Plan B from Walsall Wood

Hopperational Details
Date & Venue	Saturday 17 February at the ML Safety Stadium, Oak Park
Result	Walsall Wood 6 Chelmsley Town 0
Competition	Midland Football League Division One
Hopstats	635 on the Lifetime List.  Plan A, having been in West Bromwich at the ancestral home all morning, was to be at Shepshed Dynamo on the way back south.  Postponement caused a change in plan, and Walsall Wood were first to show on my Twitter search as an option.  It was either this or WBA v Southampton in the FA Cup and no way am I going to re-start watching Albion at the moment.  I want the Cab Four to be transfer-listed.
Context
Very little time for research except that Wood are flying as league leaders with an average of four goals per game.  Chelmsley Town are mid table but the form book would predict a home win.
In one sentence
Once the initial resistance had been broken, the Chelmsley management team fell mercifully silent and Walsall Wood completed a routine win.
So what?
Walsall Wood have a two-point advantage over Atherstone Town but also with three games in hand.  Chelmsley Town are 15th.
Match Report
I watched the game from the back of the main stand, and very comfortable it is too for this level.  Pleased to see a couple of the more unusual keeper top colours (see below), but surprised that the ref allowed Wood’s because of the similarity to the home shirt in the bright sunshine. The game settled quickly into a pattern suggested by the league table, with Wood well on top, and lacking only a final ball.  With multiple and possibly contradictory instructions being screamed from sources in the away dugout, Town kept the match scoreless for the first quarter.  A header pinged the post early on, then Wood’s Ben Lund managed to round the visiting keeper James Kelly before having a shot blocked, and there could be no doubting the away team’s efforts and defensive commitment at this point.  Their occasional breaks were quickly snuffed out. The inevitable opening goal came just after the half-hour mark.  A penalty appeal was rendered redundant as Lei Brown scored from the loose ball.  Five minutes later the same player got his second with the help of a big deflection from his direct fee-kick.  Town managed to repel all invaders for the rest of the first half to, just about, stay in the game. The second half quickly fell into the same pattern.  Up for a corner, centre-back Chris Slater fired powerfully into the top corner after a knockdown.  Town keeper Kelly had to leave the field with injury but thankfully passed his top to the sub to avoid messing up my spreadsheet.  The sub keeper soon had to face a penalty, and to be fair Town were lucky not to be down a man too because of the defender denying a clear goalscoring opportunity.  Unfortunately I can’t give the sub keeper a namecheck.  He had the momentary moral victory of a penalty save before Paul Sullivan hammered in his own rebound.   The sub’s eventful afternoon continued as he brought down an attacker, and this time Brown completed his hat-trick from the spot.   He did make a brilliant one-handed reflex save, the save of the day by far, before a deflected strike by Tony Clarke made it six in the last minute. As a passing neutral, I don’t really enjoy these one-sided games, but social media exchanges suggest that Walsall Wood entertained their visitors to a high standard and have earned the respect of other teams this season as they charge towards a divisional title with another thumping win.  Let's not forget the charitable act too.  Step 5 beckons.
Ground Pix
Other Match Pix
Walsall Wood in Red.
Today’s Good Cause
The ceremonial programme is dedicated to the memory of Mylee Billingham.  There was a charity match this morning, and all today’s gate receipts are going to her family.  Mylee was killed in January and newspapers have reported that her father has now been charged with murder.  It is an incident that has massively affected the local community.
Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats
An appearance today for two of the rarer colours.  I am surprised that the home keeper was able to wear Fire Cracker, given the similarity to the home shirts, but the result does the colour a lot of good in the league table.  A bad day for Purple. Results so far (135 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 is not the same as Orange, 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 10.0 5.0 1.0 4.0 11.0 3.0 20.0 2.000 Fire Cracker 2.0 1.0 0.0 1.0 4.0 1.0 4.0 2.000 Maroon 4.0 2.0 1.0 1.0 6.0 1.0 6.0 1.500 Blue 31.1 13.0 6.0 12.1 49.0 10.0 46.0 1.479 Green 73.0 36.0 10.0 27.0 122.0 19.0 91.0 1.247 Grey 43.5 20.0 9.0 14.5 72.5 11.0 51.5 1.184 Orange 29.5 9.0 6.0 14.5 49.5 5.0 8.5 0.288 Radioactive Bile 13.0 6.0 0.0 7.0 26.0 2.0 2.0 0.154 Yellow 30.0 8.0 7.0 15.0 64.0 5.0 -8.0 -0.267 Purple 12.0 5.0 2.0 5.0 31.0 2.0 -4.0 -0.333 Pink 15.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 30.0 1.0 -8.0 -0.533 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
What Next?
Follow @GrahamYapp on Twitter for details!  I still have three Step 3 grounds (with longish drives) to do, and these will take priority if weather and fitness allows next Saturday.