football rambles

 It's not often that I go to Peterborough and end up in the away end, but that's where we were on Saturday for the first Cambridgeshire Derby in 21 years. Peterborough entered the game as heavy favourites, as they will be looking to get promotion again, while Cambridge will be just hoping to stay up, and over recent weeks that has seemed a more difficult task than it was. That said, the occasion seemed to lift the fans and the away end was especially noisy as they did their best to raise the Cambridge team. Despite Cambridge's issues in defence, it is perhaps the forward line and lack of goals that might be of concern and Bonner can't seem to get Smith and Ironside firing in the same way they were. In fact Smith started on the bench after Harvey Knibbs impressed and got a goal in midweek. He really should have had a goal today too. The game itself was settled by a Lloyd Jones own goal on 18 minutes. Cambridge overall had better chances to score, but Posh definitely had

 I went to Birmingham for the weekend and visited the Villa game against what I thought was my better judgement, but this was one of the best games that I have seen in a very long time. After a 3-0 defeat to Fulham on Thursday Steven Gerrard and his poor tactics and team choices were long and over duly kicked out of the club. The game on Sunday saw Aaron Danks take over as interim and what a job he did. I optimistically predicted a 3-0 win before the game, but after just 14 minutes Villa were already 3-0 up. Brentford must have questioned their wisdom of swapping ends so that Villa were attacking the Holte End in the first half in front of an invigorated crowd and team. Leon Bailey opened the score with a  shot from distance in the second minute. In the 7th minute Bailey turned provider as he set up Danny Ings to make it 2-0. At this point Villa were attacking like mad and on 12 minutes Tyrone Mings was fouled in the box and Danny Ings got his second and Villa's third from the spot

 Last time I went to a Papa John's Trophy game, I vowed not to bother again, but here I was again. To be honest, it felt a bit more like a proper game, mainly because Ipswich brought over 1,200. They were already through to the next round so fair play to them. It was the first time in a while that I have seen Cambridge score in open play, so that also made it worthwhile. Both teams had fairly experimental teams out, so it was going to be hard to predict. At least I was given the chance to see if Janneh and Okedina would add anything to the first team. On this performance Okedina has, but Janneh is probably still best used as an impact sub, as doing it over 90 minutes looks like it could be an ask of him. Ipswich started off the more lively of the teams and Ibsen  Rossi and Greg Taylor were finding them difficult to handle in the opening encounters. That was all to change though when Kyle Edwards who was playing up front for Ipswich was controversially shown a red card for simulatio

 Another game, another defeat. That makes it four in a row for the Us. To be honest, apart from Bristol Rovers last week - who now seem to be showing signs of real improvement themselves - Cambridge probably didn't expect much. The other defeats came from Derby, Ipswich and now Sheffield Wednesday - probably the three biggest teams in the division. That said, what happened against Wednesday was a bit hard to take given that it was pretty much self-inflicted. Lee Gregory gave the Owls the lead after only 6 minutes when Greg Taylor basically assisted him by heading the ball into his path. This put Cambridge on the back foot early on and highlights the first problem.  Cambridge have struggled with the centre back position recently. Ibsen Rossi more or less handed Derby the win and I have really not been impressed from what I have seen of him. He was mugged off more than once by Arsenal's teenagers for example. Clearly Mark Bonner also has reservations as he has replaced him with G

 On Saturday we took the long trek across country from Ely to Bristol. Another weekend of train strikes and no other games that were remotely interesting anywhere that we could have got to led to us making this decision. That said, I had been planning one mental away trip and as this one was at least winnable on paper it seemed like worth going to. However, taking the coach did mean that we left at 7:30 am and got back at midnight. The Bristol Rovers ground is  worth a visit, if just because it is so weird. Understandably the one stand looks like a rugby stand given that for most of its history Memorial Stadium was the home of Bristol Rugby Club.  The stand opposite the away end at least resembles a traditional terrace To the left of the away end is something that looks more like a cricket pavilion And then you have the away stand and one next to the cricket pavilion that look like the type of temporary seating that you might see at a carnival or parade. As for the football, as I'v

 A train strike on Saturday saw us go down the road to Ely City rather than venture into Cambridge for the game against Derby and it wasn't a great experience.  Ipswich had 7 shots and scored 5, with Ely looking particularly weak on their left hand side. Ely scored late on, but it wasn't really enough to give the result a mark of respectability.