Evergreen in a Right Two and Eight as They are Mauled by Lions

Hopperational details
Date & Venue	Saturday 27 August 2016 at South Way (Main Pitch)
Result	Evergreen 2 London Lions 8
Competition	Hertfordshire Senior County League Premier Division (Step 7)
Hopping	It’s random(ish).  Ground 592 on the lifetime list and I am here because Pakistan scored exactly three runs from the 27th over (bowled by Mark Wood) in their innings at Lord’s this morning.  I had seven venues to choose from and the evidence trail is on Twitter.  A maiden over, or seven runs scored, would have sent me to Bovingdon.  The other venues in the list were Bushey SC, Chipperfield, Knebworth, Sarratt and Ware Sports.  Their turn will come.
Pre-match preparation
Two league matches played by each side – Lions have won both at home, Evergreen have two away defeats.  Not sure how much that tells me at this early point in the season.  The home club motto is the very cultured Latin conjunctis viribus.  Conjunctis is concerned with togetherness or union, and viribus is strength or virility, here in the ablative case to imply the preposition “with”.  I knew I would use this O Level knowledge one day.
This match in one sentence
A thrashing.
So what?
Lions and Evergreen keep their 100% and 0% league records intact.  Lions are nominally second in the league, behind Bovingdon on goal difference.
The drama unfolds
Thanks to the Lions’ Twitter feed for helping me credit the goalscorers.  Lions had the breeze behind them for the first half and it played a part in the early opening goal from Austin Lipman. James Gershfield rolled in a second before the quarter-hour.  The third, just before the half-hour, was gift-wrapped when the ball was lost in defence and Josh Kennet ran through into space for an easy finish.  0-3 after 26 mins The pitch was dry and hard, bouncy and quick, and the stiff breeze did not help either side to play good football.  Lions tried to keep the ball on the deck but for Evergreen it was a case of getting to half time with minimum damage.  Lions’ number 11, Jordan Marks I think, had other ideas as he provided the assist for Lipman’s second goal just before the break.  0-4 at half time It was essential for Evergreen to start the second half strongly but incredibly they found themselves seven down after a three-in-five-minutes scoreburst from the Lions.  Kennet’s second was followed by Lipman’s hat-trick from the penalty spot and a tap-in for Gershfield, with an assist by Marks.  0-7 after 56 mins With the game over as a contest my attention turned to a personal groundhopping record – ten goals in a game when St Neots beat Desborough Town 10-0 in 2010.  The next goal, however, was a consolation for Evergreen and it was a tidy finish from a flicked through ball.  It was number 9, currently anonymous and probably for the best as will be explained shortly.  1-7 after 69 mins Any thoughts of a comeback were snuffed out as Charlie Rubin headed home from a corner, and then the tenth goal of the day was another nice finish by the home side’s number 4.  2-8 after 84 mins There were a couple of half-chances but my scoring record was equalled rather than broken.  The Evergreen number 9 got away with a string of patronising dissent to the referee’s assistant before this one-sided affair came to a close. Final score 2-8
Ground Pix
A new situation presented itself on arrival as there were two games taking place simultaneously on adjacent pitches and my personal hop rules did not cover this eventuality.  A quick committee meeting in my head and a check of the moral compass resulted in a decision that only one could count.  Bovingdon Reserves beat Evergreen Reserves 2-1 with a late winner.  By the way, the huge nearby buildings are part of the Leavesden Studios (think Harry Potter et al). The adjacent game which can't be counted, oh no
Match Pix
Evergreen are not surprisingly in the green and white.  Lipman (10) glances the opening goal Gershfield is about to roll the ball gently into the far corner for the second
Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats
There was a full update on the last blogpost from West Ham.  Today was very bad for grey, and average for pink.  Grey falls below orange as a result.  Further updates will follow periodically as we approach the 100-game survey total.  Red is top of the table, with green in second place.
What Next?
Watch @GrahamYapp on Twitter for details!  Work is piling up but I might try to fit in another local hop on Bank Holiday Monday and of course then it is Non-League Day next weekend.  A new term starts next week so the work-life balance takes a hammering again.