football rambles

 This was 'one of those games' where you expected a win, looked like getting a win but ended up with a draw. Downham started off the brighter of the two teams, but Lakenheath who featured the Portuguese contingent who served Downham well in the first half of the season understood that attack was the best form of attack when Downham are attacking the Wimbotsham End, and despite the early pressure, it was the guests who found the back of the net after just 11 minutes. After this point Lakenheath sat back and absorbed the pressure. Dylan Kirk managed to get Downham back on level terms on the half hour mark and it remained 1-1 at half time. The second half felt like it would only be a matter of time before Town got into the lead, but some resilient defending from Heath meant that Downham were left frustrated. Still top of the league, but this was definitely a case of two points dropped as Town now prepare for a number of fixtures away from home.

 I wasn't expecting much from my first visit to what is known at the moment as the Demcom Arena. Ely flirted with relegation last year, and would probably have been closer if it wasn't for some really lousy teams. This season hasn't got off to a much better start. They went into this game with a record of won 1, drawn 1 and lost 7. Their opponents, Lakenheath on the other hand were riding high at the top of the league and were unbeaten going into this game. It looked like it was going to be a long day when Lakenheath took the lead early on from a ball that took a nasty bobble to take it past the goalkeeper. However, Ely were soon on even terms and went on to convincingly beat Lakenheath in an entertaining 5-3 win. It was almost enough to convince me to go down there again even when there isn't a train strike on!

On Saturday morning I was busy with Crusaders at Stretham and after clocking up game 42 on Monday night I thought I might not bother with a game in the afternoon. With the time I had there were probably only 2 matches I could make it to. Cambridge City had their last game at Milton Road before joining up with Newmarket for a ground share and Soham had a chance of making the playoffs. As you may have noticed I am not a big fan of Cambridge City and I thought that going to two Soham games in a row wouldn't have gone down well with the regulars at the Unwind. In the end though I couldn't resist going to a game and I realised that even more locally the Ely Reserves were at home to Lakenheath, so for the second time this season I descended down to Step 7 for a Cambridgeshire Senior Premier game. The game started off brightly enough and it had the added interest of having a linesman that I work with, although I fought the temptation to heckle him! Ely whose reserves have had a te...

A few days ago I said that I was longing for some proper football and I did toy with the idea of going to Cambridge V Kidderminster, but I wouldn't have had time to get back for the bonfire night display, so I decided to go even further down the pyramid and visit Ely Reserves against Lakenheath in the Cambridgeshire league. The crowd was pretty low as you would expect, but the standard was not much different to the Ridgeons League and Steve Bell and Tom Beech, who are perhaps more associated with the first team were having a run out for the reserves. Lakenheath also brought a few fans who seemed most intent on barracking the poor lad who was running the line than watching the game. Things started off badly for the second string Robins when Lakenheath scored on 4 minutes. However 3 minutes later Dean Missen was clean through ang got brought down in the box. The defender was rightly given his marching orders, although the Lakenheath fans were busy moaning that he was offside and ther...