football rambles

January The year started how it finished with bad weather leading to most games being cancelled. Highlight of the month was therefore the only game I got to, which would have been highlight of the month anyway, as Villa beat Fulham 2-0 at Craven Cottage. I enjoyed it, although my celebrating in the home end led to Macca banning me from the fixture this season. one game two goals February I had a lot of work on in February, but thanks to the cancellations in December and January I managed to get to three games. The highlight being Ely's victory in a rearranged game against local rivals Mildenhall. The Hall had wanted the game cancelled and would have been really glad if it had been, as Ely totally outplayed them nad won 2-0. Lowlight of the month was undoubtedly Villa losing in the League Cup final. Villa went one up, Vidic should have been sent off and it was probably the last time that Rooney had a good game. three games five goals March March saw the arrival of some much needed s

Yesterday I got to a game for the first time in over a month and like the last game I went to the away team won 5-1. Volunteers had helped clear the pitch of snow at the Abbey. They probably wished they hadn't bothered. Due to having to make changes Cambridge manager Martin Ling decided to change the formation to 3-4-3, which might have worked if the forwards weren't firing blanks, although it was always going to leave the team exposed at the back. The match didn't start off too badly for Cambridge and both Wayne Gray and Danny Wright had chances that they squandered. However, in this period Cambridge were a bit guilty of trying to walk the ball into the net and Mansfield looked dangerous on the break. They showed just how dangerous they could be when on 33 minutes Adam Murray (not to be mixed up with his namesake at Ely City) blasted the ball into the back of the onion bag. Just 4 minutes later Adam Smith doubled the visitors lead with a wicked strike that on December 28th

Mansfield Town like a lot of British clubs in the nineteenth century came into being due to local God botherers wanting the local folk to keep away from the demon drink by embracing sport. From these values Mansfield Town were born as Mansfield Wesleyans in 1897. They later shortened the name to Mansfield Wesley in 1906, by the way. They finally became Mansfield Town in 1910 in a move that didn't go down well with their more successful local rivals of the time, Mansfield Mechanics. To celebrate their change of name Mansfield left the Mansfield & District Alliance behind and joined the Central Alliance League. They also found a new ground called 'The Prairie', which had all the facilities you'd expect to find on a prairie (i.e. none) and the surface would have more aptly been called 'The Quagmire'. War was around the corner and like many clubs Mansfield packed in for the duration. However, after the war in 1919 Mansfield Mechanics, who were having money probl

It looks like Aslan has finally defeated the evil snow queen, instead of snow today we have rain, so here's hoping the pitch isn't flooded now. It looks like it could be my first game since mid-November, something will probably happen to piss on my chips though.

According to some internet japesters, the town of Bielefeld does not exist and it's just a conspracy by the German equivalent of 'The Man' who has perpetuated the lie of the town with a population of 330,000. The reason is that if you ask most Germans the following three questions they will answer no in all three cases: 1 Do you know anybody from Bielefeld? 2 Have you ever been to Bielefeld? 3 Do you know anybody who has been to Bielefeld? In my case I can answer yes to all three questions, so I thought it would be a good idea to have a look at the local club, Arminia Bielefeld. I haven't been to a game there and have only had a couple of pints in the supporters' club and seen trams done out in the club colours, so maybe the club doesn't exist and it all is a figment of my imagination. However, their record would suggest that they are a real club. Arminia currently play in 2Bundesliga and are one of the biggest yo-yo clubs in Germany and one of their biggest cla

Well, it looks like the football drought for me is going to continue, as I have just been on the Ridgeons League forum and it looks like Mildenhall v Ely is definitely off. I must say everything is still frozen, so it doesn't come as a shock especially as the games at Histon and Peterborough are off today. The question is am I ever going to see a game again?

I've been putting together a Spotify playlist of the artists that were number 1 in my weekly Last FM charts over the year. Here are the tracks: The Wolfe Tones – A Nation once again The Farm – Hearts and Minds Bad Lieutenant – Sink Or Swim Ty Segall – The Drag The Brian Jonestown Massacre – The Devil May Care (Mom & Dad Don't) Tokyo Police Club – Nature Of The Experiment Los Campesinos! – Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks The Essex Green – Rabbit Tokyo Police Club – Wait Up (Boots Of Danger) Stereolab – French Disko - 2006 Remastered Single Version Tokyo Police Club – Bambi The Dubliners – Seven Drunken Nights The La's – Timeless Melody Slowdive – Alison The Apples In Stereo – Dance Floor Jesus And Mary Chain – Happy When It Rains Talco – Bella ciao Beastie Boys – Sabotage Johnny Foreigner – Criminals James – Come Home - Flood Mix Johnny Foreigner – Sometimes in the Bullring 65daysofstatic – Dance Dance Dance The Rakes – Strasbourg Teenage Fanclub – Star Sign Spiritualized – S

Bohemian Football Club are often known as Bohemians and shouldn't be mixed up with the several clubs in the Czech Republic who lay claim to the legacy of the Czech team Bohemians. Apart from anything else the Czech team wore green and white, which is the colour of Shamrock Rovers who are the Bohs' fiercest rivals. Bohs wear red and black stripes and are based in the North Side of Dublin, where as Shamrock are based in the South of the City. However, Bohs have fans all over the city and indeed all over the country. Mind you they've moved grounds that many times it's no wonder they have a fan base all over Ireland and it could account for their other nickname of the Gypsies. Bohemian FC are the 3rd most successful club in Ireland with an impressive 7 Football Association of Ireland cup wins, 6 League of Ireland titles and 3 League of Ireland cup victories. They are also the most succesful Irish team in terms of victories in Europe, although this season they went out in th

The festive period is upon us now, which should be a bumper time for football, however last year the weather scuppered my plans quite badly. The last month has seen me go to bugger all matches, the only week when there wasn't any bad weather I was working, so here's hoping that the weather is going to improve. 27th December should see a trip to Mildenhall for the Ely game, although that one is still looking doubtful and then the day after Cambridge United take on Mansfield. According to the Mansfield site the staff at the Shabby Abbey are confident that the game will go ahead, so hopefully they have a direct line to the weather and the game will go ahead. I'm going out of my mind with no football for ages.

Still no football as the bad weather continues and there's work to be done this weekend.

Well it's been a quiet couple of weeks on the football front. Last weekend I was in Bielefeld, Arminia were playing on the Friday night, which I had free, but the game was away. This weekend I planned to see Ely at home, but the game was called off. I don't know if it's got something to do with the time I spent in Russia and Ukraine, where I've seen Spartak play when it's been well below zero on a hard pitch, CSKA Kyiv go to extra time in a cup game at minus 12 and play on in extra time despite two of the floodlights not working and of course the Dynamo v Shakhtar game where it snowed 2 feet during the game, but cancelling the game this weekend seemed to be a bit of an easy option. Maybe I'm not being fair as nobody wants to see someone get injured because of an unplayable pitch and I did walk out in disgust at the ridiculousness of the Dynamo v Shakhtar game and maybe I'm feeling a bit bitter after watching Villa get turned over by Arsenal and Ipswich by N

Yesterday I went to London Road for the fourth time to see Peterborough take on Charlton Athletic. At the start of the day both of the teams were in a play off position. Peterborough had started off the season well, but have lost their way since being thoroughly beaten by Brighton and the absennce of George Boyd after a sending off in that game. Conversely, Charlton seemed to start the season off badly, but improved after being beaten comprehensively by Brighton a few weeks back. A trip to London Road though usually guarantees a few goals and looking on TV and from the odd occasion I have made the joutney there most of the goals go in in the London Road End, so I was looking forward to a bit of a goal fest right in front of where I was standing and I wasn't disappointed in that sense. However, the reason for such goal fests seems to lie in the fact that Posh have some forwards who wouldn't be out of place in the Championship and have decided to couple this with a Conference lev

Yesterday I went on what seems to be my annual trip to Fulham's Craven Cottage to see Fulham take on Wigan. I think I may have been banned from Villa games down there by Scott, so the most neutral of games was probably seen as a good idea (by him). That said, it was a sell out crowd mainly because Fulham charged a very resonable fiver for the game. The game itself was a bit one sided with Fulham's Clint Dempsey scoring both of Fulham's goals in the first half. Predictably he was named as man of the match by most of the Sunday newspapers, but I think that Baird, Salcido and Dembele were also as impressive if not more so. Andy Johnson, who many thought would have to retire after a horrific injury earlier in the year, also came on late in the match and added to the Fulham forward line. In general not a bad game, but a bit one sided. The picture shows Fulham's Zoltan Gera tackling Wigan's Hugo Rodallega.

Wigan were formed in 1932 and kicked around in the Lancashire League and the Cheshire League. Their first application for the league came in 1950 when 4 clubs were added to the league; 2 to Division 3 North and 2 to Division 3 South. However, they lost out to Scunthorpe and Shrewsbury. In 1954 the Latics took Newcastle to a 3rd round replay in the FA Cup and they felt like they would be elected to the league, but they weren't. After several other aborted attempts at getting into the league they became founder members of the Northern Premier League in 1968. In 1971 after narrowly losing to a strong Manchester City in the FA Cup they again thought that they had a good chance of getting in the league, but again it wasn't to be. As a protest the following season they applied to join the Scottish League, but they didn't get a single vote and in England the place that they coveted went to Hereford United. In 1975 they won the NPL for rhe second time, but they weren't in any s

On Tuesday night rain called off a game for the first time this season with the Ely City v March Town United game in the Eastern Counties League game being called off and Saturday sees my first Premier League action of the season with Fulham taking on Wigan. I might even get back in time to catch it right at the end of match of the day!

Above are a couple of photos of the stand at Soham Town Rangers. The terrace at Soham The clubhouse at Soham. Soham warm up before the game. Daventry Town warm up.

There were no games in Ely yesterday, so I decided to go on the relatively short journey to Soham to see Soham Town Rangers take on Daventry Town in the Southern (Zamaretto) League Central Division. At the moment Soham are propping up the division and although their pre-season performance at the Unwin against Ely suggested that they would struggle this season they actually played pretty well and I feel were unluck not to come away with more than a 0-0 draw. In the first half Daventry probably had the best of the chances, although I never felt like they really looked like scoring. The Soham defence however looked a little vulnerable and on several occasions failed to clear their lines, which against a more clinical team could have led to problems. The second half was all Soham though and if it hadn't been for the diminutive Daventry Keeper with a foghorn of a voice Soham could have easily been 2 or 3 up in the first few minutes after the break. However it wasn't to be and althou

Supporting a club who haven't won a trophy for ages and having spent years away following local clubs who don't really have a sniff at a trophy I don't really understand how cups have become 'devalued' to the extent where everybody seems to field weakened teams. The trend seems to have caught on so much that last night Ely City fielded a weakened team against Fulbourn Institute in the Cambs Invitation Cup. The starting line up only included 4 first teamers and two of them were coming back from suspensions (Richard Chadwick and Ben Lawrence), one had been missing for a while (Simon Warren) and the other was left back Kenthoh Gray (there aren't that many left backs around). However, unlike some bigger teams Ely still charged 6 quid to get in last night, which is a bit of a cheek when you consider Villa are charging a tenner for the Burnley match in the League Cup and Burton dropped their prices to a fiver for the Paint cup thingy. When you consider that 6 quid is

Last night Ely took on Wisbech in a Cambridgeshire Derby at the Unwin. Ely were further down on numbers with yet more injuries and suspensions, so much so there was only one outfield player on the bench. Wisbech on the other hand had players on the bench that would have started in most teams in the Eastern Counties League. Furthermore, Wisbech have had a good start to the season, although it has to be stated that most of the good results they gained came from home games at their new ground, which has a bit of a hostile atmosphere or so I here. Despite the lack of available players and the supposed quality of the opposition Ely got off to a great start with Andy Pettit heading the Robins ahead on 3 minuites. This set the scene for most of the first half with Ely playing a nice passing game with the ball on the floor and also creating numerous chances. In fact Ely could have easily been 2-0 up at half time when Andy Pettit hit the crossbar on 35 minutes. Wisbech's first real chance c

It's really rare to see a 0-0 at the Unwin, in fact the last 0-0 I can remember was not at the Unwin, but an away game to Newmarket at the start of last season, though I might be wrong. Ely had a makeshift defence due to injuries, illness and suspensions and they were up against Kirkley & Pakefield who going into the match were top of the league with a goal difference that suggested they had a decent forward line and a decent defence. However, it was Ely who had much of the early play and they nearly went ahead on 5 minutes when Robbie Mason hit the post and they also had a decent chance 5 minutes later when there were a few chances for players in the box to make contact with the ball, but it somehow went past everyone. The best chance K&P had in the first half was on 29 minutes when one of the forwards was clear through on goal, but Adam Dalby forced the plater to go wide. The reason that this was the only real chance the visitors had during this half was probably testimo

Great Yarmouth on the attack in the first half Lee Pacey clears for Ely in the second half

I have to say that the locals were friendly at the Wellesley, which reminded me of a Serie A ground (he says tongue in cheek) with the running track around it, although that is probably due to the fact that they share the ground with an athletics club. In terms of refreshments there was a tea bar, which also doubled as a souvenir shop with Ipswich and Norwich stuff as well as Bloaters' memorabilia. I have to say that they were quite friendly there and even did the ever demanding Nadiya some toast. They also did bovril at half time, which a lot more clubs in the region should do. There was also a posh tea bar and a proper bar. The proper bar was very comfortable and looked more modern than most Conferenc clubs provide. Again the people were friendly, but we did have to wait until 2.40 to get a drink, because they were waiting for somebody to bring some money to put in the till. I did think of suggesting they took the cash and gave me the change later, but I didn't feel like rock

The ground is a short walk away from the seafront, here is part of the way to the Yarmouth ground. The locals were pretty friendly. Here's me questioning one around the corner from the ground. Here we are at the entrance to the ground.

A bit of an interlude. Here are some random photos of the kids at the seaside.

Yesterday Ely took on Great Yarmouth away at the Wellesley Recreation Ground. And although I have been lucky with the weather at the coast since coming back to England a couple of years ago the weather was dreadful yesterday. Ely had the weather on their side in the first half and Adam Dalby ( I think!) put Ely ahead on 19 minutes. It was a 35 yard blaster that I like the entire Yarmouth defence missed. At half time it remained 1-0 and Ely were unable to extend their advantage of playing with the wind and rain behind them. In the second half both Ely and Yarmouth played well and both keepers had saves to make, but Yarmouth managed to equalise on 69 minutes. After this Ely had most of the play and looked the more likely of the teams to steal the game especially when 15 minutes before time Impey broke through the Yarmouth defence, but unfortunately hit the bar. So the game finished 1-1 and it could have been better, but on balance it was probably a fair result.

Yesterday Ely took on a strong Dereham side at the Unwin and the team played a lot better than they have of late, but unfortunateley they didn't get the reslult needed. All the team played well, but Lee Dixon and Nick Impey probably impressed the most. Ely fell behind early on with Dereham scoring from their first attack of the match on 4 minuites. However the Robins showed determination and a beautifully taken shot by Nick Impey that was both powerful and accurate put the teams on level terms on 18 minuites. One of the most pleasing things about the first half performance was that the players didn't let their heads drop when they went behind and the midfield was engaged with the match and equal to a Dereham side who beat them 3-1 a couple of weeks ago and who are unbeaten this season. The second half was also pretty evenly balanced game with Robbie Mason and Andy Pettit both coming close and Lee Pacey making a couple of good saves from the Dereham forwards. The midfield might

Fenerbahce's name comes from Fener , which is Turkish for lighthouse and Bahce , which is Persian for garden. However neither a lighthouse or a garden appear on the badge. Nevertheless the badge does have a lot of symbolism. The badge was designed by Fener left winger Topuz Hikmet who was helped by Tevfik Haccar (who was based in London or Germany depending on which reference you read)and every little bit of it has some meaning. The white symbolises purity, the red love and attachment and the red and white are also there to invoke the Turkish flag. The yellow and blue as well as being the colours of the club represent admiration and envy, and nobility, while the acorn leaf represents the power of Fenerbahce, so that's you told! Not surprising after all that effort the only major change has been the lettering on the badge which changed when the preffered alphabet of Turkey changed.

Yesterday Ely City took on Stewarts & Lloyds Corby in the first qualifying round of the FA Cup. After the disappointment of going out of the Vase on Tuesday Ely needed to pick themselves up and sharpen up in front of goal. Unfortunately it was Stewarts & Lloyds who took the lead on 10 minutes after their centre forward burst through the Ely defence. Ely had the chance to make ammends just 2 minutes later when they were given a penalty for a foul on Mark Johnstone. Smith stepped up to take the penalty, but the keeper saved. It was another frustrating game for Ely with a lack of ideas in front of goal undermining their chances of making progress. Several changes were made to the team who lost to Gorleston on Tuesday but the main problem seemed to be the tactics of hoofing the ball up field and getting as many bodies in the box as possible and at the same time by commiting too many people forward left gaping holes at the back that Stewarts and Lloyds could possibly have hit on the

Another Tuesday and another cup replay at the Unwin. This time Ely City took on Gorleston, who play in the division below of the Eastern Counties League in a replay of the vase qualifying round after drawing 1-1 away on Saturday. We all expected not to be getting an early night and that was the one front we were not disappointed on. Ely rested several players, but still had out what looked like a fairly competitive side. However, the Robins really lacked fire power up front despite starting with old favourite Andy Pettit and Nick Impey, who always played as a striker before, but has looked a lot livelier since his move to midfield in pre-season. It was Gorleston who should have taken the lead in another game that lacked goal mouth action on 30 minutes when some brave keeping from Lee Pacey and a bit of luck kept them out. Gorleston repeated the move one minute later, but the result was the same. On several occassions during the game Ely's ill advised offside trap and a fast Gorlest

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

Players return to the centre circle after Coulson's goal

I got a new phone on Saturday and although the software is getting on my nerves I have mangaged to send a couple of photos from the Cambridge United v Eastbourne Borough match.

On Monday afternoon me, Sean and Matt headed for the Abbey for Cambridge United's game against Eastbourne Borough. Cambridge needed to start scoring and to start winning games and despite having lost on the Saturday previously Eastbourne Borough had started strongly. In the game in what might be one of the last sunny days of the year Cambridge United got off to a fine start with James Jennings ( who was allowed to play after an appeal to a ban) crossing the ball from a corner to Josh Coulson who headed in at the far post. After this Eastbourne looked good on the counter attack, but Cambridge should have been 3 or 4 up at the break. However, they had to settle for only 2 before the break thanks to a thunderous free kick struck by James Jennings, Eastbourne must have wished that Cambridge hadn't appealed for his sending off at Altrincham. The second half was more of the same with Cambridge throwing men forward and always looking dangerous and Eastbourne posing a threat particular

The last two days of August saw two games in two days with a trip to Cambridge United and Ely City. Here's what happened in the following posts.

Tomorrow Cambridge United take on Eastbourne Borough and the early season form has been a bit contrary to how most people expected it to be. Cambridge are at the moment, although it's still early days near the bottom of the Conference and Eastbourne who were expected to struggle have got off to a good start. Eastbourne were formed as late as 1964, so it's probably good to look at their badge rather than their rather short history. The Eastbourne Borough badge might look like a sandcastle but it actually represents a Martello Tower. The Martello Towers are fortifications that were built along the South Coast to repel Napoleon in the 19th Century. Eatbourne Borough were formed as Langney FC in 1964 and changed their name to Langney Sports four years later. The Martello tower in the badge is the one situated at Langney Point. The club didn't have a badge until the 1970s and the Martello Tower was chosen ahead of The Priory, mainly because it was easier to draw. The three waves

This doesn't really refer to the match between Ely City and Stanway Rovers on Saturday, but my own state of mind. I'd been up since Thursday night and travelled back from Dalyan to Ely on the morning of the match. I think that most people were surprised that I had made it back in time for the game. Anyway, the first half offered a lot of niggly tackles, but didn't offer much in the way of goal mouth action. Ely did break the deadlock just before half time though when either Simon Warren or Grant Robbins put the Robins ahead. I say either as Simon Warren had a shot that seemed to spill on to the goal line and Grant Robbins seemed to put it over the line. Most of the debate at half time seemed to think that it was Warren's goal, but the referee gave it to Robbins, however it said that Warren scored the goal in the Cambridge News, so I guess we will never know who really got the goal. There was no doubt about who got the second goal for Ely though as Robbie Mason powered t

The final part in the badges of the clubs taking part in the Eastern Counties Premier Division 2010-2011. Wisbech Town Wivenhoe Town Woodbridge Town Wroxham

The final part in who's who in the Eastern Counties League 2010-2011 Wisbech Town Colours: All red Nickname: The Fenmen Year formed: 1920 Ground: The Tom Wood Fenland Stadium Lynn Road Wisbech Cambs PE14 7AN ( This is the official stadium of Wisbech Town. However, they have been playing at the Nest, Outwell, Cambridgeshire for the last two seasons and I think that they will continue there this season. Wivenhoe Town Colours: Blue shirts with white sleeves / white shorts Nickname: The Dragons Year formed: 1925 Ground: Broad Lane Ground Elmstead Road Wivenhoe Essex CO7 7HA Woodbridge Town Colours: Black and white striped shirts / white shorts Nickname: The woodpeckers Year formed: 1885 Ground: Notcutts Park Fynn Road Woodbridge Suffolk IP12 4DA Wroxham Colours: Blue and white striped shirts / white shorts Nickname: The Yachtsmen Year formed: 1892 Ground: Trafford Park Skinners Lane Wroxham Norfolk NR12 8SJ

Part 3 to go with the focus on teams in the Eastern Counties Premier League 2010-2011 Mildenhall Town Newmarket Town Norwich United Stanway Rovers Walsham-le-Willows

Mildenhall Town Colours: Yellow shirts / black shorts Nickname: The Hall Year formed: 1898 Ground: Recreation Way Mildenhall Suffolk IP28 7HG Newmarket Town Colours: Yellow and blue striped shirts / blue shorts Nickname: The Jockeys Year formed: 1877 Ground: Sherbourn Stadium Town Ground Cricket Field Road Off New Cheveley Road Newmarket Suffolk CB8 8BT Norwich United Colours: Yellow shirts / blue shorts Nickname: The Planters Year formed: 1903 Ground: Plantation Park Blofield Norwich Norfolk NR13 4PL Stanway Rovers Colours: Yellow shirts / black shorts Nickname: Rovers Year formed: 1956 Ground: Hawthorns New Farm Road Stanway Colchester Essex CO3 0PG Walsham-le-willows Colours: All blue Nickname: The willows Year formed: 1890 Ground: Walsham Sports Club Ground Summer Road Walsham-le-Willows Suffolk IP31 3AH

Here are the badges for the teams featured in the second part of the review of clubs in the Eastern Counties Premier League for this season. Great Yarmouth Town Hadleigh United Haverhill Rovers Histon Reserves Kirkley and Pakefield Leiston