football rambles

 Well, this was an entertaining game, if not the result we had wanted. In some ways it was a fitting tribute for Oxford legend, Joey Beauchamp, who had sadly passed away at 50 years old the previous week. It was a good performance by Cambridge overall against a team who were amongst the favourites to go up at the start of the season and should be making the play-offs now. Sam Smith opened the scoring for the Us on 6 minutes with a well worked goal. He had actually had a spell on loan at Oxford, but the way he celebrated  made it clear that he didn't spend an enjoyable time at the other university city.  Unfortunately, Cambridge were unable to hold on to the lead going into the break after Matt Taylor scored. To be honest, the linesman on that side didn't seem to be able to raise his flag for offside, but he suddenly remembered how his arms worked when Cambridge were attacking down that side! The second half saw Cambridge come out with an attacking intent that they have sometime

 Well apart from the trip from hell thanks to storms, strikes and engineering works this was a real disappointment. We had been looking to going to Villa for a long time and for it to end up in a loss to one of the relegation favourites was a real let down. Villa went into the game on a pretty poor run having drawn with Leeds and losing to Newcastle, but Gerrard promised changes and then just brought Ings in for Watkins. There are players who aren't fitting into the system or needing a rest or playing in the wrong position and this needs to be rectified. Gerrard in the end was given a bit of a lesson by the old statesman Roy Hodgson, with a team of players who were vastly poorer than Villa's. Watford's main tactic was to play for a draw and time waste from the start. As the game wore on this frustrated Villa and Gerrard put on some more attacking options to get the job done. However, this had the opposite effect in that it left gaps at the back and inevitably Watford got th

 Well, after not being to London Road since lockdown, this was the third weekend of the year and the second in a row that we made a trip up the road to Posh. Back in league action and Posh who look like they are going to go straight back down after promotion last time didn't enjoy the same luck that they have had in the cup. They were the better team in this game, but PNE had a not so secret-weapon in Villa loanee Cameron Archer, who hassled them all day and finally got the breakthrough that gave Preston the win in the dying seconds of the game.  On this performance Peterborough deserved something, but Villa in the future and PNE at the moment really have a gem in Cameron Archer. Interestingly, ex Villa players Daniel Johnson and Scott Sinclair, the latter of the two who came on as substitute, were also starring for Preston. Cameron Archer celebrates his last minute winner

 This was a game that you would really have expected QPR to win. It was an FA Cup game and QPR are chasing promotion, while Peterborough look nailed on for relegation. You might have thought that this would have meant that the teams would have been tempted to concentrate on the league rather than the cup. However, both teams put out strong starting 11s and the QPR fans were definitely hoping that their team would be in the 5th round draw. The game went by fairly quickly and QPR really dominated. They led Posh on all of the statistics apart from the most important one. Goals scored. Peterborough had 3 shots and scored from two of them. QPR had 16 and didn't have a real sniff. Joe Ward opened the scoring on 25 minutes and Ricky-Jade Jones scored the second on 71 to hand Posh a 5th round game at home to Manchester City. Darren Ferguson looks on as Posh go on to victory Posh players celebrate the second goal QPR on the attack an early attack from QPR

 I am really late with posting on this game from Saturday. It wasn't a bad game and wasn't a great game either. The wind and heavy pitch accentuated the slope even more. Thetford had their chances, but Fakenham were the better on the day. The club house and trip to Spoons after were probably the highlights at a game that was played in some tough conditions. The above two photos show the teams entering the pitch. A photo of what looks like a board for doing media interviews in front of Fakenham in defence A Thetford attack Some closer up match action