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.