Baggie Decision

I’m going to let the players from my home-town team, West Bromwich Albion, decide where I will go for groundhopping on New Year’s Day.   I hope that other Albion fans might try out this idea for everyday decisions (where to go, what to wear, who to marry, which takeaway to order etc etc) and it certainly helps to make a typical Albion game just that bit more interesting.

At the time of writing, we are 15 minutes away from kickoff against Arsenal at The Hawthorns.

The key question is: Who (if anyone) will score West Brom’s latest goal in the game?

Notice the pre-match optimism, that there might be more than one.  This is also known as "misguided stupidity".

The players are in squad number order except for the “catchall” category at the end.  The fixtures are in alphabetical order of home team.  All of them are Step 4 in the world of non-league.

If a player is substituted, then the substitute takes over the responsibility.  So, if Gareth McAuley is thrown up front in the 98^th minute by Alan Pardew to replace Jake Livermore, then his 99^th minute winner (I wish) would still send me to Carlton Town.  To be fair, this is not strictly random in the sense that all outcomes are not equally likely, so any pre-match prediction will be sending me to Winchester tomorrow, and NOT because Ben Foster has scored his first of the season.

Squad #	Name	Linked Fixture
3	Gibbs	Alvechurch v Romulus
4	Robson-Kanu	Atherton Collieries v Trafford
6	Evans	Belper Town v Gresley
8	Livermore	Carlton Town v Lincoln Utd
10	Phillips	Clitheroe v Kendal Town
11	Brunt	Corinthian Casuals v Walton Casuals
18	Barry	Ossett Town v Ossett Albion
19	Rodriguez	Sittingbourne v Ramsgate
25	Dawson	South Shields v Scarborough Ath
26	Hegazi	Taunton Town v Bideford Town
1 or none	Foster (or no WBA scorer)	Winchester City v Totton

At the time of kickoff, we start at the default position of a trip to Winchester.  Since I would happily take a 0-0 at this point, it's not so bad.

Update: 15 minutes in and an Jay Rodriguez header has been Albion's best chance, but Petr Cech saved me (for now) from Sittingbourne.  Still headed for Winchester.

Update 2.  Half-time and nothing else to report.  I wouldn't be too upset by a trip to Winchester as long as we have a clean sheet too.

Update 3:  5.53pm and no new development.  Steve Claridge sounding very stressed in the radio summariser role.  Even his colleagues are chiding him for the number of times he has said "higgledy-piggledy".

Update 4: WBA have now used all three subs - Phillips, Brunt and Robson-Kanu replaced by McClean, Krychowiak and Nyom respectively.  The last in particular reduces the chances of a trip to Atherton Collieries.

Update 5: Arsenal's deflected goal makes no difference!

Update 6: Jay Rodriguez scores from the penalty spot!  All the controversy is irrelevant - I'm now headed for Sittingbourne v Ramsgate!

Hertford get a Suffolk Punch

Hopperational details
Date & Venue	Saturday 30 December 2017 at Recreation Way
Result	Mildenhall Town 2 Hertford Town 0
Competition	Isthmian League Division One North (Step 4) aka Bostik North Division
Hopstats	Number 628 on the lifetime list, and I am here for pragmatic reasons – this is just over an hour away from Yapp Acres and there were a lot of pitch inspections and postponements this morning. “Game On” was declared early enough for me to travel.  Hoppers travelling by car – look for the Free Parking sign adjacent to Costa Coffee.  The postcode on the SatNav took me onto a supermarket car park – you can reach the free zone by driving down a ramp at the far end.  Alternatively set for St Mary’s Close rather than Recreation Way.  The entry turnstile is tucked away at the “bottom” end of the ground near the swimming pool.  Allow time for an excellent burger too!
Context
Two mid-table teams, the visitors ahead by eight points.  Mildenhall, newly-promoted to this level from the Eastern Counties, are on a longish run without a win, though with several draws, and in the programme manager Dean Greygoose is unusually quoted as somewhat critical of his players, promising changes.  That could go either way.  The teams met in a 2-2 draw at Hertford earlier in the season.  Hertford are also new at Step 4 this season, having been promoted from the Spartan South Midlands.
In one sentence
A dour contest for much of the time but home supporters and management will be relieved that the winless run is over.
So what?
Mildenhall are 18th but will need to look over their shoulders for a while yet as most teams beneath them now have games in hand.  Hertford are 13th.
Match Report
Mildenhall kicked down the slope for the first half.  The match kicked off in bright low sunshine but the clouds moved in and the temperature soon began to drop.  The first half had relatively few clear chances.  Mildenhall’s Claudio Ofusu caught the eye initially with some tricky direct running at the opposition defence, but the final pass was usually missing.  He caught the eye of the ref too for a pointless booking later on, deemed to have kicked the ball away at a stoppage.  Hertford tried to get a passing game going, but the surface was tricky and they had to settle for a less risky percentage game.  They had the best chance of the half when Charlie Cole was sent through with only the keeper Jacob Marsden to beat, but he shot well wide.  Then Marsden slipped while clearing to present another chance, but Phil Lowen’s lofted shot came back off the bar.  So, goalless at the interval and all to play for.  With hindsight, those were two bad misses. The teams traded early chances in the second half, and Ofusu started well again with his running with the ball.  One took him all the way from left wing to right wing as Mildenhall built up some pressure.  The breakthrough came after 66 minutes, Joshua Curry arriving at the back post to score with a first-time shot from a corner.  Then the second came six minutes later.  Ofusu anticipated where a second ball would drop then took the ball forward to place a really neat finish just inside the far post. Hertford tried to respond but couldn’t really create anything clear-cut.  There was a brief altercation after a late (unwise and desperate rather than malicious) tackle by their centre-back Michael Toner leading to a yellow card, but in truth Mildenhall were able to hold on easily enough for the win.  Fair play to the travelling support who took the frustrating defeat on the chin with a degree of good humour. Mildenhall Town 2 (Curry 66, Ofusu 72) Hertford Town 0
Ground Pix
Match Pix
Mildenhall are in gold-and-black.
Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats
Radioactive Bile, with a clean sheet, beats Grey to climb two places in the table.  Grey stays 4th.  The table also includes my unblogged trip to Brentford v Villa on Boxing Day, where Yellow scored a 2-1 victory over Green. 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 42.5 20.0 9.0 13.5 70.5 11.0 53.5 1.259 Green 69.0 34.0 9.0 26.0 117.0 17.0 79.0 1.145 Orange 27.5 9.0 5.0 13.5 45.5 5.0 11.5 0.418 Purple 11.0 5.0 2.0 4.0 25.0 2.0 2.0 0.182 Radioactive Bile 13.0 6.0 0.0 7.0 26.0 2.0 2.0 0.154 Yellow 28.0 8.0 6.0 14.0 58.0 5.0 -3.0 -0.107 Pink 14.0 4.0 4.0 6.0 29.0 1.0 -8.0 -0.571 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?
Follow @GrahamYapp on Twitter for details!  Weather permitting, my Step 3 priorities are Ashton United, Athersley Recreation (as Shaw Lane’s landlords), Tiverton Town and Whitby Town.