football rambles

It was a slow start to the game on Saturday and Port Vale did most of the early running and put pressure on the Os from the start. This was perhaps a bit strange as Orient needed the points being in the League 1 relegation zone, whereas the visitors sit in mid table and could be excused for feeling that they were already on holiday. That said, the first real chance, after a couple of Port Vale corners that were easily dealt with fell to the home team. Marvin Bartlery sent a fine cross into theb box, but nobody was there to trouble Vale keeper Chris Neal.  This was the story of Orient's first half, as both sides tried to hit each other on the counter attack. The away team looked more effective, where as orient looked like they had forgotten their striking boots and  Chris Neal looked like he was going to be hard to beat on the odd occassion where they found their footing.  After the first 20 minutes of end to end, but ultimately ineffective football Vale started to turn the s

On Saturday we went on the yearly trip to Orient. They beat Port Vale 3-1 to keep their hopes of staying in League 1 alive. The match report will follow shortly, but here are a few random photos for now. Getting ready for kick off. Orient players warm up.  The teams enter the pitch. Orient on the attack, unfortunately in the first half the most accurate person on am Orient shirt was a kid who threw a paper cup at the linesman in the picture.

Neil Taylor of Swansea and Christian Benteke in action yesterday. We went to Villa yesterday with some expectations yesterday, after a good run of results and no Lambert we had some optimism for the first time in ages, but unfortunately we went home disappointed. Swansea started off the brighter of the two teams, and Okore, Hutton and above all Ciaran Clark were on fine form in defence. Bacuna looked good going forward and Delph was showing why he is in the England squad. The midfield in general weren't in top form and it was a relief when Cleverley had to go off early in the game, as he had been horrendous. Unfortunately, his replacement Carlos Sanchez found it hard to slot in and although he found his way later in the game he looked a bit flat footed at times. Scott Sinclair was eager to show his old club what they were missing, but he was overkeen and his final pass and shot were leaving a bit to be desired. Gabby wasn't at his sharpest and spurned a few chances too.

IYesterday we went to Villa and we saw them unfortunately lose to Swansea, going down to a Gomis goal in the 87th minute. A report will follow. Sean at the front of the North Stand before the game. Villa players complete their warm up before the game. The Holte End greet the players. Villa fans protest against the demonisation of fans by the BBC and the Sun. More football activism. A St.Pauli anti fascist sticker on the train. Sean in my 1981 t-shirt.

The photo above shows posh taking the lead Yesterday we were back at London Road to see Peterborough take on Bradford City in League 1. We went without much hope. Peterborough had been on a terrible run of form that had seen them sliding down the table, which had led to Darren Ferguson being sacked as manager of Posh with Dave Robertson taking charge in a caretaker role. Bradford on the other hand are hopeful of the play-offs and are one win away from Wembley for a visit to the FA Cup semi finals if they can beat Reading next week. They have already knocked Chelsea and Sunderland out of the cup. The first half was hotly contested, although Peterborough looked the better of the 2 teams. That said their main problem has been scoring goals and despite some nice passing Kyle Vassell didn't offer much hope of breaking the deadlock. Bradford were also finding it frustrating, but this was mainly due to the good work in central defence by Gabriel Zakuani and Ricardo Santos. The

Last week we did something different and went to the local rugby. It was good to see a locall team win for once, as Ely Tigers defeated Ipswich YM 22 -8. It made a change, but yesterday it was back to the football for Peterborough v Bradford City.