football rambles

 There really isn't much to say about this game, as Cambridge drew another blank and slipped further into the relegation zone. This was a game with very few incidents or excitement. It's just as well that Lincoln as a city is a really good day out. 

 I had planned to be at Cambridge v Morecambe on Saturday, but the wind had damaged the roof at the Abbey and the game was postponed. Instead I travelled to King's Lynn for a tasty looking Derby in the National League North between Lynn and Peterborough Sports. As well as it being a local Derby it also offered Lynn a chance to go top of the league and help ensure an instant return to the National League Premier. For Sports playing at the highest level they have ever been it was a chance to really cement a place in the league for next season. It started off looking like Lynn were going to dominate and that a big win was on the cards. Sports maybe assumed that the game was going to be called off, as it didn't look like they were prepared at the start. The first quick break of the game saw an error at the back give Lynn the lead through Aaron Jones after just 2 minutes. If Sports expected a let up, it wasn't about to happen. The next attack saw Lynn double their lead in as man

 As the song goes 'it's 10 degrees, but it feels like minus 4' and add torrential rain to it and that wa the weather that greeted us at Silverlands on Tuesday night. Buxton managed to salvage a point at the death, in fact with the last kick of 6 minutes of stoppage time. This meant that the fans went home happy, but at the same time they may have deserved more from this game. Both teams were troubled by the conditions that were indeed difficult, but you would have thought that Buxton would be used to the 4G pitch and try and play it on the fall, but both teams were keen on the hit and hope and put it in the air approach. That said it was end to end stuff so entertaining enough and the first goal could have gone to either team. It was Chorley who opened the scoring though through Harvey Smith. There was a hand ball in the lead up to the goal though, but the referee was facing the other way and who knows what the linesman saw. The rest of the half carried on in the same way a

 Things got off to a surprise start in the game against Bristol Rovers on Saturday, but ultimately it was a case of the same old story at the Abbey. Sam Smith opened the scoring for the Us on the 5th minute after he met a fine cross from Harvey Knibbs to put the ball in the back of the net. It made a nice change for Cambridge to score never mind take the lead. However, it was not to last. On 21 minutes Josh Coburn got the equaliser after Cambridge had had the early pressure. Rovers second shot on target was their second goal when Scott Sinclair rolled back the years to give the visitors the lead with a well taken goal that went under Will Mannion.  For the rest of the game it followed a familiar pattern where Cambridge huffed and puffed and created very little. You'd have to hope that Mark Bonner has a creative midfielder on his January shopping list to fill the Wes Hoolihan shaped hole in the team.

 The day after New Year's Day and I was already on my the second game of the year.  The train station in Soham is pretty new, so I thought that I would take the short trip down the road to check out the journey and the football. I had been impressed with Soham at Ely on Boxing Day and thought on paper they looked like they had a better team than Newmarket Town, but today was to belong to the Jockeys.  From the offset Soham seemed to struggle against the forwards speed and it was Jordan Foster who opened the scoring for the visitors after beating the defenders for pace. It remained 1-0 at half-time even though Newmarket were pushing for a second for most of the half and were concerned that 'Soham can't be this bad after they get a rocket up them at half-time'. Rocket or no rocket, there was little uptick in the second half and Ryan Cole added a second on 54 minutes. Newmarket were now in cruise control and added a third through Lewis Whitehead before Jordan Chipps got on

 New Year's Day saw King's Lynn take on Boston in what was a Derby of sorts. It certainly also brought down the curtain on the season of good will. King's Lynn showed their superiority throughout the game and 2-1 definitely flatters the visitors who created very little in reality. It was a pretty professional performance from The Linnets despite fraying tempers. Lynn took the lead through Oliver Scott on 11 minutes and after considerable pressure doubled their lead through a wonderful strike by Adam Crowther in the 38th. Boston came out with more intent in the second half - or it may have been King's Lynn controlling the game without exerting themselves too much in what is a very congested period in the fixture list.  On the terraces the wisdom of carrying on from the big night before proved to be unwise as some weren't content with shouting over a fence at each other and fighting broke out between 'fans' of the teams on the pitch.  The mood seemed to spill