football rambles

It's a bit off topic, but here is my traditional end of year play list of the bands that I have listened to most this year: http://grooveshark.com/playlist/End+Of+2012/81177925 End of 2012 by jim_bomb on Grooveshark

January The year started off with an Ely victory at home to Mildenhall on 2nd of January in fact Ely continued their good form and I also saw them beat Walsham-le Willows. The only defeat that I witnessed was when Peterborough were convincingly beaten by Portsmouth, who themselves were on the verge of imploding. February The bad weather continued in February, although it did improve towards the end of the month and if Ely's 3-0 win over Felixstowe and Walton was convincing enough, I was in for a real treat when I saw the biggest win that I have ever seen when Thetford beat Cornard 10-0. It could have been far worse for the visiting team as Thetford were on electric form and were 5-0 up within 20 minutes. March March was a bumper month of mixed fortunes. It started with Ely beating a sorry Great Yarmouth team 2-0 at home before suffering a rare home defeat against fellow title contenders and eventual champions, Wroxham. Ely then faced Yarmouth again, but this time away. Ely w

Here are the teams in order of games won and points scored from the games that I went to in 2012: 1 Ely City 2 Thetford Town 3 Aston Villa 4 Wisbech Town 5 Stevenage 6 Portsmouth 7 Cambridge Women 8 Stanway Rovers 9 Bugbrooke St Michael's 10 Deeping Rangers The most goals that I saws in a match was 10 and these were also the biggest home and away wins: 25/2/12 Thetford Town 10 Cornard United 0 17/11/12 Hatfield Town 3 Ely City 7 The stadiums that I visited were The Unwin Ground, Ely (23 times) London Road, Peterborough (4 times) The Abbey Stadium, Cambridge (3 times) Mundford Road, Thetford (2 times) The Walks, King's Lynn (2 times) The Wellesley Ground, Great Yarmouth (once) Broadhall Lane, Stevenage (once) Villa Park, Birmingham (once) Gosling Sports Ground, Welwyn Garden City (once) Recreation Way, Mildenhall (once) I saw a total of 39 games and a whopping 143 goals

Today it didn't start raining until later in the afternoon, so it was a good job that Ely's trip to Mildenhall was scheduled for 11 o'clock and although it was cold it was sunny. At the start of the day Mildenhall were top of the league, and Ely were 13th. However, Ely after a poor start to the season have managed to put a decent run of results together and due to the bad weather and an extended run in the Vase they have a fair few games in hand. We were hoping for a belated decking of the Hall, but it was always going to be a tough game. Mildenhall were the team who were fastest out of the blocks and came close from a free kick on 6 minutes. Ely managed to get into the game at about the quarter of an hour mark when Porky Claydon came close with a header. The game was then end to end stuff, but it was Mildenhall who took the lead on 20 minutes when Kris Thomas put the hosts ahead. They only stayed in the lead for 2 minutes though when Adam Murray forced a diving save f

Love them or hate them the Real Madrid shirt is probably one of the most iconic in the game. They have had such an influence that clubs have often tried to mimic their all white kit. In 1961 Don Revie took over at Leeds and changed the clubs strip from yellow and blue to all white in an attempt to make the club 'the Yorkshire Real Madrid'. Crystal Palace also had a brief stint in an all white kit between 1964-65 after they decided to honour the Madrid club who played them in a game to open the London club's floodlights. Real Madrid were founded in 1902 and have always worn white shirts with white shorts, although the first kit was accompanied by black socks rather than the more familiar white socks of today. Real Madrid were also open to outside influences though and in 1925-26 they introduced black shorts after seeing London side Corinthians wear this combination. They were impressed by the idea of having a kit that looked like an English team's. however after l

If ever there was a day worth celebrating it would be World Football Day, and according to the United Nations that's today - 10 December. I'm not sure if it is a real thing, as the only place I can find anything about it is on the Shakhtar Donetsk site. Happy Football Day, everyone!

On Saturday I had been looking forward to what was going to be the highlight of the season so far with Ely travelling to Bethnal Green in the FA Vase. After a midweek snow alert when South Cambridgeshire and Essex was hit by a flurry of the white stuff I gave Dean a call to see what the situation was. I felt a bit happier to hear that in London it was cold but sunny and as the tube ran under the pitch at Mile End Stadium the chance of the game being off was slim. The weather was pretty stable until Friday evening when there was a bit of a downpour, typically when I was standing outside at Crusaders' training session, but nothing to worry about. Therefore I was a bit shocked when an hour later Mick called me to tell me the game was off. The next day was cold but sunny in both Ely and London. The Crusaders' game was on and I thought about going to either King's Lynn or Thetford in the afternoon. However, after the Crusaders' game I was suffering with flu and then spen

Next weekend Vase fever returns when Ely visit Bethnal Green of the Essex League in the 3rd Round. Bethnal Green play at the Mile End Stadium in Tower Hamlets. Like Hatfield's ground in the last round it's a multi-sports complex, which includes facilities for most sports you could think of. Bethnal Green are fittingly a community club and share the ground with Sporting Bengal of the Kent League. As a club that were founded for that very purpose they are a modern club. The club started out in 2000 and only became a senior club in 2009 when they won the Middlesex League and joined the competitive Essex League. In 2009 -2010 they finished fifth and won both the cups on offer, which is indeed commendable when you look at some of the quality on offer in the league. At the time of writing they lie 4th in the Essex Senior League after finishing 9th last season.

It's that time of year again when the local football is at the mercy of the weather. At this time of year I usually volunteer for some extra Saturday work, as apart from anything else I could do with the cash. This year has been no different and I'm quite glad I volunteered for work last Saturday and this Saturday. Last week Ely's match against Haverhill fell foul of the weather, the pitch was waterlogged. This week I'm working too, but as Crusaders' game this morning was off due to a frozen pitch I would have probably been stuck at home anyway. Let's just hope the weather improves next weekend for a trip to the Mile End Stadium when Ely take on Bethnal Green in the next round of the Vase.