football rambles

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

There's a chill back in the air and the nights are drawing in, so it can only mean one thing, yes the Cambridgeshire Invitation Cup is back on the fixture list. Maybe it's not one of the most glamorous competitions in the calendar and the fact that it coincides with a drop in the temperature and is usually on the same night as Champions League games means that attendances aren't great it has a special place in my affections. First of all the mixture of the usual step 5 suspects, glorified pub teams and the local 'big' teams means that there is a chance to see other teams, put a decent run together and get to a few away games at grounds you wouldn't normally visit. The first season I was down here Ely put together a decent run taking in a mammoth comedy of errors and number of games against Great Shelford, a fine win away to Soham and an unlucky defeat at Cambridge City. The last two seasons though have been a bit of a disappointment with a dreadful thrashing by

Ely took on bottom club Wivenhoe Town at the Unwin today and after the high scoring games of late we were hoping to see the Robins bag a few more today. The first chance of the game fell to Wivenhoe in the 2nd minute, but after that it was pretty much one way traffic with Ely having all the chances the best of the chances falling to Josh Bridgeman, who hit the post on 20 minutes and then came close again after some fantastic play by David Wilson 4 minutes later. Ely seemed to have corner after corner and shot after shot, but the ball didn't seem to want to go in the goal and Austen Diaper rattled the woodwork on 39 minutes when he hit the crossbar, but at half time it was still somehow 0-0. Wivenhoe started the second half a bit more livelier and had a few chances in the first 10 minutes after the break, but then Ely got back in the game and finally on 62 minutes they got a goal through a Sam Parkinson penalty. Ely continued to dominate after that, but the game finished 1-0 and was

Although it might be known locally as the shabby, Cambridge United's Abbey Stadium feels like Wembley when you are watching Step 5 football. Last night Ely City took on CRC at the Abbey in the Eastern Counties League Premier and again there were plenty of goals and unlike in recent seasons they weren't all in Ely's net. The game started off in the drizzle and the referee seemed likely to be the star of the game after booking Richard Chadwick for diving in an innocuous looking place on the pitch and stopping the game twice as two Ely players were showing the bottom of black shorts under their red shorts, which must have 'clashed' with the black shorts of CRC. And that was about all that happened in the first 25 minutes. During this period CRC put some nice passes together and Ely showed a decent level of commitment and tenacity, but nobody showed any real ability to put a decent shot on target. Then CRC got a penalty out of nowhere, literally out of nowhere as when t

If you have bothered to click on the link below or have already seen the video on Youtube you perhaps don't need to read this report, but hopefully it gives you a better feel for the match from last night when Ely took on Haverhill in what proved to be another match full of goals. The first 20 minutes were fairly evenly balanced with most of the play being part of a midfield battle. Ely's defence seemed to be able to deal with most of what Haverhill threw at them and Ely seemed to lack a bit of bite with the final threw ball. The two best chances of this period falling to Austen Diaper, who glanced the ball across the goalmouth on 4 minutes and Luke Parkinson who came close with a header on 14. Ely broke the deadlock on 24 minutes when a brilliant free kick from Adam Dalby on the left was headed in strongly by Adam Murray. This seemed to wake Rovers up a bit and on 31 minutes a bit of a defensive cock up led to the ball finally being headed in and the teams were back on level t