Somewhere, Over There's a Rainbow, Wi' A Pie

Hopperational Details
Date & Venue	Saturday 4 November at Cantilever Park k/a Winner Recruitment Stadium
Result	Warrington Town 2 Sutton Coldfield Town 1
Competition	Northern Premier League
Hopstats	I’m here for #624 on the lifetime list because it is the nearest Step 3 unvisited ground hosting a game today.
Context
Not much time for detailed pre-match research today but the league table suggests that near-top Warrington will expect a win over bottom-of-the-table Sutton Coldfield.
In one sentence
Warrington took the three points but should have sealed the win more clearly long before the final whistle.
So what?
Warrington go up to second, a point behind Altrincham. Shaw Lane were occupied with an FA Cup run until this weekend and they could overtake both by winning games in hand.  As for Sutton Coldfield, they of course remain rooted to last place in the division.
Match Report
There was a pre-match downpour (and rainbow), but I really feared for Sutton Coldfield when in the first minute James Barrigan backheeled the ball cleverly for Steven Jennings to smack it into the roof of the net.  However, they showed some resilience and spirit and could have scored against the run of play after eleven minutes when a glancing header hit the post. The game settled into a pattern of Warrington pressure and an occasional Sutton Coldfield break.  However it took until 33 minutes before the home team fashioned a golden chance.  Sean Williams’ floated cross was just too high for the incoming Barrigan.  Just before half-time, Abou Sanogo pounced on a poor clearance but sent his low shot just wide.  So the visitors reached the interval only one goal down, for which they should consider themselves fortunate. With all to play for in the second half, Warrington seemed to settle the nerves when full-back Rory McKeown scored their second with a low placed first-time shot.  It then needed a great defensive clearance as the Sutton Coldfield keeper fumbled after a training-ground freekick routine that caught the visitors napping. Then, on the hour, some hesitancy at the back allowed Gurjit Singh to run through more or less unopposed to pull one back.  In that last half an hour, we had another downpour, a curling shot from the Sutton Coldfield left, going just wide for the game’s “What if?” moment.  For their part, Warrington hit the post and shot just over, but they lacked clinical finishing up front and on another day might have been forced to share or lose the points. For the passing neutral, a decent game, a visually interesting ground, pie-and-peas served to northern high standards, and a rainbow.  All good.
Ground Pix
An interesting ground next to the Manchester Ship Canal taking its pre-sponsorship name from the adjacent bridge.
Match Pix
Warrington are in yellow, which is good because they are “The Yellows”.
Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats
Green beats orange and stays ahead, but no clean sheets today. Results so far after 123 games: 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 65.0 32.0 8.0 25.0 111.0 17.0 78.0 1.200 Orange 25.5 9.0 4.0 12.5 40.5 5.0 15.5 0.608 Purple 11.0 5.0 2.0 4.0 25.0 2.0 2.0 0.182 Yellow 26.0 7.0 6.0 13.0 49.0 5.0 3.0 0.115 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?
I now have six “priorities” left for this season which are, in the north Ashton United, Lancaster City and Whitby Town, plus Athersley Recreation as Shaw Lane’s landlords, and Merthyr Town and Tiverton Town to the west.  That will complete everywhere down to Step 3. Other more random things might happen too.  Follow @GrahamYapp on Twitter for details!