End of season review
I know it's been a long time coming, but here it is finally. The end of my season review.
The season started off pretty early and ironically July was one of the busiest of months in the season with a number of preseason friendllies. In fact the first match of the season for me was on 7 July when Ely took on Cambridge United in a friendly on a very wet evening in front of the largest crowd I have seen at the Unwin. The result wasn't great though as Ely lost 3-0. Other highlights of July included Villa's preseason friendly at Peterborough, which Villa won pretty easily with a team of kids and reserves and even then the writing was on the wall for a difficult season for Posh in the Championship. They went on to get through 3 managers and were easily relegated. The other bit of fun was when Ely took on Soham for the Unwin cup and the game went to penalties, unfortunately Soham won but the kids enjoyed it. The lowlight was definitely Ely going down 6-1 to Bury at the Unwin.
August got off to a flyer with Ely reserves beating Northwold on the first day of the month and as usual August was a bumper month and I got to 6 games in total. Highlights were Villa's 1-0 win over Fiorentina with the increasingly useless Heskey getting on the scoresheet and Cambridge's 3-0 win over Gateshead. A game that got Sean hooked on Cambridge, although unfortunately we didn't get to Cambridge much across the season as a whole. The lowlight of the month was Ely going out to Wisbech in the FA Cup in a very dull game.
September was also a fairly busy month with 5 games. The month started with Ely getting a 0-0 draw at Newmarket, which was the first time I had seen a 0-0 draw since May 2008 when Arsenal Kyiv drew with FK Kharkiv. However, it wasn't a bad game and it was also the first time I had seen Ely keep a clean sheet, which was something encouraging. Highlights of the month included a 2-0 win for Villa over Pompey and Ely beating Diss town 5-4 after extra time in the Vase. The lowlight was probably Ely's 1-1 draw with King's Lynn Reserves in the Eastern Counties Cup. The game was dull and although Ely won on penalties the weather was dire and I decided to leave before the end. Also, I was more than sick of Ely not being able to finish teams off in 90 minutes in mid week cup competitions. I don't think I have ever seen them do so.
October was something of a disappointing month despite Ely starting the month off well with a 3-2 win over Eynesbury Rovers in the Vase. Despite also beating Hadleigh 1-0 they managed to lose to CRC twice and play convincingly bad and also lose to a not brilliant Dereham side. In fact the highlight of the month for me was definitely Ely City Reserves beating Lakenheath 3-2
Then came the winter of discontent November, December, January and February were terrible with matches being called off left right and centre and there was even a Cambridge match we had planned on going to that was called off due to a waterlogged pitch in March, which helps to explain why the season around this time of the year was quite threadbare in the amount of games I managed to get to.
In November I only managed to get to 2 games Cambridge lost to Kettering 2-0 at the time Kettering were flying high at the top of the conference were on an FA Cup run and looked brilliant. However, they were about to lose their manager to Posh ( he didn't last their long) and their chairman was at loggerheads with the council. So I was either fortunate or unfortunate ( I wanted Cambridge to win after all) to see the Poppies at their best. The future looked bright for them then. It now looks rather bleak. The only other match was Ely's 4-2 victory over Norwich United. It was a good result, but I can't remember that much about the game!
December was a disaster as far as the weather was concerned and I had planned a bit of a football bonanza in the Midlands over Christmas, but the only game I saw in the Midlands was a fine 3-0 victory for Villa over Hull. The other match I got to in December was the game between Ely and Newmarket that had been replayed. Ely had fielded an illegible player and the game had been a draw, but Ely won 3-2. Newmarket must have felt hard done by.
January, a new year, but the same crappy weather, and also I was doing some extra work at Anglia Ruskin to make up for the post Christmas skintness. At least the game I got to was a cracker and a brilliant day out as Villa beat Fulham 2-0 down in London.
The weather in February was still quite bad, but Ely fought to put some of their clogged fixtures on. A victory over Wisbech (finally! ) and local rivals Mildenhall Town saw Ely out of danger in the Eastern Counties and moving up towards the top half of the table.
March and things were finally back to normal. The first day of nice weather all year saw Histon take on Gateshead. This was a really good day out, the staff and fans at Histon were friendly, the bar was good although a little pricey. The only downside was the football itself. Histon were playing with mainly kids after financial meltdown and Gateshead are not the greatest team in the Conference. In fact they only managed to stay up because of the meltdown at Chester. The game finished 0-0, not surprisingly. I'll hopefully return to Histon next season, but if things don't get better I imagine it will be their last season at the top table of non league football. Another highlight of March was a trip to Portman Road to see Ipswich play and beat Scunthorpe with a dramatic last minute winner. It was a disappointing season for Ipswich. They try to play nice football, unlike Scunthorpe, or a fair number of Championship teams, but things didn't really go their way this season. Hopefully, things will be better for them next season and I would love to return there. The other game in March was my last Ely game for the season and Ely pulled off another impressive win beating Debenham LC 2-0.
April and it was a football fest in Kyiv. I've written so much about it here that I don't think I need to go into it again too much now. The highlights were probably the trips to Obolon Arena, although the results didn't go Obolon's way. The Dynamo game against Dnipro was also great entertainment, despite the controversy. The controversy was probably one of the major low points with the dodgy sending offs of 2 Arsenal players and one Dnipro player in the 2 games I saw at Dynamo stadium over shadowing the performances. On the subject of performances it was great to see Andriy Shevchenko playing well in a Dynamo shirt. I think that what disappointed me the most was the decline of Arsenal Kyiv. They finally finished the season just outside of the Europa League places, but the stupidity of playing in Boryspyl and the behaviour of the coach and president doesn't do them any favours. Another highlight, although not football related was a brilliant night out (or in) at Ewig's flat with my old mates from Arsenal Kyiv, Ewig and Sid.
When I got back home there were a few possibilities of games to go to, but I didn't manage to make it to any of them, so that's how the season ended.
The season started off pretty early and ironically July was one of the busiest of months in the season with a number of preseason friendllies. In fact the first match of the season for me was on 7 July when Ely took on Cambridge United in a friendly on a very wet evening in front of the largest crowd I have seen at the Unwin. The result wasn't great though as Ely lost 3-0. Other highlights of July included Villa's preseason friendly at Peterborough, which Villa won pretty easily with a team of kids and reserves and even then the writing was on the wall for a difficult season for Posh in the Championship. They went on to get through 3 managers and were easily relegated. The other bit of fun was when Ely took on Soham for the Unwin cup and the game went to penalties, unfortunately Soham won but the kids enjoyed it. The lowlight was definitely Ely going down 6-1 to Bury at the Unwin.
August got off to a flyer with Ely reserves beating Northwold on the first day of the month and as usual August was a bumper month and I got to 6 games in total. Highlights were Villa's 1-0 win over Fiorentina with the increasingly useless Heskey getting on the scoresheet and Cambridge's 3-0 win over Gateshead. A game that got Sean hooked on Cambridge, although unfortunately we didn't get to Cambridge much across the season as a whole. The lowlight of the month was Ely going out to Wisbech in the FA Cup in a very dull game.
September was also a fairly busy month with 5 games. The month started with Ely getting a 0-0 draw at Newmarket, which was the first time I had seen a 0-0 draw since May 2008 when Arsenal Kyiv drew with FK Kharkiv. However, it wasn't a bad game and it was also the first time I had seen Ely keep a clean sheet, which was something encouraging. Highlights of the month included a 2-0 win for Villa over Pompey and Ely beating Diss town 5-4 after extra time in the Vase. The lowlight was probably Ely's 1-1 draw with King's Lynn Reserves in the Eastern Counties Cup. The game was dull and although Ely won on penalties the weather was dire and I decided to leave before the end. Also, I was more than sick of Ely not being able to finish teams off in 90 minutes in mid week cup competitions. I don't think I have ever seen them do so.
October was something of a disappointing month despite Ely starting the month off well with a 3-2 win over Eynesbury Rovers in the Vase. Despite also beating Hadleigh 1-0 they managed to lose to CRC twice and play convincingly bad and also lose to a not brilliant Dereham side. In fact the highlight of the month for me was definitely Ely City Reserves beating Lakenheath 3-2
Then came the winter of discontent November, December, January and February were terrible with matches being called off left right and centre and there was even a Cambridge match we had planned on going to that was called off due to a waterlogged pitch in March, which helps to explain why the season around this time of the year was quite threadbare in the amount of games I managed to get to.
In November I only managed to get to 2 games Cambridge lost to Kettering 2-0 at the time Kettering were flying high at the top of the conference were on an FA Cup run and looked brilliant. However, they were about to lose their manager to Posh ( he didn't last their long) and their chairman was at loggerheads with the council. So I was either fortunate or unfortunate ( I wanted Cambridge to win after all) to see the Poppies at their best. The future looked bright for them then. It now looks rather bleak. The only other match was Ely's 4-2 victory over Norwich United. It was a good result, but I can't remember that much about the game!
December was a disaster as far as the weather was concerned and I had planned a bit of a football bonanza in the Midlands over Christmas, but the only game I saw in the Midlands was a fine 3-0 victory for Villa over Hull. The other match I got to in December was the game between Ely and Newmarket that had been replayed. Ely had fielded an illegible player and the game had been a draw, but Ely won 3-2. Newmarket must have felt hard done by.
January, a new year, but the same crappy weather, and also I was doing some extra work at Anglia Ruskin to make up for the post Christmas skintness. At least the game I got to was a cracker and a brilliant day out as Villa beat Fulham 2-0 down in London.
The weather in February was still quite bad, but Ely fought to put some of their clogged fixtures on. A victory over Wisbech (finally! ) and local rivals Mildenhall Town saw Ely out of danger in the Eastern Counties and moving up towards the top half of the table.
March and things were finally back to normal. The first day of nice weather all year saw Histon take on Gateshead. This was a really good day out, the staff and fans at Histon were friendly, the bar was good although a little pricey. The only downside was the football itself. Histon were playing with mainly kids after financial meltdown and Gateshead are not the greatest team in the Conference. In fact they only managed to stay up because of the meltdown at Chester. The game finished 0-0, not surprisingly. I'll hopefully return to Histon next season, but if things don't get better I imagine it will be their last season at the top table of non league football. Another highlight of March was a trip to Portman Road to see Ipswich play and beat Scunthorpe with a dramatic last minute winner. It was a disappointing season for Ipswich. They try to play nice football, unlike Scunthorpe, or a fair number of Championship teams, but things didn't really go their way this season. Hopefully, things will be better for them next season and I would love to return there. The other game in March was my last Ely game for the season and Ely pulled off another impressive win beating Debenham LC 2-0.
April and it was a football fest in Kyiv. I've written so much about it here that I don't think I need to go into it again too much now. The highlights were probably the trips to Obolon Arena, although the results didn't go Obolon's way. The Dynamo game against Dnipro was also great entertainment, despite the controversy. The controversy was probably one of the major low points with the dodgy sending offs of 2 Arsenal players and one Dnipro player in the 2 games I saw at Dynamo stadium over shadowing the performances. On the subject of performances it was great to see Andriy Shevchenko playing well in a Dynamo shirt. I think that what disappointed me the most was the decline of Arsenal Kyiv. They finally finished the season just outside of the Europa League places, but the stupidity of playing in Boryspyl and the behaviour of the coach and president doesn't do them any favours. Another highlight, although not football related was a brilliant night out (or in) at Ewig's flat with my old mates from Arsenal Kyiv, Ewig and Sid.
When I got back home there were a few possibilities of games to go to, but I didn't manage to make it to any of them, so that's how the season ended.
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