football rambles

Well it's been a quiet couple of weeks on the football front. Last weekend I was in Bielefeld, Arminia were playing on the Friday night, which I had free, but the game was away. This weekend I planned to see Ely at home, but the game was called off. I don't know if it's got something to do with the time I spent in Russia and Ukraine, where I've seen Spartak play when it's been well below zero on a hard pitch, CSKA Kyiv go to extra time in a cup game at minus 12 and play on in extra time despite two of the floodlights not working and of course the Dynamo v Shakhtar game where it snowed 2 feet during the game, but cancelling the game this weekend seemed to be a bit of an easy option. Maybe I'm not being fair as nobody wants to see someone get injured because of an unplayable pitch and I did walk out in disgust at the ridiculousness of the Dynamo v Shakhtar game and maybe I'm feeling a bit bitter after watching Villa get turned over by Arsenal and Ipswich by N...

Yesterday I went to London Road for the fourth time to see Peterborough take on Charlton Athletic. At the start of the day both of the teams were in a play off position. Peterborough had started off the season well, but have lost their way since being thoroughly beaten by Brighton and the absennce of George Boyd after a sending off in that game. Conversely, Charlton seemed to start the season off badly, but improved after being beaten comprehensively by Brighton a few weeks back. A trip to London Road though usually guarantees a few goals and looking on TV and from the odd occasion I have made the joutney there most of the goals go in in the London Road End, so I was looking forward to a bit of a goal fest right in front of where I was standing and I wasn't disappointed in that sense. However, the reason for such goal fests seems to lie in the fact that Posh have some forwards who wouldn't be out of place in the Championship and have decided to couple this with a Conference lev...

Yesterday I went on what seems to be my annual trip to Fulham's Craven Cottage to see Fulham take on Wigan. I think I may have been banned from Villa games down there by Scott, so the most neutral of games was probably seen as a good idea (by him). That said, it was a sell out crowd mainly because Fulham charged a very resonable fiver for the game. The game itself was a bit one sided with Fulham's Clint Dempsey scoring both of Fulham's goals in the first half. Predictably he was named as man of the match by most of the Sunday newspapers, but I think that Baird, Salcido and Dembele were also as impressive if not more so. Andy Johnson, who many thought would have to retire after a horrific injury earlier in the year, also came on late in the match and added to the Fulham forward line. In general not a bad game, but a bit one sided. The picture shows Fulham's Zoltan Gera tackling Wigan's Hugo Rodallega.

Wigan were formed in 1932 and kicked around in the Lancashire League and the Cheshire League. Their first application for the league came in 1950 when 4 clubs were added to the league; 2 to Division 3 North and 2 to Division 3 South. However, they lost out to Scunthorpe and Shrewsbury. In 1954 the Latics took Newcastle to a 3rd round replay in the FA Cup and they felt like they would be elected to the league, but they weren't. After several other aborted attempts at getting into the league they became founder members of the Northern Premier League in 1968. In 1971 after narrowly losing to a strong Manchester City in the FA Cup they again thought that they had a good chance of getting in the league, but again it wasn't to be. As a protest the following season they applied to join the Scottish League, but they didn't get a single vote and in England the place that they coveted went to Hereford United. In 1975 they won the NPL for rhe second time, but they weren't in any s...

On Tuesday night rain called off a game for the first time this season with the Ely City v March Town United game in the Eastern Counties League game being called off and Saturday sees my first Premier League action of the season with Fulham taking on Wigan. I might even get back in time to catch it right at the end of match of the day!

Above are a couple of photos of the stand at Soham Town Rangers. The terrace at Soham The clubhouse at Soham. Soham warm up before the game. Daventry Town warm up.

There were no games in Ely yesterday, so I decided to go on the relatively short journey to Soham to see Soham Town Rangers take on Daventry Town in the Southern (Zamaretto) League Central Division. At the moment Soham are propping up the division and although their pre-season performance at the Unwin against Ely suggested that they would struggle this season they actually played pretty well and I feel were unluck not to come away with more than a 0-0 draw. In the first half Daventry probably had the best of the chances, although I never felt like they really looked like scoring. The Soham defence however looked a little vulnerable and on several occasions failed to clear their lines, which against a more clinical team could have led to problems. The second half was all Soham though and if it hadn't been for the diminutive Daventry Keeper with a foghorn of a voice Soham could have easily been 2 or 3 up in the first few minutes after the break. However it wasn't to be and althou...