Best Decision I Never Made

Hopperational details
Date & Venue	Saturday 18 November 2017 at Giant Axe
Result	Lancaster City 4 Coalville Town 2
Competition	Northern Premier League (Step 3)
Hopstats	626 on the lifetime list and I am here because of the result of this Twitter poll.  Thanks to everyone who took part. Lancaster scored 51% of the vote to choose from the three unvisited Step 3 grounds on my shortlist for today. I
Context
13th plays 15th in the division, so mid-table respectability for both sides.  Lancaster are unbeaten at home.
In one sentence
Lancaster chose the classic good-time-to-take-the-lead, in the 45th minute, and they pulled away in the second half before a late second for Coalville.
So what?
Lancaster go up to 10th, Coalville drop a place to 16th.  The unbeaten home record is intact.
Match Report
Kevin Phillips of WBA is without doubt the classiest warmer-upperer I have ever seen, but I watched the Coalville pre-match first-time-shooting drill with some concern.  It took 30 shots (honestly) before someone hit the target.  To be fair, only one shot left the stadium. When the game started, the first item of note was a prompted minute of applause in memory of club legend Neil Marshall, who died a year ago from cancer having played nearly 500 times.  Lancaster almost scored as the minute ended but a timely tackle from Lee Torr saved the day. Another good clearance, this time by Kyle Dixon, was necessary as the home side started positively, and it was something of a surprise when Nat Watson received the ball on the right, cut inside and had a lot of space to score for Coalville with a powerful left-foot shot. Lancaster were unfazed and visiting keeper Matt Coton saved well from Hannu Tam.  The pressure built. After a set piece, defender Steve Williams stayed up in the box and his aerial presence led indirectly to an equaliser.  A first chance was cleared but the ball fell kindly for Craig Carney who scored with the outside of his right foot. Coalville came back with a training ground corner routine, the ball coming back to a player holding deep.  However, Lancaster took the lead just before the interval.  A good save by Coton delayed the goal, but a resulting knockdown gave Carney a chance to volley his second. At half-time, someone won the raffle prize, which was tickets for a boat trip to the Isle of Man.  Whether they were return tickets was not made clear, so good luck to the winner. The second half started in the same competitive fashion.  The “If only…” moment arrived on the hour.  Daniel Creaney’s header went across the keeper but went just wide, and the striker’s reaction confirmed that it had been a good chance.  Coalville then worked another training ground routine from a quickly taken freekick.  It must have been very frustrating for them when Lancaster scored their third on the break.  Ryan Winder timed his run from midfield to shoot unchallenged from a central position after a move down the right. The fourth came from a similar build-up and was a tap-in for substitute Charlie Bailey.  Finally, Coalville’s second was awarded by the assistant, who was in a decent position to confirm that a looping defensive header had crossed the line before being cleared. Good entertainment for the passing neutral.
Ground Pix
I rarely have a bad day when I cross the gravy-on-chips line heading North.  Everything about today was above average.  The welcome at the turnstiles, the food, the programme, the location and the ground itself.  It ticks a lot of boxes for the traditionalists.  It is less than five minutes’ walk from the station and multiple types of train are clearly visible during the game – West Coast main line, the DMUs of the Morecambe branch, and the occasional freight train.  I can see why Twitter sent me here – the hive mind knows.  All it needs now is a migrating bunch of spotted flycatchers or something and some people would never leave.
Match Pix
Lancaster City are known as the Dolly Blues.
Pre-Match Entertainment
A walk round Lancaster in the sunshine.  A particular highlight was a statue of Queen Victoria, mounted above frescoes of all the great scientists, engineers, leaders, writers and thinkers of the day.  Today she presided over a Christmas market.  For what it’s worth, I think Tony Pulis could have a new career as a Gladstone impersonator very soon if he loses the baseball cap.
Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats
Green beats Orange, as we have come to expect over the last 125 games. Results so far: Based on conventional 3pts for a win, 1pt for a draw, but also -1pt for a goal conceded (GC) and +5pts for a clean sheet (CS).  Colours ranked on a points per game (PPG) basis. For new readers the odd .5 was caused by a shocking half-and-half shirt and the .1 was due to a substitute goalkeeper in a different colour.  The Fire Cracker colour was confirmed with the help of the social media team at Dulux UK, and it deserves to be last, trust me.  All of this arises from a comment attributed to Petr Cech that orange is the best colour for a goalkeeper because it changes the behaviour of other players around the box. P W D L GC CS Pts PPG Red 9.0 4.0 1.0 4.0 9.0 3.0 19.0 2.111 Maroon 4.0 2.0 1.0 1.0 6.0 1.0 6.0 1.500 Blue 30.1 12.0 6.0 12.1 47.0 10.0 45.0 1.495 Grey 41.5 20.0 9.0 12.5 68.5 11.0 55.5 1.337 Green 67.0 34.0 8.0 25.0 114.0 17.0 81.0 1.209 Orange 26.5 9.0 4.0 13.5 44.5 5.0 11.5 0.434 Purple 11.0 5.0 2.0 4.0 25.0 2.0 2.0 0.182 Yellow 27.0 7.0 6.0 14.0 57.0 5.0 -5.0 -0.185 Pink 14.0 4.0 4.0 6.0 29.0 1.0 -8.0 -0.571 Radioactive Bile 12.0 5.0 0.0 7.0 26.0 1.0 -6.0 -0.500 Black 5.0 1.0 3.0 1.0 14.0 0.0 -8.0 -1.600 White 1.9 0.0 0.0 1.9 4.0 0.0 -4.0 -2.105 Fire Cracker 1.0 0.0 0.0 1.0 4.0 0.0 -4.0 -4.000
What Next?
Watch @GrahamYapp on Twitter for details!  There will be a rugby union diversion in midweek as I take in Cambridge University’s traditional warm-up match against the Steele-Bodger XV before the Twickenham showdown with Oxford in early December.