Step Three Hop Deluxe: Venture to a Yorkshire Landscape

Hopperational details
Date & Venue	Saturday 14 April 2018 at the Turnbull Ground
Result	Whitby Town 0 Matlock Town 3
Competition	Northern Premier League (Step 3)
Hopstats	#639 on the lifetime list and I am here non-randomly because it is the only one of my Step 3 target grounds hosting a match today, and it has finally stopped raining.  2x5hr return trip for me with 9h11min of that actually driving, for 482 miles at 74.2mpg and about 2 litres of coffee.  Totally worth it, even the long single-carriageway section through the North Yorkshire Moors.
Context
Two teams in the lower half of the table who have both done enough to stay at this level next year.  Whitby had to play on Thursday of the week just gone, and manager Chris Hardy has signed a new contract this week.  Matlock have a caretaker-manager, Dave Hoole, in post.
In one sentence
A fairly comfortable win for Matlock started with an absolute gift of an early goal and ended with an insult-to-injury third in stoppage time.
So what?
The teams are 18th and 20th respectively in the league table.
Match Report
Home goalkeeper Jack Norton won’t want to see the match video anytime soon.  An 11th minute clearance went straight to Harry Limb who bore down on goal uncontested.  Norton managed to block the initial shot but the rebound fell kindly to give Limb an easy finish. The lead would have been doubled before the half-hour but for a magnificent block by Callum Patton just inside the penalty area.  The hinge point of the game soon followed.  Whitby had settled into the game and had plenty of possession without creating much in the box.  Junior Mondal burst through on the left and reached the byline before crossing low.  A defender just managed to deflect the bobbling ball enough to distract the attacker arriving at the far post with an open goal at his mercy.  Other than that, Matlock had been strong and for the most part comfortable in defence. The Hinge Point Matlock had a good chance early in the second half as Joe Doyle-Charles arrived in the six-yard box from midfield but fluffed his placed shot, and another last-ditch clearance was soon needed.  The visitors were now firmly in control of the game and it was no surprise when the second goal was scored just after the hour.  Limb had time to take a controlling touch before scoring with a low shot. Matlock number 9 Ricky German did a good deal of effective linkup play with his back to goal.  He played in Jake Green whose fierce shot to the near post was beaten away by Norton for a corner.  However, the final goal in stoppage time came when Whitby had been pressing for a consolation.  The ref played an advantage to allow Michael Williams to run from his own half and notch the third.  Time for a final blast of sea air for me at the clifftop before the drive back south. Williams is about to add the third
Ground Pix
I chose to watch the game from the superb main stand because it is not often you get the chance to climb so high in non-league at this level.  The ground is within walking distance of the West Cliff area (be prepared to pay for car parking if the match is after Easter!).  By the way, the quirky travel directions on the club website are well worth a read.  For example: “From the East: Sail through the harbour bars and park your boat / hovercraft / raft / ship / jetski in the marina and take a taxi…”.  Love it.  The photos also don’t show the pre-match music playlist, for which supporters could vote in a series of Twitter polls on Friday night.  Very good taste they have too.
Match Pix
Whitby the Town
I managed to have 45 minutes or so for a walk around the top of West Cliff, and visit the Captain Cook memorial.  The town deserved a longer visit and I would have liked to have done some longer walks.  Whitby has a touch of elegance about it which I liked very much.  As I tweeted at the time, think of the Amalfi coast but with shorter vowels and less hand-waving.
Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats
A defeat for maroon, a win and a clean sheet for blue. Results so far from140 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 35.1 16.0 6.0 13.1 50.0 13.0 69.0 1.966 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 Maroon 5.0 2.0 1.0 2.0 9.0 1.0 3.0 0.600 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!  Now that Dorking Wanderers are not moving until next season, I have two grounds left to complete “The 232” (every current ground from Premier League to Step 3) for the first time.  They are Ashton United and Shaw Lane (currently tenants at Athersley Recreation).  Ashton United v Nantwich Town is therefore Plan A next Saturday and the only way I can get to Athersley (I always try to see landlords rather than tenants) will be a Wednesday midweek jaunt on either 18th or 25th, depending on weather and workload.