Review of the year 2014
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 meant that we got to a bumper 6 games in March. Leyton Orient's 2-1 win over Colchester at the start of the month was probably the best match, even if it helped them to get in the play-offs and defeat Posh at the end of the season. A mention has to also go out to Cambridge Women who smashed 9 past Fulbourn Bluenirds in the Cambs Invitation Cup at the Unwin, Also at the Unwin, Ely failed to get to the League Cup final when they lost on penalties to Newmarket.
April
Of the 4 games we went to in April, 3 of them were at the Unwin.Unfortunately, the match that I enjoyed the most didn't involve Ely, but was the Johm Ablett Cup Final where Alconbury lost to Red Lodge and the Dutch Commentators were born. It was a good evening out and better than the 5-1 defeat Ely suffered against Godmanchester Rovers at the same venue. The trip to Felixstowe and Walton was a good day out and the 1-1 draw that Ely got was well deserved and could have easily been a rare 3 points for the Robins.
May
We got to a couple of games in May including a World Cup warm-up game at Craven Cottage where Italy and Ireland played out a 0-0 draw. It was a good evening, but perhaps highlighted why the Italians were one of the first teams back on the plane from Brazil.
June
We were busy watching the World Cup on TV.
July
The first Absolute Sport Travel Trophy at the Abbey meant we got to see Cambridge United, Espanyol B and young teams from Shakhtar Donetsk and West Ham. It was a good tournament and good value for money, although some people moaned about the squads of the other teams. Elsewhere, Ely drew with Soham and Peterborough beat Brighton in pre-season.
August
The month started with a trip to the Emirates and the annual tournament there. We saw Monaco draw with Valencia and Arsenal smash 5 past Benfica. We also saw Villa draw 0-0 with Parma. Then the real business started with Ely going down 4-3 in a great game at Mildenhall, Kings' Lynn lose to Trafford and Cambridge Women beat Cheltenham in the FA Cup.
September
In September Ely played Thetford home and away and Newmarket home and away. We were at all of these games and they lost them all. However, we were still hopeful they could turn things around, but when we saw them lose 4-1 at home to Whitton United, who aren't exactly a star team themselves the writing was on the wall and we started to lose faith a bit.
October
If September ended badly in our watching Ely, then things continued to be bad in October. They lost to Diss, 2-1, Diss were the only team with a worse record in the league than the Robins. At this point going to the Reserves seemed like a better option and the week after we saw them go down 1-0 to Outwell Swifts. However, for Sean's birthday we had a real special treat. We went to Dortmund for the weekend. We went to the Borusseum on Friday and then went to see BVB play Hannover on the Saturday. With our luck it wasn't surprising that Dortmund lost, but it couldn't take the shine off a brilliant weekend.
November
November came and it seemed like our luck might be changing finally! We went to London Road to see Peterborough take on Carlisle in the FA Cup. They went 1-0 down after a dreadful error, but fought back and Burgess got 2 goals to win the game in Fergie Time! Our luck hadn't changed though, the week after Ely went 7-0 down to a decidedly average Ipswich Wanderers. We were then back at London Road for the opening of the new stand, but Posh couldn't deal with high flying Swindon, who won 2-1. At least we saw a team called the Robins win for a change, I suppose.
December
The bad weather started in December and we only got to 2 (or one and a half) games. The first was to see the Reserves take on Milton (they lost 3-2), unfortunately the website and app said it was a 3 o'clock kick off, but it was at 2, which more or less shows the level of enthusiasm at Ely City at the moment. The second was a holiday trip to Peterborough where they played a decent 0-0 draw against Doncaster.
So that was a run-down of the calendar year of 2014. With Sean playing more games and more of them being further away our travelling to games might be limited. Hopefully, our clubs will pick up a bit this year too.
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 meant that we got to a bumper 6 games in March. Leyton Orient's 2-1 win over Colchester at the start of the month was probably the best match, even if it helped them to get in the play-offs and defeat Posh at the end of the season. A mention has to also go out to Cambridge Women who smashed 9 past Fulbourn Bluenirds in the Cambs Invitation Cup at the Unwin, Also at the Unwin, Ely failed to get to the League Cup final when they lost on penalties to Newmarket.
April
Of the 4 games we went to in April, 3 of them were at the Unwin.Unfortunately, the match that I enjoyed the most didn't involve Ely, but was the Johm Ablett Cup Final where Alconbury lost to Red Lodge and the Dutch Commentators were born. It was a good evening out and better than the 5-1 defeat Ely suffered against Godmanchester Rovers at the same venue. The trip to Felixstowe and Walton was a good day out and the 1-1 draw that Ely got was well deserved and could have easily been a rare 3 points for the Robins.
May
We got to a couple of games in May including a World Cup warm-up game at Craven Cottage where Italy and Ireland played out a 0-0 draw. It was a good evening, but perhaps highlighted why the Italians were one of the first teams back on the plane from Brazil.
June
We were busy watching the World Cup on TV.
July
The first Absolute Sport Travel Trophy at the Abbey meant we got to see Cambridge United, Espanyol B and young teams from Shakhtar Donetsk and West Ham. It was a good tournament and good value for money, although some people moaned about the squads of the other teams. Elsewhere, Ely drew with Soham and Peterborough beat Brighton in pre-season.
August
The month started with a trip to the Emirates and the annual tournament there. We saw Monaco draw with Valencia and Arsenal smash 5 past Benfica. We also saw Villa draw 0-0 with Parma. Then the real business started with Ely going down 4-3 in a great game at Mildenhall, Kings' Lynn lose to Trafford and Cambridge Women beat Cheltenham in the FA Cup.
September
In September Ely played Thetford home and away and Newmarket home and away. We were at all of these games and they lost them all. However, we were still hopeful they could turn things around, but when we saw them lose 4-1 at home to Whitton United, who aren't exactly a star team themselves the writing was on the wall and we started to lose faith a bit.
October
If September ended badly in our watching Ely, then things continued to be bad in October. They lost to Diss, 2-1, Diss were the only team with a worse record in the league than the Robins. At this point going to the Reserves seemed like a better option and the week after we saw them go down 1-0 to Outwell Swifts. However, for Sean's birthday we had a real special treat. We went to Dortmund for the weekend. We went to the Borusseum on Friday and then went to see BVB play Hannover on the Saturday. With our luck it wasn't surprising that Dortmund lost, but it couldn't take the shine off a brilliant weekend.
November
November came and it seemed like our luck might be changing finally! We went to London Road to see Peterborough take on Carlisle in the FA Cup. They went 1-0 down after a dreadful error, but fought back and Burgess got 2 goals to win the game in Fergie Time! Our luck hadn't changed though, the week after Ely went 7-0 down to a decidedly average Ipswich Wanderers. We were then back at London Road for the opening of the new stand, but Posh couldn't deal with high flying Swindon, who won 2-1. At least we saw a team called the Robins win for a change, I suppose.
December
The bad weather started in December and we only got to 2 (or one and a half) games. The first was to see the Reserves take on Milton (they lost 3-2), unfortunately the website and app said it was a 3 o'clock kick off, but it was at 2, which more or less shows the level of enthusiasm at Ely City at the moment. The second was a holiday trip to Peterborough where they played a decent 0-0 draw against Doncaster.
So that was a run-down of the calendar year of 2014. With Sean playing more games and more of them being further away our travelling to games might be limited. Hopefully, our clubs will pick up a bit this year too.
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