The Only Way (to Spend Saturday Afternoon) is in Essex

It was Saturday, honest

Hopperational details
Date & Venue	Saturday 26 April 2014 at Gardiners Close
Result	Basildon United 1 Great Wakering Rovers 4
Competition	Essex Senior League (Step 5)
Hopping	Ground #535 on the lifetime list, shortest journey for me today to a game with significance.
Pre-match preparation
If Great Wakering win, the title (and promotion to step 4) will be secured.  Anything less and Haringey Borough could overtake them with a win, as (mathematically) could Enfield.  The latter would also need a massive goal swing and favourable results at BOTH other matches.  Basildon United are in mid-table but seem to have had some internal upheaval recently – they failed to fulfil a recent fixture and there has been a change of chairman and manager.  Post-match addition: I have also seen a tweet, from before kick-off, saying a sarcastic “thank you” to “players that let us down today”.  Bet that would have gone down well in Haringey and Enfield …
This match in one sentence
GWR overcame early nerves and gave a dominant performance, so that the destination of this divisional title was never in doubt.
So what?
GWR will have step 4 football next season, almost certainly in the Isthmian League.  Basildon will finish in the top half of the table.
The drama unfolds
The early pressure came from the visitors, and I took two clips to set the scene in the first fifteen minutes.  Basildon are in yellow-and-black, and doing lots of defending. The opening goal came from Billy Johnson.  He broke free of the defenders and reached a diagonal ball just before George Walsh in the home goal.  This would calm the nerves.  0-1 after 22 mins Opening goalscorer Billy Johnson Great Wakering started to pass the ball better in the final third and a neat move down the left created the space and angle for Jay Nash to fire past Walsh into the far corner.  0-2 after 34 mins Celebration time, come on!  Jay Nash gets the 'grats. Before half-time, a route one free-kick was headed against the Basildon bar but shortly afterwards this was forgotten as Walsh failed to cut out a left-wing cross and Lewis Sparrow headed in from close range.  This looked like game over and title decided.  0-3 after 42 mins Basildon offered very little except a couple of long range shots.  Adam Seal in the visiting goal had nothing much to do.  0-3 at halftime The game quickly settled into the same pattern in the second half.  Walsh made a very good one handed save, but was then lucky shortly afterwards as a clearance was charged down only for the ball to bounce just wide.  Great Wakering then clipped the bar – it was one-way traffic and the wind seemed to be increasingly helpful too.  The fourth goal came when Walsh pushed away a long-range shot by Johnson but only to Nash, who had an easy tap-in.  0-4 after 71 min Greg Akpele got a consolation goal for Basildon on the break after Great Wakering had lost the ball on the edge of the area and argued among themselves about it.  He deserved that for the enthusiasm and dedication of his performance.  1-4 after 79 mins Akpele then brought the best out of Seal, forcing him to make a magnificent one-handed save almost immediately afterwards.  The unlikely comeback was snuffed out and Great Wakering were home and dry with no further alarms.  A trophy duly appeared, and Basildon formed a classy guard of honour as the victors left the field.  Final score 1-4
Ground Pix
That is "The Onion" in the background, a water tower. Plenty of travelling support today. The GWR mascot had a relaxed afternoon ... not too many of these at Step 5!
Match Pix
Huddle Stats
Both teams huddled today, though Great Wakering’s was borderline with almost no touchy-feeliness about it.  Basildon went for the full man-cuddle experience.  It appears from the season stats that it makes no difference whatsoever. 2013-14 Summary so far: P W D L GF GA Pts Pts per Game Non-Huddlers 15 6 4 5 18 14 22 1.47 Huddlers 29 13 3 13 45 48 42 1.45 Twin Huddlers 1 0 1 0 2 2 1 1.00 2nd Half Huddlers 1 0 0 1 1 2 0 0.00
Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats
Basildon have classic green while Great Wakering bring a vibrant red. 2013-14 Summary so far: 3pts for a win, 1pt for a draw, -1pt for a goal conceded and +5pts for a clean sheet P W D L GA (-1 each) CS (5 each) Pts Pts per Game Purple 1 1 0 0 0 1 8 8.00 Grey 12 7 2 3 13 5 35 2.92 Red 3 2 0 1 3 1 8 2.67 Green 10 5 0 5 15 2 10 1.00 Yellow 4 1 1 2 8 1 1 0.25 Orange 3 1 1 1 6 0 -2 -0.67 Radioactive Bile 3 1 0 2 6 0 -3 -1.00 Pink 7 1 3 3 16 0 -10 -1.43 Blue 3 0 1 2 6 0 -5 -1.67
What Next?
Watch @GrahamYapp on Twitter for details!