Bracken Blue and Blue in Purple

Hopperational details
Date & Venue	Saturday 24 March 2018 at King George’s Arena
Result	Corinthian Casuals 0 Cray Wanderers 1
Competition	Isthmian League Division One South (Step 4)
Hopstats	Ground 638 on the lifetime list and here because I needed a reasonably short journey today!
Context
Both teams are in the hunt for promotion.  A run of eight wins in a row has seen Casuals go into the second automatic spot, and Cray are not far behind. Both teams can be quietly confident of at least a play-off tilt at the end of the season.
In one sentence
An effective Cray performance, strangling Casuals’ attacking efforts, even when the home side were visibly stung into action by a second half red card after some ugly pushing and shoving.
So what?
The unbeaten run comes to an end but Casuals stay second for the moment. Carshalton drew level on points but might regard their home draw with Guernsey as two points dropped.  The two other contenders immediately below Cray both won.  Lewes are closing in on the divisional title but the second automatic promotion spot is definitely up for grabs.
Match Report
The only goal of the game came after eight minutes.  Cray had already settled, trying to play composed football building from the back.  Persistence near the left byline led to a hanging cross that was decisively volleyed in by Junior Dadson. It took a good save with his feet by home keeper Danny Bracken (in blue) to keep Casuals in the game at the midpoint of the first half.  A stooping header from a free kick was on target.  It was only at the half-hour point that the visiting keeper Nick Blue (in Purple) had to get his top dirty, diving to block a half-chance.  Cray had a penalty appeal turned down, and they looked dangerous on the break.  Casuals were more direct, but misfiring today and there was not much in the way of end product.  The home supporters sang a unique song about cheesy chips with four cheeses, which sadly had run out at half time before I got to the front of the queue. I felt that Casuals would improve after a half-time rant or chat from the management, but Cray had a good headed chance early in the second half. Again, Bracken was in the right place. He was much the busier of the two keepers.  We then had the altercation, a big one.  I was watching the play, so I didn’t see what started it.  The ref was in the other half of the field as the bundling commenced in the Cray penalty area.  He reached the group just before one of the players barged into him, but accidentally I think.  There was a Cray defender on the ground.  A home player did a mock dive to the ground to make his feelings clear, but it took quite some time to separate the players.  Bracken came up from his own goalmouth to add his presence.  After consulting his assistant, a straight red card was shown to Casuals’ Gabriel Odunaike, who promptly “lost it”.  Hands were raised and shirts were grabbed again, management and subs came on.  For a moment I genuinely thought that the ref would have to abandon the game. It was several minutes before Odunaike was escorted to the changing rooms under the calming influence of one of his own subs.  Three other yellow cards (two home and one away) followed.  At the end of the game there would be five extra minutes, and that was conservative. The home side were visibly angered and started to impose themselves.  Cray weathered the storm and saw the game out in a rather soured atmosphere.  The purple shirt on Blue did not get noticeably dirtier.  Cray will regard this as a job well done.  It wasn’t pretty, but it was pretty effective. Literally as I write this, a tweet has appeared from James Bracken, the home manager, thanking supporters and talking about “better ways to win”.  Club photographer Stuart Tree also has a photograph on his Flickr page that shows the moment that the Cray player fell to the ground.  I suspect next week’s programme notes will be interesting. The programme (really very good by the way) also tells the story of a bunch of Preston North End fans who have “adopted” Casuals.  An international weekend gives them a great chance to visit – it all stems from a late postponement at Crawley in 2013 that left them looking for alternative footballing entertainment.
Ground Pix
You can tell as soon as you walk into a ground whether the club is loved and in good health, and this is evident here.  It’s clean and tidy, with good signposting and decent facilities. The club’s links with Brazil are well documented and they have one of the best collections of banners in non-league football.
Match Pix
Corinthian Casuals in the chocolate and pink.
Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats
Blue loses to Purple, and the clean sheet helps the latter to jump a couple of places. Results from the last 139 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.  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 Blue 34.1 15.0 6.0 13.1 50.0 12.0 61.0 1.789 Maroon 4.0 2.0 1.0 1.0 6.0 1.0 6.0 1.500 Grey 44.5 20.0 10.0 14.5 72.5 12.0 57.5 1.292 Green 74.0 36.0 10.0 28.0 123.0 19.0 90.0 1.216 Orange 30.5 9.0 7.0 14.5 49.5 6.0 14.5 0.475 Purple 13.0 6.0 2.0 5.0 31.0 3.0 4.0 0.308 Radioactive Bile 13.0 6.0 0.0 7.0 26.0 2.0 2.0 0.154 Yellow 31.0 8.0 7.0 16.0 65.0 5.0 -9.0 -0.290 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!

You Won't Believe This Scoreline

Hopperational details
Date & Venue	Saturday 10 March 2018 at Queen Street
Result	Chipperfield Corinthians 0 Sandridge Rovers 0
Competition	Herts Senior County League Premier Division (Step 7)
Hopstats	Ground 637 on the lifetime list, and here because I was forced to stay local by uncertainty over postponements elsewhere.
Context
The home side are low in the division, though probably safe enough from relegation.  The visitors are fourth and will start as favourites.  This is a late travelling decision after plans A, B, C and D were all called off or not confirmed while I still had time to travel.
In one sentence
No goals were scored, meaning that it was a goalless draw, with neither side scoring the goal that might have won the match for them, given that their opponents didn’t score either.
So what?
No change in league positions.  Sandridge could lose a place as other teams catch up on games in hand.  Chipperfield could still be in relegation danger if Evergreen win all their games in hand.
Match Report
Sandridge occasionally looked the more likely to score during the first half.  The home keeper’s clearance kicks were variable and sometimes Chipperfield were exposed at the back, but he redeemed himself with some timely clearances and punches.  Neither team had a real cutting edge, so the battle was largely fought in midfield with many, maybe most, refereeing decisions openly questioned both on the pitch and from the dugouts.  Sandridge’s centre-back (and presumably captain) used foul and abusive language every other word, but only directed at his own players so no cards were shown.  I fear for the game at this level if VAR really does eliminate honest human errors from televised games.  The officials did get a few decisions wrong in relation to throw-ins and corners particularly, and of course players know this.  The over-riding culture of the game now is to keep up as much pressure on the officials as possible whilst staying just within the rules.  I’m writing this because my other first-half notes are very thin – it was of course goalless at the interval. I bought the unexpected but welcome progamme in the club-house.  In stowing it away safely I totally failed to notice the presence of Cieran and Conor Yapp on the Sandridge squad list.  No close relation but I will have to make further enquiries – there aren’t that many of us down in the south-east.  I wonder if we have a common ancestor somewhere in Herefordshire or Shropshire from when one of the early Georges was on the throne and John Motson was just starting out. I digress.  So, in the second half, the teams seemed to be on a more equal footing.  Certainly Chipperfield nearly got caught on the break several times because they were pressing forward in numbers.  Sandridge’s failure to convert any of those one-on-ones and two-on-twos cost them the win.  Chipperfield will also point to a disallowed goal just after the 70-minute mark.  There was a long conversation between the referee and one of his assistants before the decision was made.  Other than that there were few near misses or great saves.  Mostly we watched moves break down on the edge of the area or shots blocked or deflected before troubling the keepers. In the last end-to-end phase I noted a great last-ditch tackle by a Chipperfield centre-back which saved a certain shot on goal at least, and both sides had their half-chances in the closing moments.  By that stage I’d decided that a 0-0 draw was a fair result and the only decision I needed to make was whether to add an alien abduction or volcanic eruption to spice up the match report.  In the end I decided that I don’t want the blog to be labelled as Fake News, and I’ll only go as far as a teaser clickbait tweet ;)  Thank you for reading this far.
Ground Pix
This is a little gem.  Some great views beyond the perimeter, including horses in a nearby field, and several mature Scooby-Doo trees.  Tucked away at the end of a village lane – I recommend parking near the church and enjoying the stroll from there.
Match Pix
Chipperfield in red and black.
Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats
A draw but a clean sheet each for Grey and Orange, a result that showed up a minor error for Orange in recently published versions of the table, so now all corrected with some checking formulae added to the spreadsheet.  Nobody noticed.  Anyway, Grey goes above Green as a result. Results so far after 138 matches: 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.  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 Blue 33.1 15.0 6.0 12.1 49.0 12.0 62.0 1.873 Maroon 4.0 2.0 1.0 1.0 6.0 1.0 6.0 1.500 Grey 44.5 20.0 10.0 14.5 72.5 12.0 57.5 1.292 Green 74.0 36.0 10.0 28.0 123.0 19.0 90.0 1.216 Orange 30.5 9.0 7.0 14.5 49.5 6.0 14.5 0.475 Radioactive Bile 13.0 6.0 0.0 7.0 26.0 2.0 2.0 0.154 Yellow 31.0 8.0 7.0 16.0 65.0 5.0 -9.0 -0.290 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!