football rambles

Ely receive the runners up trophy after the Norwich United game

Ely took on Norwich United in their last game of the season yesterday and were already guaranteed to finish the season as runners up in the Eastern Counties League, but it would have been nice for them to finish off with a win and they duly obliged. The weather however was more suitable for late Autumn than Spring, but the football definitely had an end of season feel about it, with both teams making mistakes that they probably wouldn't have if more had been at stake. Ely were also missing Josh Bridgeman and Ben Lawrence to injury and Austin Diaper to suspension. The first real chance of the game fell to Lewis McDonald who fluffed a brilliant lay off by Richard Chadwick on 8 minutes. The opening play was however pretty evenly balanced, although every Norwich attack was cut out by Adam Murray, which was probably just as well, as Lee Pacey in the Ely nets seemed to be struggling with an injury himself. On 19 minutes Richard Gammon had a real chance to put the Robins ahead after a c

Sean with the surprisingly huge Cambridgeshire Invitation Cup that Ely won against Soham last week. The photo was taken in the clubhouse before the game against Norwich United yesterday.

It has been a superb season for Thetford and at the start of the season I think that most people at the club would have been more than happy with promotion, which they had achieved a while back. For a long time thought they were at the top and after seeing off the challenge of Whitton United looked like they would walk their way into the Premier Division as Champions. However, a late surge by Godmanchester meant that Thetford were in second on goal difference and needed Godmanchester to slip up against Whitton or to hope that they beat Long Melford by 3 more goals than Godmanchester won by. Both teams looked pretty even for the first 10 minutes, but it was obviously Thetford who had the bit between their teeth in their endeavours to try and score as many as possible. The best chance in the opening encounters was when a mis-hit clearance by Paul Wood in the Melford Road hit Thetford hot-shot Matt Dixon and nearly went into the back of the goal. One thing to note though was that even in

A cross from Parky early on in the Cambridgeshire Invitation Cup Final

I took the camera to the cup final, but the bloody thing is on its last legs, so apologies for the even worse than usual quality.

On Wednesday night Ely took on local rivals Soham at Cambridge United's Abbey Stadium in the final of the Cambridgeshire Invitation Cup. There was probably an equal number of fans of both teams but the Ely fans were definitely making most of the noise. Both teams seemed to be equally matched, but Soham probably had the best of the early chances. Nevertheless it was Ely who struck first when some silky skills from Chris Sterecki, after I had just been remarking on how poor he had been for most of the season when he got a chance, found Chadders unmarked in the box and he slotted home to put the Robins 1-0 up. One minute later he thought that he had doubled Ely's lead but he was ruled offside. Soham came back at Ely and Dubi Ogbonna was looking especially sharp, but Ely were looking sharper in front of goal and on 34 minutes Sterecki went on another mazing run, beat most of the Soham team and then threaded it through to Josh Bridgeman who made it 2-0. Ely now looked in complete co

Forest clear twice under pressure from the Posh.

Joel Lynch wins yet another free kick.

Dexter Blackstock lurks behind the Posh players as Forest get ready to take a free kick.

Coming up... some photos from Peterborough v Forest by Nadiya.

Yesterday the Easter football continued when we went to London Road to see Peterborough take on Nottingham Forest in the Championship. When I bought the tickets Forest were in dreadful form, so I had been looking forward to seeing Posh beat one of my least favourite teams of yesteryear. A lot of neutrals don't seem to have anything against Forest, but back when they were good they always seemed to annoy me. First they always seemed to win from a dubiously won free kick that was put in by Stuart Pearce after another Forest player pushed over someone in the wall to make a gap. If it wasn't that it would be a dodgy penalty. Then there was the appalling treatment of away fans who were kept behind for hours and generally treated like crap and their total flaunting of ticketing rules. Oh, and they are a bunch of scabs. I had totally forgotten about these prejudices, but they all came flooding back yesterday. Apart from running into their obnoxious fans on trains and in town their tea

It was never going to be easy for Ely to get a win against Stanway Rovers on Saturday after losing Ben Lawrence to injury, and Chaddders and Pacey being suspended after the ridiculous antics of the referee at Yarmouth. Apart from the Robins missing a centre half, a centre forward and a goalkeeper, Stanway have been one of the most improved teams in the second half of the season and have been scoring for fun. The wheels also seemed to have come off Ely's championship pretensions after losing 6-0 away at Woodbridge the week before. However despite all these fears it looked like Ely were going to keep up the pressure on Wroxham and get back to winning ways when after only 4 minutes Austin Diaper slotted home. On 16 minutes the Robins doubled their lead when a cleverly worked move saw Adam Murray and Brady Stone (who was back in the team for the first real time this season in place of Ben Lawrence) power into the box and cause confusion with Adam Murray connecting with the ball and hea