football rambles

 It's taken me a while - in fact over a week- to get this down, as the game was played on 18 December. The game was entertaining enough with Rotherham consolidating their place at the top of the league. Daniel Barlaser scoring the winner for the Millers on 66th minute. Cambridge played well enough without really threatening Rotherham and did well in defence. All in all it was a good performance if a slightly disappointing result. Rotherham probably deserved to win just about, as they just about did. The Us can take heart from the fact that they managed to go toe-to-toe with a team who were playing in the Championship last season when they were still in League 2. 

 This was my first ever trip to the Valley and I have to say I thought that it was quite a nice stadium. The day was slightly spoiled by having to get the coach down rather than going down to London and enjoying making a day and evening of it. Charlton and Cambridge are roughly in the same position in the league, but whereas despite a drubbing of Cheltenham in midweek Cambridge's results have been sliding whereas after a change at the top Charlton have improved. Charlton started off the brighter of the two teams and Cambridge were made to pay for a sluggish start when ex-Posh player Connor Washington (who also featured prominently throughout the programme fired home for the Addicks on the half hour mark. It should come as no surprise for any Cambridge fan that the Us then started to really press to get in the game. The number times they fall behind before really firing on all cylinders is developing into one of the stories of the season. For the rest of the game Cambridge seemed to

 I'm a bit late with this update, but to be honest it wasn't especially a good match and Cambridge made heavy work of putting the tie to bed, although they are more used to sharing a division with Exeter, they are currently in League 1 and the Grecians in League 2, so a more convincing win might have been expected.  Sam Nombe put the visitors ahead from the spot after just 10 minutes and although Adam May got an equaliser after 23 minutes the game was in the balance for most of the match. Joe Ironside up front looked short on help and the usually impeccable Wes Hoolahan was also out of sorts. With a fine goal scoring record going into the game, it was a surprise that Sam Smith started on the bench.  However, it was another substitute who finally resolved the issue when Harvey Knibbs came off the bench and soon after with 2 minutes left on the clock scored what was to be the winner. I am not exactly sure what happened as the linesman disallowed it with the referee overruling him

 It could be argued that League 1 isn't  a natural fit for either of these clubs, but for very different reasons. Sunderland have aspirations of being in the Premier League and definitely have the support and ground for this, while Cambridge are currently punching above their weight. They are where they are though and Cambridge have already proved this season that they can bloody the nose of more illustrious opponents, they have also proved that they can fold against anyone too, so it really was a game where you couldn't predict what would happen. However, it was the wind that seemed to play the biggest part in the game. Sunderland had the wind giving them the upper hand in the first half and  Alex Pritchard made the most of it to steer the ball in and confuse the U's keeper Dimitar Mitov enough to put the ball in his own net. Cambridge battled back though and Sam Smith equalised on 27 minutes before Nathan Broadhead again used the wind to his advantage to give the Black Ca

 When I bought the tickets for this game I wasn't expecting too much from it. Villa were on an atrocious run of form, and not looking like getting back on track. A lot of Villa fans will disagree, but when Dean Smith was sacked after we lost 1-0 to Southampton, it was probably for the best that he departed. In the meantime Steven Gerrard was given the job and it made for what looked like a more intriguing fixture and for me gave us some hope. I predicted a 2-0 victory and I was not to be disappointed, even though Villa left it until late. For large parts of the game this still seemed like the Dean Smith performances of late, but with the ever impressive Emi Martinez in better form and making some key saves. For me the midfield looks a bit week and Marvelous isn't the answer although his break away led to the Watkins goal. Targett looked out of sorts for a big part of the season at left back and despite playing better today, you have to think he is probably the type of fullback

 It's been a while since I have made the trip up the road to Thetford for a game, mainly due to the pandemic, but also because they always seem to clash with Ely games. This time though both Ely teams were away, so it was a good opportunity to visit a club that I have enjoyed watching in the past and a clubhouse that I also really like.  The clubhouse was great and after a Shed Head, I also sank a few Stellas. The game was also good and exceeded expectations in front of a really decent crowd. Wroxham ahead of the game were second in the league - and still are with Ely losing to leaders Gorleston on the same day - and Town had what can be best described as a patched up team. The game however was pretty equally matched. Thetford actually started off the brightest, but as the half progressed Wroxham grew into the game and took the lead through Ryan Miles on 24 minutes - no wonder he's keeping Grant Holt out of the starting line up!  Thetford initially responded well, but Wroxham a

 I was probably looking  forward to this game more than it justified, but I was really looking forward to it! It was a great day out and we had fun in the Cricketer's, but the game didn't live up to much and let's be honest although I was pumped for it, it didn't look amazing on paper. I had hoped to see Louie Barry start for Town, but again he was left out of what was a very strong looking starting 11. For Barry's sake I am hoping that he will come back to Villa or get a loan where he's wanted in January. Anyway, as I was saying it was a strong starting line up. In fact perhaps even stronger than the team that lined up in the league at Cambridge a couple of weeks before. When Wes Burns put Ipswich 1-0 up after 8 minutes it looked like the rout that I had expected was about to come to fruition. However despite Ipswich's dominance the Oldham defence, in particular Piergianni kept Ipswich at bay. On 41 minutes Oldham found an equaliser and it was clear that th

  After seeing Ely win at home last week( 3-1 v Fakenham), this weekend it was back to the Abbey to see Cambridge take on the Dons. Like most Cambridge games it was impossible to predict, but the Us came away with the winner.  It was definitely a well deserved victory and although Wimbledon fashioned a few chances in the first half Cambridge definitely had the lion's share of the play.  They finally got the breakthrough early in the second half when a long ball fell for Jensen Weir who carefully headed home to get his first professional goal. After Cambridge took the lead, Wimbledon pressed to get back in the game, but Cambridge stood firm at the back an ran out with a deserved win. Above  - Cambridge celebrate the win at the end of the game  Above - Cambridge on the attack Above - Sponge Bob in the away end

 Since the Ely v Gorleston game, I have also seen the reserves beat Gaminglay 2-1 in the cup and the first team go down to another 3-0 defeat at home, this time at the hands of Lakenheath. This was all made a bit better though by a fabulous game at the Abbey on Saturday, well fabulous if you aren't an Ipswich fan. Cambridge have got into a bad habit lately of letting in goals early and on Saturday they didn't make an exception. The only difference was that this time they managed to hold out for 10 minutes after starting atrociously. A mistake by Mitov in the Cambridge goal let Sone Aluko in to open the scoring and to send the large Ipswich following into ecstasy. On 36 minutes lightning struck twice when Mitov came out hesitantly and allowed Alunko in to make it 2-0. It seemed imperative that Cambridge got something before  the break and they did when man of the match James Brophy scored from range to half the deficit. The second half was all Cambridge and they came close on se

 This was not an enjoyable game at all. It rained all game and when you go down 1-0 at 2:59 when kick off is 3:00 against the league leaders, it's never likely to end well. Gorleston scored in the first minute, added another before the break and scored again after kick off in the second half. I am glad that I spent a great deal of the second half in the bar looking out through the window as this was a truly abject performance.  There were some new seats in the stand and the bar prices are good though, so at least Ely are doing things right off the pitch, even if things quite often don't seem to be going so well on it.

 Last Saturday saw Cambridge play out a very entertaining draw against Fleetwood Town in League 1. Like in the previous home league game against Lincoln City, The Us went be hind early on with James Hill scoring for the visitors in the 2nd minute. In fact for the first 20 minutes Cambridge seemed to still be asleep, but they rallied in the second part of the first half and Adam May had an equaliser in the 35th minute. Cambridge continued to press and had enough chances to be ahead at half time, but they went in at the break on equal terms. Cambridge carried on the 2nd half as they finished the first and Shilow Tracey gave the home team the lead for the first time in the 52nd minute. Cambridge had plenty of other chances with Joe Ironside and later Sam Smith creating some good chances. However, Patrick Lane got an equaliser on 76 minutes and although Cambridge had the lion's share of the chances neither side could find a winner despite being close on several occasions. A good game t