Trams Derailed by Rams Raiders

Hopperational details
Date & Venue	Saturday 26 December 2015 at the Croydon Sports Arena
Result	Croydon 1 Croydon Athletic 2
Competition	Southern Counties East Premier Division (Step 5)
Hopping	Ground 580 and the first trip for me (due to work reasons) since September.
Pre-match preparation
None whatsoever.  I was on my way to Corinthian Casuals for a 1.00pm kickoff when the M25 western section scuppered my plans (not for the first time).  Plan B was this 3.00pm kickoff.  I arrived with about 20 minutes to spare to find friendly staff, apologetic about the lack of clubhouse and teabar today.  I took the news well, bought a golden goal ticket, made my usual joke about the certainty of nil-nil, and pulled out the no-score ticket.  Finding out that this fixture is The Trams v The Rams cheered me up slightly.  I watched the game from the main stand.
This match in one sentence
A late consolation goal for Croydon after the visitors went down to ten men, but the result never really seemed in any doubt.
So what?
Athletic up to 13th and Croydon down to 18th.
The drama unfolds
Louis Blake poked the ball home to give Athletic the early lead.  C11 had bought a free-kick from the ref on the edge of the area and the delivery caused chaos in the home defence.  0-1 after 3 minutes They should have scored a second after half-an-hour (Blake shooting over from close range) and another before the interval (Raheem Sterling-Parker caught between crossing and shooting).  0-1 at half-time Croydon played better in the second half but with no real end product.  The visitors’ second goal came from a far-post corner which was not cleared.  The ball came back into the middle to be bundled home from close range by Sterling-Parker.  0-2 after 66 minutes With nine minutes to go, Callum Maclean got a second yellow, and so a red, taking Athletic down to ten men.  Croydon pulled back a late consolation goal through Karl Douglin, and then had the tiniest sniff of an equaliser, but the stronger team held on for the win. 1-2 after 89 minutes, and final score also 1-2
Ground Pix
Croydon play in a ground with an athletics track.  Croydon Athletic don’t.  The area is a building site at the moment and there is nothing picturesque about it whatsoever.  However, all pales into insignificance as I have had to create a new spreadsheet category (alongside planes, trains, ships, buses) for TRAMS! The Trams (blue) and A Tram (green) Unbelievable.
Match Pix
Five Years of Modus Hopper Random
A quick check of the annals showed that my December hopping was messed up by the M25 five years ago too! http://modushopperrandom.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/sinking-feeling-in-cinque-port-hythe.html
Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats
Orange beats grey and the two colours swop places in the table.  Full table appears in the blog from time to time.
What Next?
Watch @GrahamYapp on Twitter for details!  Thanks to everyone reading this after my long break from hopping this season.  Work demands have often left me too exhausted or with too little time to take on the driving and travelling at weekends during term-time, and this may well continue for some time yet.  I am going to try to complete my remaining Step 3 grounds before the end of the season, but that may be about all I can do.  Bear with me!