football rambles

 Last year's ill fated season started off with Ely putting Haverhill Borough to the cosh on wet Summery night and this year was no different. Haverhill got off to a good start with a fabulous goal after just 4 minutes. An equally impressive goal from Ben Tate (not sure if he's signing) on 26 minutes made it all square and he scrambled in a second on 36 minutes to give Ely the lead at the break. Ely continued to dominate the second half as Haverhill's early onslaught crumbled and Ely added a further 3 goals to give themselves a convincing 5-1 win in their final warm up game ahead of the season starting with a game against Woodbridge on Saturday.

 The first time I have managed to get to a league ground in ages and it was for a preseason friendly between Ipswich of League 1 and Premier League Crystal Palace, who have just appointed Patrick Viera as their manager and who I last saw on the touchline at Nice. It was a different experience to last time I was here when they took on West Ham also in preseason, 3 years ago, but a lot has changed since then. The crowd was pretty sparse in that a lot of people had hardly been able to get to a game in 2 years and a slot safety checks including proof of vaccination or lateral flow tests were in place. The game was entertaining enough and Nsiala in the heart of defence for Ipswich had an especially good game. Matata fro Palace on the other hand was guilty of wasting a lot of chances. Before the goal both teams had their chances and hit the post. Overall, it was an entertaining game, so it was a bit disappointing that it was decided by a slightly dodgy and not entirely unpredictable Zaha pen

 I am hoping for a clear run at the season this time, as last season started off with some top trips out and a few new grounds, but even with this being the first trip out, it seems that that might be asking for a lot, so I am going to try and make the most of it while it lasts. I had been to Peterborough Sports before, but that was when they were a Step 5 club and since then they have climbed up to the Southern Premier League. The quality is there to be seen too, as they made easy pickings of Concord Rangers who are in the league above in the National League South. They seem to be getting it right on the pitch, but there still needs a lot to be done off it. There used to be a really enjoyable social club, but that appears to have been bulldozed in order to make a new stand. I imagine that there will be a new social club eventually, but at the moment there is just a burger van selling warm cans of soft drinks, which on a day that reached around 30 degrees was a bit disappointing. If I&