football rambles

Yesterday I went to see Thetford play Halstead in Divsion 1 of the Eastern Counties League. Going into the game Thetford had played 8 and won 8 in the league and are also still in the FA Vase having beaten Premier League high-flyers Dereham 3-0 away in the last round. Considering that they have gone on this run without centre forward Matt Blake or winger Bruno Tavares playing much of a role is even more impressive. Both Blake and Tavares were back for the game, but as Halstead themselves had a record in the league of won 5 drawn 2 and lost 1 it didn't look like it was going to be a pushover. The game started off with both teams appearing to be fairly equal, although Thetford had the best of the early chances. A speculative shot by Bruno Tavares on 7 minutes nearly went in over the keepers head and Matt Blake had the ball in the net on 11 minutes, but was offside. Matt Dixon, who in Blakes absence has scored 7 league goals and 7 cup goals came close 26 minutes and hit the crossbar. ...

On Saturday I will hopefully going to see Thetford take on Halstead Town in Division 1 of the Eastern Counties League. Halstead town at first glance look like they are probably a pretty likeable team, who can't like a team that where quartered shirts like it's still the nineteenth Century? Their record in the Eastern Counties League and the way they lurch from unparalleled success to abject failure also endears them. At the moment they are in one of their boost rather than boom periods. That said I shouldn't get my hopes up too much, as they will perhaps turn out to be an objectionable bunch as teams who wear black and white quite often do! Halstead were formed in 1879, but due to the relative geographical isolation of the town only played friendlies until they were admitted to the North Essex League in 1894. Their first piece of silverware coming 8 years later when they beat Chingford in the final of the 1902 Essex Junior Cup. After this early success Halstead flirted with...

Hibernian at the moment seem intent on bringing out even more shirts than Borussia Dortmund, so it seemed like a good idea to have a look at their history of their shirts. Recently they brought out a shirt to commemorate the 20th anniversary of their Scottish League Cup Final victory over Dunfermiline. The shirt appears to be pretty accurate, despite being made by a different manufacturer and the original can be seen below, as worn by Keith Wright scoring in the 2-0 victory over the Pars. That said it all seems like a bit of a con for the Hi-Bees faithful with them also having a new home and away kit and a third kit. What they need to have a third kit for is anybody's guess, but they have brought out the lilac effort below that was worn in a home game a couple of weeks ago agianst Motherwell. They lost and Motherwell also wore their away kit. The lilac kit has been advertised by the manufacturers as a homage to yesteryear, but Hibs, who were formed in 1875 first wore a white shir...

A new feature in the Villa programme is where fans choose their team of Aston Villa players from the ages. I also spent many a cold winter night debating this over a bottle of cheap brandy in Kyiv and on the what now seem like prehistoric internet chat sites of a decade or so ago. After having a decent think of it here is mine. Goal Keeper: Nigel Spink 361 Villa League appearances (0 League goals)1977 - 1996 Spinky joined Villa from non-league Chelmsford City when he was only 18 years old. He had to wait nearly 5 years until he made his debut though, and what a debut it was. He came off the bench, well legend has it he was actually having a hot dog in the stand to make his Villa debut in the European Cup Final in 1982, which Villa went on to win 1-0 against Bayern Munich, which was thanks in no small part to his goalkeeping prowess. He went on to become a regular in the Villa team for the best part of 14 years and the poster I had of him on the wall nearly faded out. After Villa he we...

On Saturday we went to the big Derby match of the weekend when Villa took on West Brom at Villa Park. All in all we had a good day out, although the result wasn't great and the refereeing from Phil Dowd would have embarrassed a referee at County League level. Villa started off well enough and dominated the opening exchanges, although N'Zogbia and Hutton quite frankly looked out of their depth even when Villa were fully in control of the game. Villa duly took the lead when Gabby Agbonlahor was fouled in the box (the foul is shown at the top of the page) and Darren Bent popped the penalty away in style to make it 1-0 on 23 minutes. Villa were looking comfortable, but seemed to lack the creativity of a wide man, whether N'Zogbia really is out of his depth or Mc.Leish and his disregard of the Villa tradition of exciting wing play is the problem only time will tell. Baggies had felt aggrieved on 19 minutes when Shane Long limped off after a tackle from Alan Hutton, I think he go...

On Saturday I'm going to my first Premier League game of the season when Villa take on West Brom in what is the derby game now that the Blues have gone. They might be the local neighbours and Villa's traditional enemy, but it's certainly worth looking at their history. West Bromwich Albion started off as West Bromwich Strollers when they were formed as a team for the George Salter Spring's Works in 1878. They got the name Strollers allegedly after they walked to Wednesbury to buy a football so that they could play. Their first strip was the rather fetching white shirt with a blue sash and hat a baggy trousers shown below. However, they didn't get their nickname 'The Baggies' from this strip rather it was from when their fans turned up to Villa straight from work wearing the baggy aprons of the metal works that got them the name not long after their inception. Their next change of kit came in 1881 when they adopted yellow and white quarters and also wore the ...