons League and Steve Bell and Tom Beech, who are perhaps more associated with the first team were having a run out for the reserves. Lakenheath also brought a few fans who seemed most intent on barracking the poor lad who was running the line than watching the game. Things started off badly for the second string Robins when Lakenheath scored on 4 minutes. However 3 minutes later Dean Missen was clean through ang got brought down in the box. The defender was rightly given his marching orders, although the Lakenheath fans were busy moaning that he was offside and ther

Here's my second playlist on Spotify that I put together yesterday: Slowdive – Alison Chapterhouse – Mesmerise My Bloody Valentine – Soon Ride – Vapour Trail Drop Nineteens – Winona Moose – Play God Curve – Coming Up Roses Catherine Wheel – Eat My Dust You Insensitive F*** Amusement Parks On Fire – You Made Me Realise Amusement Parks On Fire – Blackout Flying Saucer Attack – In The Light Of Time The Airfields – The Long Way Home Lush – Ladykillers Pale Saints – Throwing Back The Apple Stereolab – Ping Pong - 2006 Remastered LP Version Spiritualized – Soul On Fire The Telescopes – High On Fire Cocteau Twins – Iceblink Luck Asobi Seksu – It's Too Late Deerhunter – Rainwater Cassette Exchange The Boo Radleys – Barney (...And Me) Kitchens Of Distinction – Drive That Fast M83 – Violet Tree Sigur Ros – Gong Architecture In Helsinki – Tiny Paintings Cranes – Sleepwalking http://open.spotify.com/user/jim_bomb/playlist/6oLoMl1qFJ09KcaRaxqmNp spotify:user:jim_bomb:playlist:6oLoMl1qFJ09Kc

I've just had a free afternoon, so I decided to put a krautrock playlist together on spotify. Here's the info: Here's a littl playlist I put together on Spotify: Faust − Giggy Smile Neu! – Gedenkminute Kraftwerk – Pocket Calculator Amon Duul 2 – Gala Gnome Kraan – Sarah’s Ritt Durch Den Schwarzwald Triumvirat – A Bavarian in New York Can – Vitamin C Hoelderlin – Schwebebahn Brainticket – Jardins Grobschnitt – Solar Music Berlin Hoelderlin – Die Stadt Agitation Free – Kahn El Khalili Eloy − Awakening And here's the URL: spotify:user:jim_bomb:playlist:46YYYKZFew5kCBJkLT6yZm http://open.spotify.com/user/jim_bomb/playlist/46YYYKZFew5kCBJkLT6yZm

Tuesday night saw Ely again lose to CRC. This time it was in the league and the result was a convincing 4-1 victory for the visitors. Nick Impey scored a rare goal in the first half to pull the Robins back to 2-1 and up until half time it looked like Ely could get back into the game as they pushed for an equaliser. However, it was not to be and eventually CRC pulled clear with 2 goals to win the game convincingly. It also looks like I'll have to wait a while for some higher level football, as I planned to go to the Cambridge v Kidderminster tomorrow, but it means that I might not get back for the fireworks, so I might have to make do with Ely reserves v Lakenheath tomorrow.

I guess I need some soon looking at recent posts, but God knows when it's going to come.

Apologies for the lack of impetus of late, but last week I was in Moscow and really didn't have enough time beforehand to keep the site up to date a 5-1 defeat at the hands of CRC in the Cambridgeshire Invitation Cup for Ely didn't really give me the inspiration to write very much. This was followed by a 1-0 victory over Hadleigh United with Robbie Mason again netting the winner. Then I was off in Moscow and didn't have time to update this site. While I was away Ely were defeated 8-0 by Histon 'reserves' and then lost 3-2 to Leiston on Saturday away. I didn't go to a game on Saturday, as I was busy with Sean's birthday. The trip to Moscow was excellent though, seeing some people I hadn't seen for years and a trip to Lenin's mausoleum where I had never managed to get into before despite having lived there for 3 years ranking among the highlights.

Last night in Ely's 3-1 defeat to Dereham Town the ref was really the star performer with a series of strange decisions. First of all was Ely's goal. It wasn't clear who scored it and in fact it didn't even appear to cross the line, but the goal was given and we were glad for the Ely lead. Obviously a few minutes later the ref saw the error of his ways and decided to give Dereham a penalty with an imaginary hand ball in the box. So at half time it was 1-1 with neither of the goals being deserved. The second half started off with Ely somehow contriving to concede a corner from the kick off and a headed goal going in for Dereham. This was probably the only deserved goal of the game and was certainly the only one the ref wasn't involved in. It did however underline that although the ref made himself be the pantomine villain there were plenty of attitude problems in the Ely squad and players who were performing under par. The third goal for Dereham was due to a strange

It's still a long way off yet, but on Saturday Ely took a further step in the FA Vase with a win against Eynesbury Town. Of course, it was an Ely display, so it wasn't a straight forward win and when Tony Beck put Ely ahead on 22 minutes we knew that there would be a few more twists and turns. Eynesbury got back into the game early on in the second half, in fact for a while it looked like they would win with 2 goals to put the visitors 2-1 up. However, Robbie Mason saved Ely, not for the first time by scoring on 59 minutes and on 81 Tony Brown scored a brilliant goal to put Ely into the next round.

I'm getting a bit worried that this site is getting a bit of an Ely City diary, but the games are going in thick and fast at the moment and I don't have any time to write about anything else at the moment, so I guess that's the way it's going to be for a while.

I don't know why, but every time Ely have a midweek game that's in a cup the game always goes to extra time. We had the never ending story of Shelford last season, an epic fight against Soham away and a cheerless end to the Cambridgeshire Cup run on a very cold and wet evening at Cambridge City and then there were the heroics of the game against Diss last week. Last night Ely took on Kings Lynn Reserves in the Ridgeon's League Cup Preliminary Round. For most of the match Ely dominated and a Robbie Mason goal separated the teams after a defensive error in the first half. Ely continued to dominate, but with 3 minutes left disaster struck again and Kings Lynn sent the game into extra time. I'm not proud of myself, but as Mick wasn't there, I'd had a day off work the day before with a heavy cold and getting home at midnight after another disappointing game didn't fill me with much joy. So for the first time since in 1996 when I was at a Moscow Spartak game that

Yesterday Ely took on Wivenhoe Town in what could already be billed as a relegation battle. Wivenhoe are a team who have been sinking like a brick over the last few seasons and the position they are in at the moment doesn't suggest that they will be in the Ridgeons Premier last season. In the game Ely had most of the ball and just couldn't score, unfortunately the fans and the players decided to take their frustrations out on each other in a way that wasn't big or clever. Brady Stone was sent off late on for a tackle that most people would say he was lucky not to break his opponents leg. I'd rather say that he was unlucky, as his intention was clearly to break the strikers leg. In the end Robbie Mason came off the bench again to score the winner 4 minutes from time, but let's be honest this was football at its worst

Some things on Tuesday night when Ely took on Diss in the replay of the 2nd qualifying round of the FA Vase. Autumn was back with some football in the dark for the first time in months and a cup tie at the Unwin ended in extra time, as it did on so many ocassions last season. However, after the last Ely match I went to ended in 0-0 at Newmarket, Tuesday night's game ended in a goal fest. As may have been predicted the Diss player pictured in the club focus for Diss, Xavier Huckle, who is pictured in the club focus below did score against Ely again. In fact he scored 4 times, but it wasn't enough to save Diss. Trevor Munns has stepped down as Ely manager and now Dennis Lightning has taken control of the team again at least for the time being at least and he got off to a winning start. We predicted a lot of goals from the start when Grant Robbins scored after only a couple of minutes. However, we had to wait until the second half until Ely managed to extend their lead when Nick I

Tomorrow night Ely have a second round replay in the FA Vase against Diss Town after a 2-2 draw in Diss at the weekend. Diss are currently second in division 1 of the Eastern Conties league, while Ely are struggling in the Premier. Diss also have a bit of a history in this competition after winning the FA Vase in 1994, but it's a long way from Wembley yet! Diss were formed in 1888 and one hundred years later they became founder members of division 1 of the Eastern Counties League. They have played in the Eastern Counties since, but from 1993 to 2006 they played in the Premier division. This year they will probably be hoping to gain promotion and last year despite missing out on promotion did win the division 1 league cup. Famous faces at Diss have included ex-Norwich and Chelsea player Robert Fleck, who managed the team until being replaced in 2008 and Mathew Upson, who is from the town, but I'm not sure if he has any connections to the club. The nickname of Diss is the tangeri

On Saturday I went to Villa v Portsmouth, and it was Villa's 4th consecutive league win and Portsmouth made it their 6 defeat out of 6 a record in the Premier League. Villa controlled most of the game without having to break too much of a sweat. The first half was all Villa and the pressure finally paid off when Stylian Petrov was upended in the area and James Millner scored from the spot. Villa continued to pile on the pressure and it again paid off when Gabby Agbonlahor scored a beautiful goal on 43 minutes. It was almost over at half time, but as usual, or as it seems as usual Villa didn't finish them off in the second half. There were chances for Milllner, Sidwell and Ashley Young in the second half, but Pompey probably had the best of the chances. The statistics say they had more shots on goal, but some stout defending from Richard Dunne and James Collins along with Brad Friedel and his magic magnet gloves meant that they never looked like breaking the Villa down, and that

I haven't actually had a lack of camera recently. I just haven't been to any new grounds, so I haven't actually taken any photos at recent games. I'll try and remedy that situation soon.

Football God is a figment of my and Phil's imagination. He was always there looking over you awarding hardcore football fandom and punishing the fair weather fan. The funny thing was that it actually seemed to work. If you went to the trouble of going 100 miles for a meaningless Ukrainian 2nd division game with no public transport back to Kyiv, you could rely on Football God to provide a sunny day with plenty of goals and a free lift home with a friendly truck driver who was making a delivery to Kyiv (true story). Similarly if Tatarchuk went home early because the game was dull or the weather was bad the last 20 minutes would be a flurry of goals and excitement. He certainly rewarded the faithful and punished the weak. So when I entertained Joe on Saturday and had a football free weekend and Ely won 7-1 and Cambridge won 7-0, I was expecting the worse when I went to Newmarket for the game against Ely on Tuesday night. And surprise, surprise the final score was Ely City 0, Newmarket

I was texted on Saturday by Phil to let me know that CSKA had finally called it a day. I won't go into the details too much here, as I have talked about CSKA and what they meant to me in several places on this site. After Arsenal took their place in the top division it was always going to be a struggle for survival. There was then the problem with their ground (photographed on this site and you can look at through the tags) which saw them having to play at Dynamo's training ground at Chapaevka, outside of Kyiv. When I was there they got relegated to the regional 2nd league. Most people thought that they wouldn't take part in the 2nd division last season, but they did and just missed out on promotion. However, they didn't seem to have the finances and stomach to face another season down there and it's shocking to think that 8 years ago they were knocking Red Star Belgrade out of the UEFA Cup.

On Saturday me and Sean went to Cambridge United v Gateshead and apart from spending an arm and a leg it was a great day out, unfortunately I forgot my camera, so there are no pictures to go with this report. Cambridge United won the game easily with the young centre forward Chris Holroyd providing the heroics scoring a splendid goal 5 minutes before the break and a penalty in the last minute. His performances this season have been impressive enough for him to get a call up for the England C squad. Gateshead looked out of their depth for much of the match and the consecutive promotions, including last season's play-off victory might mean that they have bitten off more than they can chew. It is still early on in the season, but it would appear that their best hopes of staying up are for another club to implode, as Chester with their 25 point deduction and Forest Green Rovers with their incredibly poor form look set for the drop and even this early on it seems that Gateshead might jo

Gateshead will play Cambridge at the shabby Abbey today and they certainly are a club with a chequered and interesting history. The original Gateshead Football Club started life in Division 3 North in 1930 when South Shields folded, and they got off to a good start, in their second season they narrowly missed out on promotion to Lincoln City. However, they did miss out and then stabilised their position in Division 3 North. Their finest moment probably came in 1953 when they reached the quarter finals of the FA Cup, narrowly losing 1-0 to a Nat Lofthouse goal for Bolton, after they had already beaten Liverpool in the 3rd round. In 1958 Gateshead found themselves in the newly formed fourth division, after missing out on a place in the 3rd division by only one point. Just 2 years later they failed in an attempt to apply for re-election and were booted out of the league. They lost their place to Peterborough United in a move that seemed to have a lot more to do with their geographical dis

I didn't make it to a game on Wednesday, there was just too much to think about, regarding work. I saw Arsenal cheat Celtic on telly instead. I have some plans for tomorrow, but don't want to tempt fate after the aborted attempt to go to Histon on Wednesday.

Well this post is completely off topic and unfortunately I'll be back to work tomorrow, so here's a video of what I was doing last week, to cheer myself up. On a brighter note Villa murdered Liverpool at Anfield, rather unexpectedly last night. I also discovered the Mexican Institute of Sound, when I say discovered I mean I downloaded their album after reading an article on them, so I didn't discover them at all. Tomorrow night it's Ely away at Histon reserves and hopefully I'll be at that too. The weekend is a bank holiday, so things could be worse.

On Saturday Ely took on Kirkley and Pakefield and as predicted Kirkley and Pakefield won. The result also put them top of the league, and they should be there or there abouts at the end of the season, although it is very very early days yet. Russell Stock put the visitors ahead on 5 minutes when he beat the offside trap and not long after Chris Henderson, who had a blinder for the visitors, beat 3 Ely defenders to make the score 2-0. It remained 2-0 for most of the match and again Ely didn't look like getting back in the game. When Stephen Bell and Chris Strecki were introduced with 10 minutes to go, Ely looked a lot more lively and in the final minute Strecki scored a goal that nobody thought was going in, least of all the extra wide Kirkley goalkeeper. He must have been doing something right though, as it was the first goal that Kirkley and Pakefield have let in this season. However, for Ely it was too little, too late.

Last week I was on holiday just up the road from where Kirkley and Pakefield play, so perhaps it shouldn't come as a surprise that they have a badge that looks like it belongs on a sign for a caravan park. Kirkley and Pakefield take on Ely this afternoon and it would take someone with a lot of optimism to predict a win for Ely. Ely have had a very mixed start to the season, but Kirkley and Pakefield have got off to a flyer. The first records of a Kirkley Football Club come from 1887 when a Kirkley team merged with East Suffolk to form Lowestoft FC . In 1890 another Kirkley team was formed and in 1897 they reached the final of the FA Amateur Cup. For most of their history though Kirkley have been in the shadows of Lowestoft, who are certainly the best supported club in the Eastern Counties League and probably are the best supported of step 5 clubs as a whole. Kirkley started to step out of the shadows in 2004 when they won promotion to the Eastern Counties from the Anglian combinati

Tomorrow I'll be off on my holiday, so here's a little mix tape I've put together for the occassion. I should really get round to doing a spotify mix at some point, but as I'm not taking my laptop here's an eclectic selection of some of the stuff that I've got on my computer at the moment, and transferring to my mp3 player. Tracklist: 1. Slag Boom Van Loon -- Poppy Seeds (Boards of Canada remix) 2. 65days of static -- the Fall of Math (65 dos remix) 3. Bibio -- Fire Ant 4. Venetian Snares -- Vokeheads 5. Boredoms -- Ant 10 (Lindstrom remix) 6. The Lea Shores -- Brand New Day 7. Kraftwerk -- Trans Europe Express 8. BMX Bandits -- Milky Way 9. Pissed Jeans -- False Jesii Part 2 10. Black Moth Super Rainbow -- Born on a day the sun didn't shine 11. Ruthless Rap Assasins -- Crew from the North 12. Everything is Made in China -- Buy 4 get one free 13. Felt -- Red Indians 14. Hartfield -- Nine Ball 15. House of Love -- Destroy the Mind Listen and then delete it: h

Ely Cty's run in the FA Cup was over before it began when Ely lost at home to Wisbech in the Extra Preliminary Round Yesterday. Wisbech Town destroyed Ely home and away last season, despite having a mediocre season themselves and having to play at the Nest in Outwell. Things didn't get better for the Robins yesterday. To be fair Ely were without 10 players due to suspensions, injuries and holidays, but Wisbech were probably having similar problems and hadn't got off to the greatest of starts themselves having lost their first 2 games. I was distracted by Sean for most of the first half with him demanding stuff and playing football on the pitch behind the new fence. However, Wisbech seemed to have the best of the first half and went in at the break 1-0 up. Ely looked a better prospect in the second half, but never really worried the Wisbech goal with Robbie Mason and Tony Beck squandering several chances. The first really close cut chance came when Stephen Bell came on off t

Rapid Wien or Sport Klub Rapid Wien, or Rapid Vienna, as they are known in English provide the opponents for Villa next Thursday in the play off for the Europa League. Let's hope Martin is going to take it seriously. Rapid Wien play at the Gerhard Hannapi stadium in a picturesque area of Vienna, if there was any part of the city that isn't picturesque. Gerhard Hannapi himself was a midfielder who started his career at Wacker Wien, but went on to play for Rapid from 1950 -65 captaining the club and winning the Austrian League 7 times. In 1999 he was named Rapid's all time greatest player. Rapid were founded in 1898 as Erster Wiener Arbeiter Fussball Club or First Workers' Club of Vienna as it translates into English. Their green and white shirts are now world famous, but they started off playing in red and blue and decided on the change to green and white in 1904. Since then Rapid have frequently worn red and blue as their away colours. Last season they wore green and wh

It's back as Sky keep telling us. That will be the Premier League, allegedly the greatest league in the World, if you believe Rupert Murdoch, and why wouldn't you? (Ha Ha). It will probably be the first competetive game of the season that I go to too. Most Pro and semi pro teams started last Saturday, but I was at Villa Park for the friendly against Fiorentina. Villa take on Wigan tomorrow, so let's hope they get off to a flying start. On the local front, and probably the game I will go to, Ely take on Wisbech in the FA Cup qualifying rounds. So if the media have noticed this year, and let's presume they haven't with all the salivating over the return of the Premiership, it will be time to see patronising articles, as journalists try and act all humble at lower league clubs. In that case let's hope they haven't. I have to say I did enjoy the first round where Andy Townsend was visibly suffering at Histon last season though, really, a day out at Histon is as

A couple of weeks ago I was in Ulm in Germany and a very nice town it is too. Obvioulsy, I looked up the local football club, who are SSV Ulm, but unfortunately they were playing on the Friday and I was leaving on the Thursday. They play in the regional leagues, so finding any definitive information on them was a tricky job. However, one of the more outlandish claims that they make in several places on the net is that the club started playing football in 1846 -- this seems odd as it would make them 9 years older than Sheffield FC, who are commonly regarded by all as the oldest club in the World. When you consider that the full name of the club is Scwimmm and Sportverein Ulm, I reckon that someone is telling porkies. The earliest record of them playing is 1926 under the banner of Ulmer RSV. Since then there have been a series of mergers. The latest being in 1970 when TSG Ulm and 1.SSV Ulm merged. I'm sure they are probably a nice club and judging from the evidence they have a pretty

On Tuesday night the Ely first team took on Dereham away and ran out 3-2 winners, which was a pretty good result. However, I wasn't there and had to wait until the day after for my live football fix, as Ely Reserves took on Manea, in what was for them a preseason family. I could have stayed at home and watched England pull back from 2 goals down to draw 2-2 with Holland, but I didn't. The performance wasn't as convincing as the last time I went down to see the reserves and I wonder if the friendlies are against weaker clubs in order to bolster confidence in the season after a poor season for the reserves last season. Ely won this encounter 2-1. They played pretty well in the first half, and went in 2 up at the break. The second half after a few substitutions saw Manea take charge. However, one of their better shots knocked my pint off the fence. In the end the game finished 2-1 to the Robins. For most of the game Sean dribbled a ball up the sideline and Nadiya complained ab

Fabien Delpn takes on Marco Marchionni in the game between Villa and Fiorentina

On Saturday we went to Villa v Fiorentina. The previous two encounters between the 2 teams were also both friendlies, with Villa losing 2-1 in 1992 in Florence and 4-0 in New York against the indominatable team of 1999. Villa were to make amends for these poor results with a fine display on Saturday. The game in 1992 was played in front of only 4,939 fans, so it seems strange that the Birmingham papers were moaning about a crowd of 22,915 on Saturday. I think that they were forgetting that it was only friendly and is probably the first season that Villa aren't expected to improve on their previous positions. The previous pre-season friendly at Villa Park was 2 years ago against Inter of Milan. This was seen by a bumper crowd of 38,000, but although Fiorentina have cemented themselves as Champions League regulars they are never going to have the same pull as Inter. The papers were blaming Villa's lack of pre-season signings on the poor crowd, ironically they were also praising V

Next Saturday I will be at Villa Park for the friendly with Fiorentina. When I lived in Italy Fiorentina were one of my favourite teams. I saw them twice, once against Roma where they went down to a last minute goal by Dmitry Aleinichev and was with the Fiorentina fans when they played Lazio. At the time they had a lot going for them with Batistuta knocking the goals in and Trappatoni at the helm. Despite starting the season off well they were eventually pipped for the title by Milan and also finished behind Lazio. At the time they were likeable as they had a left wing fanbase, whereas fascism was on the rise at most serie A clubs (although I have heard that since then Fiorentina have also become more right wing). I also admire them for being the only city in Italy without a Juventus fanclub and the city was full of anti 'gobi' merchandise (hunchbacks, as Juve are often known) when I went there. Fiorentina were formed in 1926 by Luigi Ridolfi a memeber of the fascist party when

Yesterday I actually had the day off and I had nothing planned so I decided to go and watch the reserves. They were playing Northwold, who I can't find any information about whatsoever. the only player I recognised from Ely was Steve Bell, who I thought would be the best player on the pitch and duly responded by putting Ely 1-0 up. However, he wasn't the best player for Ely. They put on a mystery player after 20 minutes and substitiuted him with 20 minutes left, but in that time he had a huge impact and Ely scored 6 of the 8 goals that they would eventually win by. I have know idea who this player was but he was clearly playing below his level and I have a sneaking suspicion that he may have played for Histon and Cambridge City in the past. I'm just hoping they have enough sense to put him in the first team. I'm glad I went down for this game, as it makes a nice change to see Ely on the right side of a hammering for once.

To be honest last night's match wasn't really a friendly as the Doug Unwin Memorial trophy was at stake as Ely took on Soham Town Rangers in a local Derby. The last time the two teams met was at Soham when Ely beat them in the Cambridgeshire Senior Cup last season. Soham play in a league above Ely, but the opposition finall brought out the best in the Robins in what was probably their best pre-season performance. I have to say probably as I've missed a couple due to work and the Villa game. Ely were unlucky to go in at the break one goal down to Soham. However, they battled well in the second half and Robbie Mason scored a spectacular equaliser. The weather was dreadful, and I was alone with the kids, so I was quite thankful that the managers agreed to go straight to penalties and it did give the kids some extra entertainment. I feel that if the game had continued rather than going to penalties Ely would have probably gone on to win it. However, it wasn't to be and desp

Last night Ely City played Bury Town in a friendly. I wasn't expecting the Robins to beat a club who have always played at a higher level, but the result was a bit of a disappointment. Ely went 1-0 down early on due to what was a defensive / goalkeeping error. However, they did manage to pull one back with some nice moves, but as was the case last season discipline and the defence looked a bit iffy and I know that it was a friendly, but some of the commitment shown even now was questionable. Another question has to be asked about where the manager, who is supposedly building a new team was. As soon as Ely equalised Bury went up the other end and some foolhardy goalkeeping that would have led to a red card in a more competetive match led to a Bury penalty. Pacey did make ammends later on in the game by saving a penalty, but Ely were really outclassed. It was 3-1 at half time and 6-1 by the end of the match. Let's just hope it isn't a sign of things to come. Ely play St.Neots

The Villa slogan is 'proud history and bright future', obviously having an American owner cranks up the bullshitometer a few levels, but yesterday's performance at Peterborough would suggest that the future is bright for Villa. Villa started the game with some established players namely Brad Friedel, Carlos Cuellar, Zat Knight, Curtis Davies, Nicky Shorey, Nigel Reo-Coker, Steve Sidwell and Marlon Harewood, but by the end of the match it was virtually a youth team on the pitch. Furthermore in the starting line up it was youngsters Andreas Weimann and Barry Bannan who impressed the most. It looks like Marlon Harewood's days at Villa are numbered though as he was guilty of squandering a series of chances. Talking of squandering chances Peterborough looked good for the first 20 minutes and squandered chance after chance. However, and not wishing to be nasty as I had a good day out I think that Posh will be out of their depth in the Championship, their ground looks more lik

Villa start their pre-season programme with a trip to Peterborough on Saturday and I will be in attendance, so let's have a quick look at the club known as the Posh. In 1932 the original Peterborough team, Peterborough and Fletton United folded after being suspended by the FA. In 1934 Peterborough United were born and made their ultimate aim to become a member of the football league, however they had to be content with starting life out in the Midland League and their ambitions of getting into the league seemed a long way off. They might have started off by adopting the nickname of Peterborough and Fletton whose nickname had come from an advertisement player manager, Pat Tirrel had put in a local paper asking for 'Posh players for a posh club', but the new team were beggars rather than playboys. They had to get a loan to play in the league and to pay to play at the London Road ground, which they still use and the original green shirts were supplied by a local clothes shop.