football rambles

 Downham managed to put the disappointment of losing to Castle Acre in midweek behind them with a fine win over a strong Dereham side on Saturday. They didn't make it easy on themselves though with Jake Miller getting sent off before halftime for the second league game in a row. Dereham started the better of the two teams but Downham grew into it. They probably had the majority of the play in first half, but there were no real openings as Downham seemed to want to walk it into the goal. Given the number of long range shots they've scored from this season, you'd think that they would perhaps shoot on site more often. The second half saw midfielder Eoin McQuaid taken off with Ben Smith coming to try and plug the gap in defence left by Miller's dismissal. If Dereham thought that Downham were going to settle for a draw though they were very mistaken. Downham took the game by the scruff of the neck and try and push for a winner. Rudy Da Rocha was especially giving a slow Der

 Last night Downham took on Castle Acre in the second round of the Norfolk Senior Cup. The banner behind where I was standing announced that Downham were the current holders of the cup and most of the talk around me was about how many Downham were going to win by. You could perhaps understand the confidence with Downham showing some good form especially, especially at home, in the Eastern Counties League Premier with Castle Acre having an average time 3 divisions below in Division 1 of the Anglia Combination. The confidence however was misplaced. Downham started off the brighter of the two teams and had several chances. However, it was Castle Acre who hit them on the break after a period of concerted pressure to take the lead on 13 minutes. Castle Acre remained a danger with some quick counterattacks but Downham continued to pile on the pressure. They hit the woodwork twice and the keeper was forced into some fine saves. Downham did get the equaliser eventually in the last minute of th

 In this game Downham scored a couple of wonder goals with Valtar Da Rocha giving them the lead and Harley Murkin rounding off the game with a goal late in the second half after he had come on as sub. The other goal came from Nick Castellan in stoppage time in the first half. I also thought that Sivakumar had a really good game. Despite the result, the win wasn't as straightforward as it sounds, although some of that was down to the referee rather than a concerted effort by Long Melford. When one Melford player went down like he'd been shot, Downham right back, Jake Miller got his marching orders. The fact that referee didn't appear to see what had happened was more infuriating and at the time Downham who were 1-0 up were looking at playing with 10 players for more than an hour. The referee did even things up in the second half when he sent off a Melford player with 30 minutes left, again for something innocuous.  A good game and a good win for Downham, but why do referees