football rambles

 We finally made it to a Villa game on Saturday and unfortunately the indifferent run of form continued with a 2-2 draw against Crystal Palace.  Villa looked a little bereft of fresh ideas and without Konsa in central defence and both Kamara and Onana out in defensive midfield there was little protection when Palace stuck to their plan of hitting Villa on the break. It took Palace only 4 minutes to take the lead when Ismailla Sarr did exactly that and hit Villa on the break. Villa pressed to get the equaliser and after a few decent saves from Henderson, Ollie Watkins managed to go round the keeper in  the 37th minute to get the equaliser. It felt like they weren't done and were going to take the lead in any minute. Bailey was judged to have been fouled at the end of the half and Villa were awarded a penalty. Tielemans stepped up to take it, but it was soft and Henderson made the save. To Villa's dismay they cleared after the ensuing corner and again hit Villa on the break...

On Sunday we were walking past Bramall Lane and we could hear the music on, so thought something must be going on. As it happened Sheffield United were taking on Sunderland in the Women's Super League 2. So what else was I going to do, but get some tickets and check it out? The game itself was exciting enough, but both teams were let down by some poor finishing and action in the final third. Sunderland started off the stronger of the two sides and dominated for the first half an hour and managed to hit the crossbar. United came back into it from that point and were guilty of missing a sitter with both teams going in at the break goalless. Sheffield United started off the second half quite strongly, but the introduction of Sunderland substitutes and in particular Ellen Jones, who looked really lively and started to open up the Blades' defence. The game was ultimately settled in the 85th minute when Jones set up Eleanor Dale for the winner. The goalie perhaps could have done a bi...

 It's always fun to go to a game at Thetford and Saturday was no different. We went to see the Thomas Paine statue and then moved on to the nearby Bell pub before going up the road to see the match.  It was a good game and Downham made a good fist of it against one of the stronger teams in the league. Downham fell behind first in the first half before Valter Da Rocha equalised with a trademark long range effort. In the second half Thetford took the lead again, but in the dying moments of the match Marley Delgado equalised only for Thetford to get a winner deep in stoppage time. A shorter report this time, as it's a few days ago and as usual in Thetford we had a few too many beers.