football rambles

The 80s saw the 'Zombie' figures and machine painted Subbuteo introduced. The sets from 1981-1983 also came in oblong boxes with the players on display in 2 rows instead of 2 columns for the first and last time in the history of the game. More mechanical practices also led to more teams than you could shake a stick at with clubs from a variety of leagues and divisions being represented in both their home and away strips. I only have 2 teams from this short lived period, and they came from saving up tokens in 'Match'. I think, as you will see, they did this to shift some teams that they may have had a bit of difficulty in selling. La Louviere When this team first came out they had just been relegated from the top Belgium division to Division 2. When I received the team from 'Match' they had gone down to Division 3. Nevermind though if Royale Association Athletique Louvieroise weren't your bag they also doubled as Lincoln City away. Despite being

I  bought these teams in the 1980s from a couple of lads on a market stall who had clearly outgrown the hobby. I can tell that the teams came from 1976 - 1980 due to the boxes that they came in and the fact that they are still clearly hand painted. Sunderland Sunderland achieved promotion in 1976, but despite topping the table for a while they went straight back down. Celtic Celtic were champions of Scotland every year between 1976 and 1982, which is perhaps not that surprising. It was a time when Danny McGrain and Kenny Dalglish were playing for the hoops. The picture below shows Celtic celebrating winning the Scottish FA Cup in 1977. Brazil In the 1978 World Cup there was only ever going to be one winner and the military junta in host nation Argentina were going to make sure that they won it. In the second group stage after a violent 0-0 draw with Argentina, both teams needed a win. A lot has been made of the 0-0 draw played out by Germany and Austria being

Most people assume that a 0-0 draw is a boring game, and over the years I have seen a few boring ones. This wasn't one of them though. Both sides created chances and it was end to end stuff up until the end. Peterborough's best chances seemed to come from trying to play the ball through the centre of the park - a tactic that they perhaps didn't try enough - and Doncaster looked dangerous from set pieces of which they earned quite a few. One of the biggest criticisms that could be leveled at Posh is that they consistently put the ball wide rather than trying to create something through the middle. Erhun Oztumer has been in good form in the centre recently and was probably man of the match and Jack Payne always looks more effective in the centre of the park. However, if you keep putting the ball on the wing and then playing it in the air then you probably need bigger strikers than Aaron McLean and Luke James on the end of them. Ironically then the best chance of the half

Yesterday we went to Peterborough v Doncaster. The match finished 0-0, but it was a decent enough game and the match report will be coming soon. In the meantime, here are a few random pics from the game. Looks like we got to the ground too early! Doncaster kick the game off. Posh with a chance in the first half.

The first set I got was in the mid 80s with Nigel Spink and a couple of Watford players on the front. The set came with the generic red and blue teams, but a neighbour got a few teams out of his loft and gave the me, The ones that were and are still in tact came from the late 60s and had the goalkeepers on wire. The teams were Coventry, Wolves and West Ham, the yoke on the shirt gave it away that it was West Ham, although naturally we used them predominately as Villa. Wolverhampton Wanderers The Wolves team is a fairly rare one with the gold bases and was only made for one season at the end of the 1960s. At the time Wolves had recently been recently promoted back to the top division of English football. It seems like the boys at Subbuteo HQ had taken a bit of poetic licence with the kits though , as the picture below shows what Wolves werwe actually wearing then. Coventry City The Coventry team are the same style as a late 60s Subbuteo team, but I think that they are

As public transport and bad weather have stopped us getting to the football over the last couple of days, we have spent a bit of time playing with the subbuteo and I thought that it would be a good time to have a look at some of the clubs that we have amassed over the years in subbuteo form. So here comes the story of those teams in a few parts.

Every year there will be at least one article in the tabloids with a high profile manager about the need for a winter break in the Premier League like those in Europe. I for one don't really agree with this, I think footballers at the top should be able to play a couple of extra games during a period when other people actually have some extra time and cash to get to a game. I actually think though that the non-league game would benefit from having a bit of time off. The players here also have jobs to do and most frustrating of all lower down the clubs don't have the facilities and the games get called off anyway leading to a fixture glut later on in the season.  Today Ely were supposed to take on Godmanchester, but storms have battered the city and the game is off. This is the second game off in the last couple of weeks and apart from a game at Mildenhall on Boxing Day a couple of years ago it has been almost the same story of cancellations over the six years. If a team has a g

Here is a playlist of the bands that I listened to the most over the year in one playlist for the holidays. Festive fifty 2014/15 by jim_bomb on Grooveshark http://grooveshark.com/playlist/Festive+Fifty+2014+15/103215390 1 Arctic Monkeys - R U Mine? 2 Dutch Uncles - The Rub 3 The Stone Roses - She Bangs the Drums 4 The Orb - Hell's Kitchen 5 The Brian Jonestown Massacre - This is the One Thing We Didn't Want to Have Happen 6 Extrawelt - Stammgast 7 Reinhard Voigt - Tod eines Hippie Madchens 8 Kraftwerk - Vitamin 9 The Courteeners - Are You in Love with a Notion? 10 Dusty Kid - Lynchesque 11 Inspiral Carpets - Spitfire 12 Roni Size - Bump 'n' Grind 13 Mexico 70 - Best and Hurst 14 Beastie Boys - Sabotage 15 Blur - Charmless Man 16 The Twang - We're a Crowd 17 Egyptian Hip Hop - Rad Pitt 18 Kollektiv Turmstrasse - Melodrama 19 Volor Flex - Main Question 20 Portugal. The Man - Creep in a T-shirt 21 New Order - The Perfect Kiss 22 A Guy Called

After a few weeks when I have been unable to go to the football we finally got to a game. Unfortunately, there was a bit of nonsense as per usual at the Unwin Ground. The club website and app said the kick off was 3, but it was in fact a 2pm kick off. When we got there it was already 1-1. The second half was decent enough with Ely taking the lead before finally letting 2 goals in, but the effort was there and they were a bit unlucky. Things weren't helped by the fact that one of the linesmen was an octogenarian from Milton, who couldn't keep up with play and who made his offside decisions on what the Milton keeper told him. The Milton defenders were also a bit, shall we say agricultural. Nevertheless, it wasn't a bad day out. It's just a shame that the club can't even get the details right on the website.

So no we are officially in the part of the season where frozen pitches and the common cold come into consideration. I haven't been to a game for a few weeks due to a variety of factors. Some people will be hoping for a white Christmas. I just want a mild one, as I am getting cabin fever and withdrawal symptoms at the weekends. I have been to Sean's games, but their game was a victim of the frost last week and then Ely City was called off yesterday.

Posh went into the game against Swindon a bit out of form and in recent weeks have slipped to 7th after a good start to the season, Swindon on the other hand went into the game in second place and were looking to continue to improve their promotion credentials. Peterborough started off brightly enough, but goals have been hard to find of late and it looked like it was to be no different in this game. Mendez-Laing looked bright from the start, but the Swindon defence, and in particular Jordan Turnbull seemed wise to him. Aaron McLean, making his return to the club also went close early on, but it definitely didn't look like it was going to be the home team's day when Joe Newell was fouled by Swindon's Raphael Branco on 18 minutes in the area. It looked like a penalty to everybody apart from the referee and probably a few blinkered Swindon fans. In fact at the start of the game it looked like Swindon were either very casual or were happy to play for a 0-0 draw with their

On Saturday we went to Peterborough v Swindon at London Road. Swindon won 2-1, so at least we will get to see a team known as the Robins win one game this season. The game was also remarkable for the fact that it was the opening of the new Moyes Road stand. We went in there and here are a few views from the new stand.

On Saturday Ely took on Ipswich Wanderers and another abject performance saw them played off the park by a less than convincing Ipswich Wanderers. The home team went down 7-0 and were lucky to get nil. That's about all there is to say really.

A panoramic view of London Road ahead of kick off between Peterborough and Carlisle.

After a downpour the sun came out at London Road in the game between Peterborough and Carlisle.

Moments before Burgess got the equaliser for Peterborough against Carlisle. Posh celebrate the winner in stoppage time with defender Burgess scoring again.

The FA Cup proper got underway on Saturday and we went up to London Road to see Posh take on Carlisle. Posh from League 1 went into the game as favourites against League 2 opponents Carlisle, but at the start it looked like our curse would continue. On 8 minutes a defensive mix up saw Derek Asamoha put the Cumbrians in the lead when Ben Alnwick in goals for Posh shouted that he had the ball covered, but he didn't. After the visitors took the lead Posh had all of the pressure, as Carlisle tried to hit them on the break. Jon Taylor and Mendez-Laing created some chances for Posh, but the Cumbrians seemed equal to the pressure. Posh finally got a goal back from a header from defender Christian Burgess just before half time. Posh continued to pressure in the second half, but at the same time the visitors seemed to have them under control. Taylor and Mendez-Laing had further chances, but they didn't really panic the Carlisle keeper. In fact the visitors looked good on the break

We didn't have much time for tourism in Dortmund and it seems that the football dominates the city. We went past the U Building a few times, which rates as a place of interest, but due to its proximity to the stadium it didn't really register with us. Above is another monument of interest, St. Reinold's Church. Another landmark is the Florianturm, a telecommunications tower not dissimilar to several others in Germany. It's located between the hotel where we stayed and the stadium. It is named after the patron saint of gardeners and was built for a horticultural show in 1959. Sean was most impressed by the U-Bahn though and made this video of a train at Margrafenstrasse station, which was the station round the corner from our hotel. But as the mural in departures at Dortmund airport shows, it's all about the football.

And finally the reason why we were in Dortmund... for the match between BVB and Hannover. Unfortunately, things didn't go according to plan. Dortmund dominated the game for the first hour, but the Hannover team stood resolute and looked like they would be happy to get a 0-0 draw. Aubameyang and Ramos both had several chances for the home team, but appeared wasteful in front of goal, on another day they would have been 3-0 up at half time. Reus looked dangerous going forward and hit the top of the net with a goal that looked like it was going in. Mkhitaryan and Gundogan made some good progress in midfield, but still didn't look completely match fit. But as half time approached it looked more like when Dortmund were going to score rather than when. Hannover seemed to still be determined to sit back and let Reus attack them after the break, on the odd occasion when they did break Subotic cleared the danger and Hannover didn't even get a shot in. Then the visi

The Sud Tribune a few minutes before the game kicked off.

More of the Sud Tribune before kick off against Hannover on Saturday.

Another video of Borussia Dortmund v Hannover of the Sud Tribune leading up to kick off.

This was a long time before kick off, but the Sud Tribune were already in good voice

The Sud Tribune at Westfalen is famed for the noise and support that it gives the BVB team. They started up early and carried on until well after the match had finished despite the poor result. At the end the team looked suitably disappointed when they thanked the fans. Nobody apart from the Hannover fans probably expected 96 to win. Hopefully better times for the Sud Tribune are just around the corner.

We were among the first few people in the stadium and after we claimed our drink and hot dog we took up our seats. The Sudtribune fills up and starts creating an atmosphere a long time before kick off, which more or less tells you how early we were there!

As I said, we got to the stadium really early, we had a bit of a walk round and went to the beer garden even though it was quite cold and damp. Sean also bought a giant flag in the shop, which I am surprised got through customs on the way back. I was a bit surprised by the Polizia Merda sign so predominately displayed outside the stadium though. There was a good atmosphere outside with the fans of both clubs drinking together in the beer garden and a surprising number of away fans buying stuff in the club shop.