football rambles

January - a bumper month with failing floodlights The year got off to a fine start with plenty of games coming in thick and fast after a November and December that had seen a number of cancellations due to snow and rain. Ely got off to a good start with a win over Newmarket. I went to Fulham v Peterborough in the cup which saw Fulham win 6-2, we were sat near Barry Fry and George Boyd in the stand and just behind Posh manager Gary Johnson in the dug out. At the time we didn't know it but a few days later Johnson was on his way out and Darren Ferguson was on his way back to London Road. In January I also made my first trip to Thetford Town where they drew 2-2 with Ipswich Wanderers in a game that went on for ages thanks to the floodlights packing in. February - Wind and rain The bad weather was back in February with yet more cancellations happening. The highlight of the month was a fine win for Ely City over CRC, where the wind assisted the team more than a little bit. March - FA V

Here is a record of the top ten teams on results of games I was at in 2011. 1 Ely City P 23 W 12 D 8 L 3 F 48 A 30 Pts 44 2 Thetford Town P 4 W 3 D 1 L 0 F 10 A 2 Pts 10 3 Peterborough United P 5 W 3 D 1 L 1 F 8 A 9 Pts 10 4 King's Lynn Town P 3 W 2 D 1 L 0 F 7 A 2 Pts 7 5 Needham Market P 2 W 1 D 1 L 0 F 5 A 4 Pts 4 6 Mildenhall Town P 2 W 1 D 1 L 0 F 5 A 4 Pts 4 7 Fulham P 1 W 1 D 0 L 0 F 6 A 2 Pts 3 8 Paris Saint-Germain P 1 W 1 D 0 L 0 F 3 A 0 Pts 3 9 Rocester P 1 W 1 D 0 L 0 F 3 A 0 Pts 3 10 Biggleswade Town P 1 W 1 D 0 L 0 F 2 A 0 Pts 3 Most goals in a match = 8 on 8 January Fulham 6 Peterborough United 2 (FA Cup Round 3) Biggest home win = Thetford Town 5 Halstead Town 0 on 29 October (Eastern Counties League Division 1) Biggest away win = March Town United 2 Ely City 4 on 27 September (Eastern Counties League Cup Preliminary Round)

Well after a couple of quiet months, I still managed to get to 43 games and see 133 goals in 2011. The most notable thing about the year is perhaps that it is the first year since 1994 that I haven't visited a foreign stadium. I'll get on with a full review of the year after looking at the stadiums and the teams performances of the year. 1 The Unwin Ground, Ely (Ely City) 21 games 2 Mundford Road, Thetford (Thetford Town) 4 games 3 London Road, Peterborough (Peterborough United) 4 games 4 The Walks, Kings Lynn (Kings Lynn Town) 2 games 5 Villa Park, Birmingham (Aston Villa) 2 games 6 The Emirates Stadium, London (Arsenal) 2 games 7 The Abbey Stadium, Cambridge (Cambridge United and CRC) 2 games 8 Craven Cottage, London (Fulham) 1 game 9 Recreation Way, Mildenhall (Mildenhall Town) 1 game 10 Hillsfield, Rocester (Rocester) 1 game 11 Stonebridge Road, Northfleet (Ebbsfleet United) 1 game 12 Bloomfields, Needham Market (Needham Market) 1 game 13 GER Ground, March (March Town Unite

Yesterday Peterborough took on bottom side Coventry City in the Championship and got their first clean sheet of the season, it wasn't all good news though, although after a run of bad results it was pretty critical that Posh got the three points. The first 20 minutes were not a typical performance by Posh with both sides looking reluctant to go forward and a Lee Tomlin shot that went wide being the only chance either side got in this period of play. For the rest of the first half the better chances went to Coventry, who despite having the chances never really looked like scoring. Lukas Jutkiewicz and Cyrus Christie both had good chances for the Sky Blues, but they definitely lacked a bit of bite at the end and the target man Clive Platt looked like a poor man's Emile Heskey, he really was that bad. Peterborough meanwhile lacked a creative spark and with the absence of Grant McCann, who is injured, Emile Sinclair failed to get much service and when he did he showed a poor first

Yesterday we went to Peterborough United V Coventry City. Here are some not very good pictures from the day, but it was that cold I have an excuse for freezing hands. Here are a couple of pictures of Posh warming up: The teams line up: Some blurred match action:

Next Saturday we are off to London Road again, this time Posh are taking on one of my least favourite teams of all time; Coventry City, who were strangely the first team I saw playing against Stoke at the old Victoria Ground in 1983. Anyway, it's not looking good for the Sky Blues this season, as they currently sit at the bottom of the Championship and all doesn't seem well at the club, it hasn't always been like this though. Coventry were formed as Singers after the factory that made bicycles in the City in 1883. Their original kit was thought to be pink like the colours of the factory, there is also evidence that the Sky Blues wore sky blue in this period too, but that may have been a change shirt. One of the earliest shirts on record was a number that mixed both blue and pink, which dates back to 1889. From 1890 to 1891 Singers adopted a black strip with a pink 'S' on the breast to represent the factory. During the next few years Singers donned a black and red nu

Well like the last couple of years November and December are proving to be a quiet period in the season. Unlike the last two years, it isn't because the weather is bad and that there are no matches on, but rather that after the last couple of years I decided to do some extra work on Saturdays in anticipation that most of the matches would be off.

Yesterday we went to London Road for the clash in the Championship between Peterborough and Middlesbrough. The first half was a bit of a disappointment. Middlesbrough are clearly a decent team and should be looking at a play-off place at the least. They were clearly the stronger side in the first half but they didn't really look like scoring, although Peterborough seemed keen to give them a helping hand with some shocking blunders in defence. That's perhaps a bit unfair as the Posh defence saw a lot of the ball in the first period with them unable to get the ball out of defence. Anyway, the half drew to an end with neither side scoring, which wasn't helped by a whistle happy ref. The second half was a lot better, but it was Boro rather than Borough who scored first with Matthew Bates putting the visitors ahead with a header on 58 minutes. Posh fought back though and Boyd and Tomlin both came close only to be denied by Jason Steele in the Boro goal. Grant McCann had a go at

Yesterday Ely were away to Brantham and the only game nearby seemed to be March v Cornard, so I decided to go to watch the reserves play Leverington Sport in the first round of the Cliff Bullan Challenge Cup. Basically it was a glorified park game. It's not often you see a right back having a fag as the game kicks off or hear a referee say 'get up you tart' when a player gets down easily,but as I still needed to pay £2.50 to go in I think that it counts as a game. The game though was big on commitment. Ely's centre halves managed to keep Leverington at bay for most of the first half. They had a few chances themselves, but never really threatened to score. The Ely Reserves keeper did well and could perhaps step up if Lee Pacey does leave the first team. Ely didn't manage to hold on until half time though and Leverington went ahead on 41 minutes. At half time I spoke to a couple of the A-Team players who had been playing against Cherry Hinton and had lost 8-1. It soun

Yesterday Ely took on Gorleston and as has been usual of late there were plenty of goals. Gorleston were quick out of the blocks and Lee Pacey had to get down well to block a Gorleston shot on 3 minutes. Ely soon got back into the swing of things though and Adam Wallis was unlucky to shoot wide. This led to a sustained period of pressure by Ely, but the Gorleston defence were fairly resolute and the attackers looked dangerous on the counter attack. On 20 minutes the visitors caught the Ely defence napping and were 1-0 up. Ely continued to pile on the pressure and Gorleston continued to mop it up and on 38 minutes things went from bad to worse for the Robins when a well worked move from the Gorleston players led to a second goal and it looked like Ely would be lucky to get anything out of the game. If they were to get anything it was probably necessary that they got something in the first half. Luckily Ely did strike back quickly and a Ben Lawrence throw was flicked on by Adam Murray an

Yesterday I went to see Thetford play Halstead in Divsion 1 of the Eastern Counties League. Going into the game Thetford had played 8 and won 8 in the league and are also still in the FA Vase having beaten Premier League high-flyers Dereham 3-0 away in the last round. Considering that they have gone on this run without centre forward Matt Blake or winger Bruno Tavares playing much of a role is even more impressive. Both Blake and Tavares were back for the game, but as Halstead themselves had a record in the league of won 5 drawn 2 and lost 1 it didn't look like it was going to be a pushover. The game started off with both teams appearing to be fairly equal, although Thetford had the best of the early chances. A speculative shot by Bruno Tavares on 7 minutes nearly went in over the keepers head and Matt Blake had the ball in the net on 11 minutes, but was offside. Matt Dixon, who in Blakes absence has scored 7 league goals and 7 cup goals came close 26 minutes and hit the crossbar.

On Saturday I will hopefully going to see Thetford take on Halstead Town in Division 1 of the Eastern Counties League. Halstead town at first glance look like they are probably a pretty likeable team, who can't like a team that where quartered shirts like it's still the nineteenth Century? Their record in the Eastern Counties League and the way they lurch from unparalleled success to abject failure also endears them. At the moment they are in one of their boost rather than boom periods. That said I shouldn't get my hopes up too much, as they will perhaps turn out to be an objectionable bunch as teams who wear black and white quite often do! Halstead were formed in 1879, but due to the relative geographical isolation of the town only played friendlies until they were admitted to the North Essex League in 1894. Their first piece of silverware coming 8 years later when they beat Chingford in the final of the 1902 Essex Junior Cup. After this early success Halstead flirted with

Hibernian at the moment seem intent on bringing out even more shirts than Borussia Dortmund, so it seemed like a good idea to have a look at their history of their shirts. Recently they brought out a shirt to commemorate the 20th anniversary of their Scottish League Cup Final victory over Dunfermiline. The shirt appears to be pretty accurate, despite being made by a different manufacturer and the original can be seen below, as worn by Keith Wright scoring in the 2-0 victory over the Pars. That said it all seems like a bit of a con for the Hi-Bees faithful with them also having a new home and away kit and a third kit. What they need to have a third kit for is anybody's guess, but they have brought out the lilac effort below that was worn in a home game a couple of weeks ago agianst Motherwell. They lost and Motherwell also wore their away kit. The lilac kit has been advertised by the manufacturers as a homage to yesteryear, but Hibs, who were formed in 1875 first wore a white shir

A new feature in the Villa programme is where fans choose their team of Aston Villa players from the ages. I also spent many a cold winter night debating this over a bottle of cheap brandy in Kyiv and on the what now seem like prehistoric internet chat sites of a decade or so ago. After having a decent think of it here is mine. Goal Keeper: Nigel Spink 361 Villa League appearances (0 League goals)1977 - 1996 Spinky joined Villa from non-league Chelmsford City when he was only 18 years old. He had to wait nearly 5 years until he made his debut though, and what a debut it was. He came off the bench, well legend has it he was actually having a hot dog in the stand to make his Villa debut in the European Cup Final in 1982, which Villa went on to win 1-0 against Bayern Munich, which was thanks in no small part to his goalkeeping prowess. He went on to become a regular in the Villa team for the best part of 14 years and the poster I had of him on the wall nearly faded out. After Villa he we

On Saturday we went to the big Derby match of the weekend when Villa took on West Brom at Villa Park. All in all we had a good day out, although the result wasn't great and the refereeing from Phil Dowd would have embarrassed a referee at County League level. Villa started off well enough and dominated the opening exchanges, although N'Zogbia and Hutton quite frankly looked out of their depth even when Villa were fully in control of the game. Villa duly took the lead when Gabby Agbonlahor was fouled in the box (the foul is shown at the top of the page) and Darren Bent popped the penalty away in style to make it 1-0 on 23 minutes. Villa were looking comfortable, but seemed to lack the creativity of a wide man, whether N'Zogbia really is out of his depth or Mc.Leish and his disregard of the Villa tradition of exciting wing play is the problem only time will tell. Baggies had felt aggrieved on 19 minutes when Shane Long limped off after a tackle from Alan Hutton, I think he go

On Saturday I'm going to my first Premier League game of the season when Villa take on West Brom in what is the derby game now that the Blues have gone. They might be the local neighbours and Villa's traditional enemy, but it's certainly worth looking at their history. West Bromwich Albion started off as West Bromwich Strollers when they were formed as a team for the George Salter Spring's Works in 1878. They got the name Strollers allegedly after they walked to Wednesbury to buy a football so that they could play. Their first strip was the rather fetching white shirt with a blue sash and hat a baggy trousers shown below. However, they didn't get their nickname 'The Baggies' from this strip rather it was from when their fans turned up to Villa straight from work wearing the baggy aprons of the metal works that got them the name not long after their inception. Their next change of kit came in 1881 when they adopted yellow and white quarters and also wore the