football rambles

A new year and for me, after most of the home games being called off a new look Ely City. Unfortunately, it was the same result. Several players have arrived on loan and it was hoped that they woud provide the shot in the arm that the Robins needed.Kairys and Ourtilbour on loan from Histon looked promising enough, but the Robins lack steel in central defence and look like they will do well to put the chances they create away. All in all a recipe for disaster. Ourtilbour looked good going forward on the left wing, but nobody seemed to be able to keep up with him for speed when he wanted to put a cross in. It was a real shame, as the game offered Ely a chance to perhaps turn things round. Ely are bottom, but Wivenhoe are third from the bottom. They also arrived late due to traffic and didn't have enough time to warm up properly and had a player sent off after three minutes. Therefore the omens looked good for Ely. Fat chance though, as a mixture of players not knowing each other

These were all zombie teams in the more normal shaped boxes that are pretty similar to the ones used today. These were all teams that I bought myself when I was a lad with my pocket money. Scotland 1986 This was the kit worn by the Scotland team at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. It was quite distinctive in that they wore the shorts with the hoop across the middle as seen below in Subbuteo form. The Scotland team for a cahnce to qualify for the World Cup needed a result. They got a draw to set u with Wales, to set off a play off game with Australia, however they didn't feel much like celebrating, as their iconic manager Jock Stein suffered a heart attack during the matach and died. Alex Ferguson took over for the play off game against the Aussies, which they won 3-0. At the World Cup they were drawn in the 'group of death' with Denmark, West Germany and Uruguay. They only managed to get one point from a 0-0 draw with Uruguay. Aston Villa 1985-87 This kit wh

I was desperate to get to a game yesterday, but it was one of those Winter days when half of the local pitches were waterlogged and the other half were frozen. The day started with a constant refreshing of Twitter as the games started to be called off. Amongst the bad news was the Downham Town feed. They were confident that their game was on and they also seemed friendly and want people to attend. Ely Reserves were silent and King's Lynn looked on, but I wasn't in the mood for them, so we decided to start the New Year with a trip to a new ground and get along to the Memorial Playing Fields in Downham Market. It all looked straight forward on the map, but obviously when we reached the town I bore left instead of turning left and we ended up going around in a circle before being put on the right path at a local pub. The ground was quite unassuming and in marked contrast to the fallen glory feel that surrounds the visitor's - Great Yarmouth's ground - it didn't loo

Yesterday we started the New Year off with a visit to  a new ground where we saw Downham Town take on Great Yarmouth. We must have cursed them though as their impressive home record which saw the ground nicknamed 'Fortress Memorial' came to an end in an entertaining game that they lost 4-2. I'll be writing more about it later. It was a good game and a good day out although the pitch was bumpy and the ground was basically a pitch in the middle of a field with barriers and a small stand and covered terracing on one side. The clubhouse was decent though and the prices were cheap. Here are a few photos before the report.

Here is a list of the different competitions that I saw games in in 2014. The number of games is shown in brackets. 1 Eastern Counties League Premier (15) 2 Northern Premier League Premier (3) 3 English League 1 (3) 4 FA Cup (2) 5 Cambridgeshire League Senior A (2) 6 Absolute Sport Travel Trophy (2) 7 Preseason friendly (2) 8 Emirates Cup (2) 9 Eastern Counties League Cup (1) 10 South East Combination (1) 11 Cambridgeshire Invitation Cup (1) 12 John Ablett Cup (1) 13 Pre-World Cup warm-up (1) 14 FA Cup Women (1) 15 FA Vase (1) 16 William Coad Invitation Cup (1) 17 Bundesliga (1)

In the calendar year I saw 131 goals over 40 games. In terms of results it wasn't great. The teams I supported won 8, lost 21 and drew 11, scoring 59 of the goals and letting 72 in. The biggest home win was also the game with the most goals in a match: Cambridge Women 9 Fulbourn Bluebirds 0 on 16 March. The biggest away win came when Ipswich Wanderers beat Ely City 7-0 on 15 November. I went to 14 grounds, as shown below with the number of games I saw at them in brackets. 1 The Unwin Ground, Ely (18) 2 London Road, Peterborough (4) 3 Munford Road, Thetford (3) 4 The Walks, King's Lynn (3) 5 The Abbey Stadium, Cambridge (2) 6 The Emirates Stadium, London (2) 7 Carrow Road, Norwich (1) 8 Brisbane Road, London (1) 9 The Gold Star Ground, Felixstowe (1) 10 Craven Cottage, London (1) 11 Villa Park, Birmingham (1) 12 Recreation Way, Mildenhall (1) 13 Cricketfield Road, Newmarket (1) 14 Westfalen Stadion, Dortmund (1)

It was a disappointing year for our clubs, as they lived down to expectations. Villa continue to settle for a lack of ambition, after a disappointing season last time out Ely have spent this season in the relegation zone, King's Lynn flirted with promotion and then slipped away and look like being mid-table this time out, Peterborough made the play offs but lost to Leyton Orient and are off the mark a bit this season. There was a world cup to enjoy though and a spectacular trip to Borussia Dortmund was a real highlight. January We went to 4 games at 4 different grounds; Norwich City, Thetford Town, Ely City and King's Lynn Town. The highlight was probably King's Lynn coming from behind to beat Ilkeston 3-1 with a late rally after being 1-0 down with a few minutes left. February We only managed to get to one game in February and that was to see Thetford lose 2-1 at home to Hadleigh United in a decent enough game. March The better weather and lack of postponement mea