football rambles

In the evening it was all back to Ely City for the trophy presentations. Here are a few pictures from that.

Here's Sean receiving his medal at the end of the tournament. Here he is with the medal afterwards, not looking that cheerful considering

Here are a couple of pictures of Sean in action from the tournament that Crusaders' had yesterday morning.

Yesterday was the end of season for Sean's team, Ely Crusaders. Fortunately we finally had something like decent weather and I think that it was the most time I spent at Ely City's Unwin Ground, which is ironic as the season has been over for a month. That accompanied by more good weather today still means that I haven't got round to the end of the season review, oh well four days off next week, so maybe I'll finally get round to it then.

I've not written anything for a couple of weeks because I've been living in hope that I might squeeze one more match in, but it doesn't look like that is going to happen now, so I'll get on with the end of season review soon. I'm also smarting a bit about having a flat sitting empty in Ukraine with the Euros around the corner, and where will I be? Sitting in a crappy office in Cambridge.

We had been planning to go to the Stevenage v Bury game for a few weeks and when I checked on the website it had always said it was a pay on the door affair and a category B game. Unfortunately, although I knew that it had become a must win match for Boro. One that they had to win to get into the playoffs, I didn't think to check until the night before. So, I was a bit dismayed when I saw that they had launched e-ticketing (finally) and to get there early in order to avoid disappointment. Get there early we certainly did. We arrived there at 12:30 for the 3PM kick off, but there were no queues. We went to the clubs shop and had a drink and then joined the queue which now consisted of 5 people. That said it was a good job we got in early, as we got a good spot on the half way line, which we wouldn't have if we had arrived later as we had previously planned. It was a big game for Stevenage, but Bury who had been the visitors to Broadhall Lane on the last day of the previous

Shh, don't tell anyone. For some strange reason some over officious steward told me that photography wasn't permitted in Broadhall Lane, but I managed to get a few photos before he gave me a ticking off. We were at the game early as we didn't have tickets. It's a shame I couldn't get any photos during the game as we were pitch side and it was a cracking atmosphere, but I really didn't wan my camera stamping on by Captain Mainwaring. Seems strange that I saw hundreds of people taking photos at the Cup Final on TV today, but you can't at Stevenage. East Terrace: We were on the East Terrace. We had a lot of space when we took up residency at 1:30, but at 3PM we could hardly move. South Stand: Like a few clubs that have done redevelopments the best stand in the house is where the away fans are accommodated for. This was the only place where there was any space. North Terrace: The smaller terrace behind the goal West Stand: The club'

Stevenage Borough were formed as recently as 1976 and most of their success has come in the last few seasons. In fact today when we went to see them play Bury and clinch 6th place in League 1 it was their highest ever finish in the league and as it was the game that fired them into the playoffs it could be argued that it was also the biggest game that they have ever had, although the game that they have set up against Sheffield United next week is going to be much much bigger. Stevenage Borough or Stevenage, as they are now known came into existence after the demise of local club Stevenage Athletic. After kicking around in some very minor leagues they entered the United Counties League in 1980 and moved back to the Broadhall Lane ground that they now play at and had been originally occupied by Stevenage Athletic. In 1984 they entered the Isthmian League and kicked around the various divisions in that league before joining the Conference in 1994 when it was still only one div