football rambles

http://grooveshark.com/playlist/July+2013/89019666 July 2013 by jim_bomb on Grooveshark Here are the most played bands of July, some of them will need little introduction, so where that happens I won't bother. 1 The Stone Roses - Breaking into Heaven 2 The Courteeners - You overdid it doll 3 Tokyo Police Club - Wait up This is Tokyo Police Club's first appearance on a monthly playlist and the Canadian band are one of my alltime favourites 4 New Order - The Perfect Kiss 5 Blood Red Shoes - It's Getting Boring By the Sea. A great track from the Brighton based indie duo. 6 The Twang - Took the Fun As they are Brummies and Villa fans I was always going to like this band. It's just unusual that they haven't appeared previously on one of these playlists. 7 A Guy Called Gerald - Hot Lemonade A fun track from Manchester's pioneering junglist. 8 Flunk -Kebab Shop 3AM A not particularly Norweigian sounding song from this Norwegian band. 9 Mona

At the end of last season it was rumoured that Cambridge Women wouldn't be coming back to the Unwin this season. There are probably rumours that I have deserted the place though, as I am having to miss the whole of preseason because of a variety of reasons and the start of the season for a holiday. I was there last Sunday to play in a charity match and both myself and the Cambridge Women's team were there today. It was Cambridge's first preseason game and they probably weren't too confident about facing Gillingham who are higher up in the Southern Premier League. And unusually the game was divided into 3 thirds of 30 minutes. For the first 15 minutes Cambridge looked the better of the sides and the Gillingham defence looked far from effective. At the other end the visitors did seem quite useful though and had the best of the opening chances with a couple of clever moves that just ended up going wide. At the same time Laura Baker looked like she had the beating

Lowestoft in blue and Kirkley & Pakefield in their change strip of yellow feeling the pressure.

It might seem a bit incongruous, but what a brilliant idea Lowestoft Town FC had on Saturday, which was my birthday, and they managed to combine two of my favourite things when they held a beer festival and also had a free match to attend with the Trawlerboys taking on local rivals Kirkley & Pakefield. Lowestoft used to play in the Eastern Counties League, but they are now riding high in the Ryman Premier, so they were always going to be favourites against the team from down the road. The Trawlerboys dominated the first half hour and the Royals were pinned in their own half. The home team didn't create that many chances though with Michael Frew hitting the post being the closest they came from scoring. They did take the lead on 38 minutes when Chris Henderson who didn't seem to realise it was a friendly at a beer festival put the team into the lead with a well struck 20 yard shot. In the second half the home team seemed to have found their shooting boots and

There are some decent football documentaries out there and here are a few that I have enjoyed recently. 1 The story of FC Start. The infamous death match between the Nazis and a team of Dynamo Kyiv in World War 2, that I have covered elsewhere on this site ( http://footballrambles.blogspot.co.uk/2008/08/death-match-soviet-propaganda-and.html ) 2 A really interesting documentary about the North Korean football team who represented their country in 1966 World Cup in England. It's interesting to get a different insight into the hermit state and as it was allowed to be filmed seeing it from a perspective that the North Koreans would allow is also interesting. One criticism would be that the cameraman is sometimes allowed to go into one too much. 3 Zidane - a 21st Century Portrait Watching Zidane play in a live game was always mesmeric in that you forgot to watch the game and just watched him, so this video is great in that is all that you do in this film and it is set to the

Top: the soon to be demolished (allegedly) Moyes End Bottom: the Main North Stand.

Jermaine Jenas assumes his favourite position, on his back! Jannai Gordon on the ball for Posh.

Grant McCann takes one of his trademark free kicks and Robert Green makes the save.

The programme from Posh v QPR with the autographs of Posh's bright young stars, Jaanai Gordon and Shaquille McDonald.

Yesterday was the hottest day of the year and the preseason football got under way with QPR visiting Posh at London Road. Both teams will be starting next season in a division lower than they were last season with QPR being relegated from the Premier and Posh being relegated from the Championship. There are probably different expectations on the teams going into next season though, as Posh have lost quite a few high profile players and have invested in youth and players from lower divisions; QPR on the other hand have been able to keep a team of superstars together, so far, although with the wages these players command you can't see many premier league teams taking a punt on them. It might be a bit early to state this though, but it could be Posh who have a happier season next year. The young players coming in look hungry and up for it and with Zakuani in defence and 2 great goalkeepers in Bobby Olejnik and Joe Day they might be able to defend as well as score for once. QPR tho

June 2013 by jim_bomb on Grooveshark http://grooveshark.com/playlist/June+2013/88140765 1 The Stone Roses - I Wanna Be Adored After waiting 23 years to see them they were always going to be the most played band of this month. This was the song that they opened the set with at Finsbury Park. 2 The Courteeners - Sycophant One of the support bands at Finsbury Park. I wasn't too impressed with their first album , or third album to be honest, but they weren't bad on the day and some of the songs from those albums have started to grow on me and I actually quite like Falcon - the second album which this track is taken from. 3 Tequilajazzz - Кроме звезд These Russian rockers have been a staple of playlists over the last few months. I saw them live in Kyiv, but they packed up in 2010. 4 Воплі Відоплясова - Були на селі Now it's time to look forward to my holiday in August and who better to get you in the mood than Kyiv's finest, Воплі Відоплясова! 5 The James

So most of the teams are now back in training and some have even started friendlies in preparation for next season. I'm working this weekend, but by the weekend after the preseason friendlies should be in full flow, so we won't have to make do with subbuteo, Norwegian football on the internet, living Ukrainian lower league football vicariously and checking transfer rumours on twitter every five minutes as the real live stuff will be back.