Extra! Extra! Read All About It

The Yappmobile is in the firing line this evening ...

Hopperational details
Date & Venue	Friday 19 August 2011 at Sumner Road
Result	Walsham-le-Willows 3 (Robinson 40, Skipp 56, Musgrove 90+2) Thetford Town 1 (Dixon 60)
Competition	FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round.  Both clubs play their league games in the Eastern Counties League – the home side are in the step 5 Premier division while the visitors are from the step 6 division below.
Hopping	The first of three FA Cup games this weekend.
This match in one sentence
Walsham-le-Willows scored three goals from set-pieces to secure the win against their near-neighbours from the division below.
So what?
Walsham-le-Willows will probably forget that they spent much of the evening complaining about refereeing decisions.  Thetford Town’s next programme will probably refer to their views on the refereeing decisions.  The draw for the Preliminary Round is on Monday, and Walsham-le-Willows are in it.
A random invention that would have the same impact on my personal happiness and well-being as watching this match
An earpiece that filters out cries of “Refffffffff!” after the 20th occasion and replaces it with random Walsham-le-Willows sounds such as birdsong, children playing, the smack of leather on willow, the crunch of local pork scratchings and burgers sizzling.
The drama unfolds
As I watched the warm-up with a pint of Greene King IPA (sorry Budweiser, I’ll make it up to you later in the competition), my ages-old ref’s training kicked in as I saw that the red (H) and claret (A) shorts looked rather identical.  Sure enough, I soon saw a club official sorting out 11 bright blue pairs from his car boot.  Apparently these were Walsham-le-Willows second kit, and were duly borrowed by the visitors who can be forgiven the style crime under the circumstances. Here’s my early scene-setter clip … The early stages of the game were feisty and competitive.  I felt that the referee might well have produced a yellow card earlier as tackles began to fly in from both sides.  Both teams were consistently complaining about decisions.  They largely cancelled each other out without creating clear chances for much of the first half. Then, after 40 minutes, Walsham-le-Willows took the lead after Thetford had failed to deal with a corner.  The scorer is Charlie Robinson (or Robertson?) 1-0  at half-time Thetford were understandably fired up for the start of the second half.  However, the game’s turning point came on 56 minutes from a disputed direct free-kick.  Craig Skipp is the scorer, against his old team.  2-0 Although Thetford pulled one back almost immediately – Matt Dixon fired in from six yards following a move originating on the left wing – Walsham-le-Willows looked more likely to score again as the visitors were forced to push forward.  They had a number of near-misses from midfield breaks and had to wait until the considerable amount of stoppage time for their third goal, again from a free kick (shown in the last clip), this time from Paul Musgrove. Final score 3-1 Acknowledgement to the club websites for helping me to identify the scorers.
Man-of-the-Match
I’ll nominate Craig Skipp for the match-settling set piece.
A snippet from the programme
From the Walsham-le-Willows “Pen Pictures”: “Graham Styles – “Nobby” is a vital cog in the backroom team.  Carries out a range of important roles such as all the main ones.  Spends most of his spare time around Bury St Edmunds looking for talent.  Occasionally he watches football as well.” From the Thetford “Pen Pictures”: “Bruno Tavares – good technique, models himself on Ronaldo and scores some great goals.”
What I learned today
Again from the programme – this season’s FA Cup and FA Vase competitions have 13 geographical groups in the early stages.  The FA made their decision based on feedback they have received from clubs up and down the country regarding long-distance travel and cost.  This has increased the likelihood of same-league ties and only three of the Eastern Counties League sides (two divisions) have cup-ties against clubs from the United Counties leagues.
What Next?
As shown in the previous post, a three of clubs is sending me to Derbyshire today for Holbrook Sports v Greenwood Meadows.