football rambles

 Finally a home game across the road I could go to. Due to sharing with a cricket team, Downham have been playing away games since the last time I went there after just moving in in April. They did have one other home game, but I was in Italy at the time. Stowmarket are a team that I also saw at the end of last season when they were relegated Isthmian North back into the Eastern Counties Premier. On that occasion they lost to Enfield 4-0, who themselves were also relegated but to the Essex Senior League. On Saturday's performance it doesn't look like they are going to turn much around despite now being in a league lower. Downham dominated the first half and could have been 5 or 6 up. Stowmarket managed a solitary shop that was easily saved. Downham went in at the break two goals to the good, Rudy Da Rocha scoring the first and Harley Murkin marking his debut with a goal. Chances were few and far between in the second half, but Downham must have felt it was job well done and it

 Last week was a quiet week for football with me between a forest and the sea on the Tuscan coast. It was also an international break, so football chances were limited. We visited the Leaning Tower in nearby Pisa, but spotted not far away were the floodlights of Arena Garibaldi, so I had to go and have a look. Pisa are currently top of Serie B, but it is early days yet. I remember them being in Serie A in the 1980s when Paul Elliot went and joined them and then when I went to Italy they were on the verge of bankruptcy in C1. Their fate seems to always be in direct opposition to nearby rivals Livorno. Livorno are currently in Serie D, so can Pisa get back to Serie A? I'll be watching to see how that progresses.