football rambles

Yesterday Ely met Gorleston at the Unwin Ground. The visitors have had a decent start to the season and are among the early pacesetters, so despite the fact they lost last week they were going to prove a tougher test than Downham did on Tuesday night. Ely, however did have a full strength squad to choose from for the first time this season so hopes that they were finally going to turn the corner were also high. Ely started off dominating the game and a clever through ball by Adam Murray on 10 minutes was met by the head of Paul Claydon and the Robins took an early lead. The visitors started to get into the game shortly after and on 14 minutes Pacey made a great save from the visitors, although the linesman was flagging for offside. After this Gorelston put Ely under increasing pressure, but the defence was finally at full strength and the Parkinson brothers looked dangerous on the break. Neither of the sides had any real chances in the first half until Gorleston hit the post on 41

Last night Ely took on Downham Market (Downham Town) in the league cup. Downham are in the first division and have never been one of the stronger clubs even in the lower division. Therefore it was a chance for the Robins to either give themselves a confidence boost after an indifferent start to the season or could have been an early nail in this season's coffin. Fortunately, it was the former rather than the latter that we witnessed last night. Ely got off to the perfect start when a Luke Parkinson cross got the faintest of touches off Adam Murray (well, he seems to be claiming it, although it may have been an own goal) to put the home team in the lead. Ely continued by bombarding the Downham goal with shots. Downham had their first, and probably their only chance of the entire game on 20 minutes, but managed to almost hit the corner flag when they should have scored. We weren't to know that Downham weren't going to create much then though, so it was a great relief when a

A Wolves attack is broken down in the first half. Mark Little in Peterborough's defence. Gabriel Zakuani Robert Olejnik getting ready for Ebanks-Blake's penalty Sean gives a press conference at London Road

The season hasn't exactly got off to a good start for any of my clubs, but Peterborough are doing even worse than any of the others. Seven games in and Posh are still to register a point in the Championship. Yesterday we went to see Posh take on Wolves at London Road and to be honest we didn't really expect Peterborough to get a win from a Wolves team who have made some good money in the transfer window and have reinvested it wisely in the squad. It was good to get to a professional match though and we had a really good time even though the result didn't go Borough's way. The first half hour saw Wolves in the ascendancy and although 'the Football League Paper' gave Mark Little and Gabriel Zakuani low marks both of them did well to keep the Wolves at bay for the opening section. Slowomir Peszko and Bakary Sako were causing the Posh all sort of problems, but they seemed equal to the attack. However, on 34 minutes Ebanks-Blake fell over Grant McCann's leg

On Saturday Ely took on Brantham Athletic at the Unwin and with points, apart from in the fine win over Wivenhoe becoming a rare commodity, it was definitely time for Ely to register some points. It looked like attack was going to be the best form of defence with Chadwick, Diaper, Taz and Claydon all starting for City. Pacey was suspended and replaced by young Jamie Greygoose in goals, but both Ben Lawrence and Adam Murray were back where they belong in the centre of defence. Ely started off brightly enough and were only denied a lead on 2 minutes when Brantham managed to keep 3 shots in quick succession from going over the line. It was to prove to be a false dawn though as the only other real chance that either side had in the first half was when Adam Murray came close with a header from a corner on 13 minutes. Murray had a similar chance on 49 minutes, but 2 minutes later a mix up between Darren Coe and Jamie Greygoose saw the hapless right back put the ball in his own net and

One tell tale sign of when you are going to see one team absolutely trounce another one is by looking at them in the warm-up. The team that is going to score a hat full of goals tends to be doing a good mixture of exercise and skills practice, where as the team that is on a hiding to nothing tends to half heartedly kick the ball around. The reason that I have made this observation is that on Sunday I went to Cambridge Women V Norwich City Women in the South East Combination. It was the second game that I have seen Cambridge Women play and despite the heat yesterday, on neither occasion have either of the teams been out on the pitch warming up. Yesterday the first half hour was some of the most lacklustre football that I have seen and neither of the teams looked like they were ready to play. Finally on 34 minutes something happened when a Norwich player was left unmarked and they took the lead. Cambridge then also woke up and on 40 minutes should have put the ball in an open net, bu

Taz was surprisingly back in the reserves when Ely took on Chatteris on Saturday. After a brilliant performance against Wivenhoe last week he probably thought that he had done enough to cement a place in the first team. Claydon was recalled for the first team and probably did enough to earn his place scoring twice in a game where Ely capitulated a 2-0 lead to draw 2-2 with basement team Diss. Anyway back to the action at the Unwin. Taz was back and if he's a hero in the first team, he's like a God in the Reserves. He was also joined by his mate who's name I don't know apart from it being Sam and him having a bit of a temper. He looked a lot more confident for the Reserves than he did when given a chance for the first time. Ely took the lead on 13 minutes when the right back swung in a great corner. It was probably going in any way, but the keeper just parried it into his own goal. Taz showed that he was playing below his level on 28 minutes and hit the bar. However

The start of the season for the Under 8s got off to a great start when Ely Crusaders beat Littleport Town 10-2 away in their first match. The picture shows them straight after the match

Over the weekend we had probably the best weather we have had all year and not that I usually seem to stray too far from grassroots football lately, this weekend was perhaps a bit more grassroots than most. Saturday started with a trip to see Sean's Under 8s team play away at Littleport in their first game of the season. Ely City's first team were away in the afternoon and as there didn't seem to be any other football between Littleport and the Wash we came back in to town to see Ely's reserves take on Chatteris Town in the Cambridgeshire Senior League. Then the weekend was finished off with a return to the Unwin Ground to see Cambridge Women take on Norwich Women in the South East Combination.

Yesterday Ely took on Wivenhoe in the league. The Robins took to the pitch in a brand new kit and a brand new look to the team. That all sounds positive and the new kit looked nice, but the mood around the ground was definitely less than upbeat. After the disappointing performance in the cup in the week Taylor Parr and Lewis Thompson walked away from the club. Added to this Claydon, Sterecki, Lawrence, Murray, Impey and Wilson weren't available. In defence Luke Freckwell was brought in from the reserves and Josh Bridgeman was brought into Central Defence despite normally being a midfielder. The inexperienced Walters was with Josh Curry in midfield and with the players that they had available they had to go with Gammon and Chadwick up front with Chisonga and Diaper having being finally given a chance joining the four pronged attack. It looked like a makeshift team and it was.In fact Chairman Bob Button looked like he was going to hang himself before the game and as Ely only had