football rambles

I'm going to be having a look at the different countries competing in the Africa Cup of Nations this year. For a look at them all in one thread click on the label below.

Yesterday Ely City took on Walsham-le-Willows in what could have been a potential banana skin of a game. Ely are still in third and Walsham are in the bottom half of the league, however Walsham had just beaten the top two teams over Christmas and new investment in the club means that they could, like Ely be about to embark on an upward trajectory. There was a new look at the Ely ground too as the hard winds of the week had seen the cover blown off the covered part of terracing, which in a way made for an improvement in the view from the main stand. Ely's best bet was probably to take the game to Walsham and take it they did. Ely went ahead on the 2nd minute when Austen Diaper got a massive deflection and the ball went into the back of the Walsham net. Ely continued to press for more goals and Diaper and Chadwick continued to push for a second and Stuart Walker was controlling the game in the centre of the Robins midfield. On 27 minutes Ely could have easily been 2 up when Lewis McD...

Ely got the New Year off with a home win today against local rivals Mildenhall Town and despite Ely sitting in 3rd and Mildenhall being in the lower half of the table it wasn't all one way traffic. For the first 20 minutes Ely did dominate possession and the long throw ins from Ben Lawrence and Lewis McDonald as well as a number of corners for Ely put Mildenhall under the kosh. Mildenhall on the other hand couldn't really get past the Ely offside trap or Ben Lawrence who was in impressive form in central defence. That said the only real chance that Ely had came on 19 minutes when Austen Diaper tried to connect with Richard Chadwick, but some how the ball didn't go in. Mildenhall then started to get into the game and appeared to have a shout for a penalty when the ball bounced up and hit McDonald's arm. The decision could have been ball to hand or hand to ball. The referee decided to rule in Ely's favour much to the outrage of the Hall fans in the crowd. Things could...

January - a bumper month with failing floodlights The year got off to a fine start with plenty of games coming in thick and fast after a November and December that had seen a number of cancellations due to snow and rain. Ely got off to a good start with a win over Newmarket. I went to Fulham v Peterborough in the cup which saw Fulham win 6-2, we were sat near Barry Fry and George Boyd in the stand and just behind Posh manager Gary Johnson in the dug out. At the time we didn't know it but a few days later Johnson was on his way out and Darren Ferguson was on his way back to London Road. In January I also made my first trip to Thetford Town where they drew 2-2 with Ipswich Wanderers in a game that went on for ages thanks to the floodlights packing in. February - Wind and rain The bad weather was back in February with yet more cancellations happening. The highlight of the month was a fine win for Ely City over CRC, where the wind assisted the team more than a little bit. March - FA V...

Here is a record of the top ten teams on results of games I was at in 2011. 1 Ely City P 23 W 12 D 8 L 3 F 48 A 30 Pts 44 2 Thetford Town P 4 W 3 D 1 L 0 F 10 A 2 Pts 10 3 Peterborough United P 5 W 3 D 1 L 1 F 8 A 9 Pts 10 4 King's Lynn Town P 3 W 2 D 1 L 0 F 7 A 2 Pts 7 5 Needham Market P 2 W 1 D 1 L 0 F 5 A 4 Pts 4 6 Mildenhall Town P 2 W 1 D 1 L 0 F 5 A 4 Pts 4 7 Fulham P 1 W 1 D 0 L 0 F 6 A 2 Pts 3 8 Paris Saint-Germain P 1 W 1 D 0 L 0 F 3 A 0 Pts 3 9 Rocester P 1 W 1 D 0 L 0 F 3 A 0 Pts 3 10 Biggleswade Town P 1 W 1 D 0 L 0 F 2 A 0 Pts 3 Most goals in a match = 8 on 8 January Fulham 6 Peterborough United 2 (FA Cup Round 3) Biggest home win = Thetford Town 5 Halstead Town 0 on 29 October (Eastern Counties League Division 1) Biggest away win = March Town United 2 Ely City 4 on 27 September (Eastern Counties League Cup Preliminary Round)

Well after a couple of quiet months, I still managed to get to 43 games and see 133 goals in 2011. The most notable thing about the year is perhaps that it is the first year since 1994 that I haven't visited a foreign stadium. I'll get on with a full review of the year after looking at the stadiums and the teams performances of the year. 1 The Unwin Ground, Ely (Ely City) 21 games 2 Mundford Road, Thetford (Thetford Town) 4 games 3 London Road, Peterborough (Peterborough United) 4 games 4 The Walks, Kings Lynn (Kings Lynn Town) 2 games 5 Villa Park, Birmingham (Aston Villa) 2 games 6 The Emirates Stadium, London (Arsenal) 2 games 7 The Abbey Stadium, Cambridge (Cambridge United and CRC) 2 games 8 Craven Cottage, London (Fulham) 1 game 9 Recreation Way, Mildenhall (Mildenhall Town) 1 game 10 Hillsfield, Rocester (Rocester) 1 game 11 Stonebridge Road, Northfleet (Ebbsfleet United) 1 game 12 Bloomfields, Needham Market (Needham Market) 1 game 13 GER Ground, March (March Town Unite...

Yesterday Peterborough took on bottom side Coventry City in the Championship and got their first clean sheet of the season, it wasn't all good news though, although after a run of bad results it was pretty critical that Posh got the three points. The first 20 minutes were not a typical performance by Posh with both sides looking reluctant to go forward and a Lee Tomlin shot that went wide being the only chance either side got in this period of play. For the rest of the first half the better chances went to Coventry, who despite having the chances never really looked like scoring. Lukas Jutkiewicz and Cyrus Christie both had good chances for the Sky Blues, but they definitely lacked a bit of bite at the end and the target man Clive Platt looked like a poor man's Emile Heskey, he really was that bad. Peterborough meanwhile lacked a creative spark and with the absence of Grant McCann, who is injured, Emile Sinclair failed to get much service and when he did he showed a poor first ...