football rambles

Although I worked for a short time in Swansea, it was summer and there was no football on. Up until last week when I saw Swansea beat Fulham in the Premier League I had only been to 2 games that they had played in. Once was against Fulham and once was against Brentford, both games were in London, in the fourth tier and yielded zero goals. Now it seems that I can't avoid them, as I was visiting London last week I saw them beat Fulham, in a couple of weeks I have cheap tickets for their visit to Norwich and I'll hopefully see them at Villa over Christmas. Swansea Town, as they were called; they didn't become City until Swansea became a city in 1970 were formed in 1912 in what was a predominately rugby playing area. They adopted an all white kit, which was the same as the rugby team and have kept the colours ever since apart from in the odd seasons when they wore black shorts. Swansea from their inception took up a residency at the Vetch which had been football pitches

On Friday night I was in London for the Happy Mondays and I made a weekend of it with the Fulham v Swansea match coming in between an evening out for Paul's birthday. I haven't actually seen Swansea since they played Fulham in the old division 4, some time in the mid-90s. However, as I am also going to be at the Norwich game in a couple of weeks and am hoping to go to Villa v Swansea at Christmas they could become quite a familiar site. Neither of the teams looked really effective although the game was entertaining enough. Fulham seemed to let Swansea come at them a bit too much and only Scott Parker and Derek Boateng looked interested in stopping them. Up front Berbatov and Bent don't exactly look like the dream team, as having 2 players who have such an adversity to tracking back means that Fulham were effectively down to 9 players when Swansea were on the attack. Swansea seemed to be guilty of messing around with the ball a bit too much when they could have ha

Here's a little quiz that I came up with so that you can find out what kind of football fan you are. Answer the questions and then look in the comments to find out what type of fan sums you up. 1 Watching habits - Which one of these best describes your viewing habits? A I go to a few of my teams' games each season and often watch them down the pub B I always watch the major European leagues on TV C You can find me at the local club every week 2 Football clobber - Which of these are you most likely to wear? A I have a Premier League / Barcelona / Real Madrid shirt B I have a Toffs / Score Draw retro shirt C I have an enamel badge on my sensible coat 3 Pundits - Who would you rather see on TV? A Gary Lineker B James Richardson C Mark Clemmit 4 Players - Who do you think is the best? A Messi B Zlatan C Any centre half who tackles like a man 5 Coaches - Who do you prefer? A Pep Guardiola B AVB C Dario Gradi 6 Reading habits - Which are you most likely to

The team sheet posted on a whiteboard on the side of the shed selling chips at Thetford. The view of the pitch from the stand, as from the picture that appears on the front of the programme (see the previous post). Kenny Smith and Matt Morris in Ely's change strip of blue keep an eye on Thetford's Elliot Smith.

It's been tough following Ely City recently, so much so I put a tweet out yesterday to try and get some opinion on if I should go to Thetford V Ely; King's Lynn v Ashton or Soham v Chorley. King's Lynn was my first choice, but I found out that Sean's gang were all going up to Thetford, so that made the decision for me. On the face of it, it was the least appealing game and I always feel a bit conflicted when I go up there, as they were a team that I frequently watched before they got promotion to the same division as Ely and then had home games on the same week. Both teams are also languishing towards the bottom of the Eastern Counties League Premier Division, so I went there somewhat less than optimistic. That said, Ely had just come off a fine 4-2 win over Saffron Walden in the League Cup, which had been inspired by Tom Meecham, who is on (unfortunately only) a 1 month loan from St.Ives. The first half was a bit of a scrappy affair and the ball was bobbling about

November is looking awful on the fixtures front for me. Tomorrow, I have to make the decision of whether to try and go to Thetford V Ely or King's Lynn v Ashton. After that I've got 2 consecutive Saturdays at work and then I'm away, so unless some mid-week fixtures come up then this might be the first and last game of the month, so let's hope whichever one I choose is a good one. After that, after all will be December when most of the pitches are just unplayable.

http://grooveshark.com/playlist/October+2013/92039647 October 2013 by jim_bomb on Grooveshark 1 The Vaselines - I hate the '80s Some Indie tunes from a band who were popular in the, erm, 80s. You have to agree with the sentiments of this song though. 2 Primal Scream - (I'm gonna) Cry myself blind Not the most popular track on not the most popular album by Primal Scream, but they got so many plays this month because this song was going around in my head for some reason. 3 Bibio - Take off your shirt Some nice chilled out and interesting tunes from the West Midlands IDM geezer have had a fair few plays this month. This one is a bit more upbeat and poppie than most of his stuff though. 4 Kraftwerk - Boing boom tschak Kraftwerk have probably been one of the most influential electronic bands over the years. I also listened to them a lot this month, mainly when I had to work at home due to the storm and no trains running. 5 Nirvana - Lithium I was at university dur