football rambles

 Despite some of the competitive football kicking off and there being some higher profile friendlies on offer, I ended the preseason once again at King's Lynn where they took on lower league opposition in the form of Spalding United who play in the Southern Premier League Central. It turned out to be the Linnet's first defeat in preseason as they were beaten twice by Jack Roberts, who popped up with a goal in both halves. It wasn't a bad performance for King's Lynn. However, having seen them batter Peterborough and come away with a 1-1 draw, you wonder if the one thing that they might need to be when the actual season  gets underway is a little more clinical. Gyasi looks like a great acquisition for the club and his pace is going to cause a lot of problems. However, he has seemed to have spent a lot of time in preseason playing  as a loan striker, when to me he looks more like a 2nd striker. I'd like to see him start with Gold Omotayo in a competitive game. Neverthe...

The cold snap finally finished and despite a few games in the area being off because of waterlogged pitch the hard work at Ely on Saturday finally paid dividends even if it didn't quite work out on Saturday. Finally the much awaited 4th round match of the FA Vase against Spalding United was on. Ely got off to a good start and started off by taking the game to the visitors. Attack was definitely going to be the best way forward for the Robins, as although their opponents play in a league at the same level most of their players had experience at a higher level and their budget is about ten times more than Ely's. The Robins' first chance came on 6 minutes when Austen Diaper put the ball just over the bar. On 10 minutes he had the ball in the back of the net when a well worked move saw Ely take the lead. Ely continued to dominate for the first 20 minutes, but a misplaced back pass from Darren Coe saw Ely put under pressure for the first time. After this they lost the moment...

Next up at the Unwin Ground, if the weather permits are Spalding United in the FA Vase. It is going to be one of the biggest games in Ely's history after they reached the 4th round for the first time ever. Hopefully there will be a big crowd and some of the people who turn up will actually bother turning up to some other games. Anyway, that's enough of that, as it's supposed to be a look at Spalding United. The Tulips (their nickname reminds me of C86 types 'the Fat Tulips')play in the United Counties League, which to be honest is a bit stronger than the Eastern Counties, and are currently second. They are probably favourites for the tie and their officials at the Histon game seemed quite confident despite a good performance by the Robins. The club were formed in 1921 as Spalding Town and started life out, like a lot of teams in the UCL, in the Peterborough and District League. In 1954 they tried to join the Eastern Counties League, but weren't accepted. Ho...