football rambles

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