football rambles

Well one of my new local clubs finally made it into the league at the expense of one of my new clubs. The Brewers who were running away with the Conference a few weeks ago finally had to rely on Cambridge drawing 0-0 with Altrincham. Perhaps it was just desserts for the 4-3 victory Cambridge had over Albion in the play off semi finals last year with a couple of dodgy decisions. Burton Albion were formed in 1950 and started out life in the Birmingham and District League before bouncing around the Northern Premier League and Southern League depending on what was going on with other clubs being elected to relegated from the perspective leagues. Their most famous game of recent years, up until they got promotion yesterday, was when they took Manchester United to a replay in the FA Cup third round in 2005-06. However, I saw them for the first time in a Northern Premier game at Buxton when Neil Warnock was their manager and I can also remember another FA Cup third round game where they were

Not the last game ever, thankfully, but yesterday was Ely's last home game of the season and judging by the rumours and recent performances it probably was the last game ever for quite a few members of the current squad. Not surprisingly yesterday's game against Stanway was marked by poor officiating and poor defending on Ely's part. For most of the match the Robins and the Rovers seemed equally matched, but it was Stanway who went ahead when Sam Newson scored for the visitors with a speculative shock that nobody defended against. Just before half time Ely were awarded a penalty for a foul that wasn't a foul and occured about 5 yards outside the area anyway. Robbie Mason stepped up, but his rather weak penalty was easily saved. However, Brady Stone managed to head in for the equaliser from the resulting corner. Not surprisingly the Stanway players and fans were a little miffed. The Stanway fans had also realised that one of the linesmen was completly incapable of makin

The result of Ely's game against Mildenhall yesterday was the same result as the reserves on Saturday a 4-2 defeat. If the manner of it wasn't that unusual, some dreadful defending and petulance on the part of the players, the rest of the game was a bit strange. Not least of all in that there was a fairly big crowd and Sean actually behaved himself Simon Charlton, the new Mildenhall manager must have wondered what he had got himself into when Richard Chadwick headed Ely ahead on 8 minutes, but Ely couldn't keep their lead and a couple of minutes later a fantastic free kick from Gareth Simpson found it's way into the top left corner. On 25 minutes Ely's misery was compounded when Simpson put the visitors ahead. Ely continued to fight but couldn't pull a goal back and went in at the break 2-1 down. Trevor Munns obviously told Ely to put up a fight in the second half, but perhaps they shouldn't have taken his advice so literally. Ely certainly came out fighting

sorry for what is a rather short match report to what was a new experience for me, but also an entertaining match yesterday. Ely City Reserves took on the old nemesis from the Cambridgeshire FA County League, Great Shelford. The first team might have finally taken care of them in the cup, but the reserves never looked like putting them to the sword despite taking an early lead. The winds of change are definitely blowing through Ely though with Dennis Lightning being present at the reserves and 3 of the regulars from the first team Dixon, Lawrence and Bell also appearing for the reserves. Ely took the lead early on through a penalty for a foul in the box, but by half time they were 3-1 down and minus a man after a defensive error from Lawrence, a penalty that saw the defender sent off and a goal that a better keeper would have had trouble handling. Ely started off the second half more brightly and got back in the game with another penalty. However, they were left short at the back and S

Here's the third and final installment of the Easter mix tapes. You can get it at: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=307HKJUY The image is from a Kahni Collective cover, where you can download a lot of decent tracks for free. Two of their artists are covered here with tracks from Moroza Knozova and Younnat. the picture is from a Moroza Knozova cover. Here's the track list: 1. Clorofila Azul -- I am a cloud in the open sky 2. Shaduz -- Fucking Mondays 3. Supermayer -- the Art of Letting Go 4. Wacker & Zittrich -- Poetry Slam 5. Deadbeat - Xberg Ghosts 6. AFX -- Analogue Bubblebath 5a4 7. Mass Prod -- a Night for You 8. Luke Vibert -- I Love Acid 9. Alexsi Perala -- Lagrange Points 10. Ceephax -- Northern Spirit 11. Claude Von Stroke -- Who's Afraid of Detroit? 12. Younnat -- Old Movies Not Terrible 13. Moroza Knozova -- Zvuki 14. Moscow Youth Cult -- Sandpits

Like TNS who we looked at previously Berwick Rangers are a border club. The border in this case being the Scottish and English one. Their original badge was just the bear and elm tree, which features on the local council's coat of arms, although the bear on that emblem appears tethered, but in the club's badge looks realtively free. Some people have suggested that the bear comes from the name of the town Berwick, however Ber probably comes from the old Norse word for Barley (baer) or headland (bar) with Wick meaning vik (bay) or wik (settlement). In the 1990s the club added the Scottish rampant lion and the English lion. Berwick are the only Scottish team to play in England a fact that doesn't always make them popular with visitig supporters, although when I visited there they were one of the friendliest clubs out. Berwick has always had a confused history over its nationality having changed hands between Scotland and Enlgand 13 times, and once Queen Victoria named it as a

On Monday Ely will take on Mildenhall Town who ome from just over the border in Suffolk. At the time of writing they are 5 points above Ely, but have had a terrible run of late, but ould be buoyed by new manager Simon Charlton. The town of Mildenhall is perhaps more famous for its speedway team the Fen Tigers, who take their name from the mythial beast that roams the Fens occassionally killing sheep and who comes in handy on slow news days when local journalist can interview someone who swears they have seen the beast after 12 pints of Speckled Hen. Anyway, Mildenhall also wear yellow and black, but go under the nickname 'the hall'. They were formed in 1898 and had quite an undistinguished existence in first the Bury and District League and then the Cambridgeshire League, which they joined in 1969 and reached the Premier of in 1975. In 1988 they joined the newly formed Eastern Counties League and had to upgrade their ground, which they had done by the start of the 1994-5 season

Dennis Lightning has stepped down early as the boss of Ely City, although he was going to at the end of the season. However, his move upstairs was expediated by the new regieme bringing in 3 new players without telling him. This idea seemed to have bak fired on Saturday when Ely lost 2-1. However Trevor Munns was the talk of the town after the Robins beat high flying Leiston on Tuesday night (even though that town seems to be Newmarket as only the Newmarket journal covered the match, neither of the Ely papers seemed to have bothered with it). Munns who used to be the boss of local rivals Mildenhall seemed to have changed the culture of the club over night and there were no long throws, pointless off side trap or hoofing it up the field, much to Ben Lawrence's dad's chagrin, as this meant his son was dropped and that he probably won't be getting back in the team. Funnily enough he seemed resigned to the fact (his dad) as when he wasn't slagging off Munns to us he was cha

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Well here's another mixtape I've put together this time with a newer collection of stuff that's often described Indie. The picture is the logo of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow and has nothing to do with the band from the Philippines known as Moscow Olympics, who are featured here. Tracklisting: 1. Air France -- Maundy Thursday 2. The Dilettantes -- Subterranean bizarre 3. Throw Me The Statue -- Lolita 4. Hello saferide -- Lund 5. Moscow Olympics -- Oceansign 6. Cruyff In The Bedroom -- Twinkle, twinkle 7. Wavves -- Surf goth 8. Half Man Half Biscuit -- National Shite Day 9. Coltrane Motion -- The end of every movie 10. Men Without Pants -- My Balloon Link: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=0TRGKLOI

TNS were formed from a merger between Welsh club Llansatffraid and Oswestry Town in 2003, both clubs have separate teams operating independently at much lower levels than the Welsh Premier League that TNS is frequently near or at the top of. TNS originally stood for Total Network Solutions, but when they were taken over in 2006 by British Telecom the sponsorship came to an end. They finally settled on the name of The New Saints, as it allowed them to keep their initials, but also as Llansatffraid's nickname was the Saints and St.Oswald has strong roots with Oswestry: or at least they say, it seems that Llansatffraid have always had the upper hand in this relationship. It should also be noted that the club wear the green and white of Llansatffraid, although they play across the border in Oswestry. This is not surprising though, as it was the chance of European football that the original Llansatffraid offered that led to the sponsorship deal, and Oswestry, an English club in the Wels

On Tuesday night Ely take on the ambitious Leiston FC, who are arguably enjoying their most successful season since they were founded in 1880. Leiston were promoted to the Eastern Counties League in 2001 and reached the Premier League in 2004. This season they have been chasing promotion and at the time of writing are in third place behind Lowestoft and CRC, although they are 16 points behind Lowestoft. This season saw them have their best run in the FA Cup when they reached the first round proper and were the lowest ranked club to do so. They got their after beating Conference club Lewes in a replay away, 3-1. A win that added to their opponents financial troubles. In the first round they played Conference North team Fleetwood Town in front of a record home crowd of 1250. Unfortunately, it was not to be their day and if they had overcome Fleetwood and beaten Chesterfield in the second round they would have set up a mouth watering derby against Ipswich Town. However, it was not to be.

No games this week, due to extra work and a lack of cash. So here's a mix tape of some golden oldie tunes, I've put together. Ely v Leiston on Tuesday night. The track list is: 1. The Frank and Walters -- Afterall 2. The Family Cat -- Remember what it is that you love 3. Power of Dreams -- slowdown 4. Kingmaker -- When Lucy's down 5. Carter USM -- This is how it feels 6. Thousand Yard Stare -- Buttermouth 7. New FADs -- Fishes eyes 8. Teenage Fanclub -- I don't care 9. The Charlatans -- Polar bear 10. Ride -- I don't know where it comes from 11. The Pale Fountains -- Bicycle thieves the link is: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=BYW4CRID