Stafford Stuffed by a Bamber Bridge Bombardment

Hopperational Details
Date & Venue	Saturday 29 September 2018 at The Sir Tom Finney Stadium at Irongate
Result	Bamber Bridge 6 Stafford Rangers 1
Competition	Northern Premier League (Step 3)
Hopstats	A threshold hop for me today as I complete “The 248” for the first time with ground number 657 on the lifetime list.  The 248 is actually 246 at this precise moment – it comprises the top seven tiers (eleven league tables) of English football from the Premier League, through the three divisions of the Football League, the three divisions (in two tiers) of the National League, and the four regional leagues at Step 3.  Truro City are tenants at Torquay United, and Kingstonian are tenants at Corinthian Casuals.  Several other sides are tenants at lower-tier clubs.  My 248 will remain intact until Tottenham Hotspur move to their new stadium.  This is the 30th ground I have visited where trains are directly visible from pitchside.
Context
Both sides are in mid-table.  Bamber Bridge are undefeated at home in the league, but they were trounced in an FA Cup replay in midweek by a side from a tier below.  There has been talk of team changes in the press.  Stafford have won one of their four away games.
In one sentence
The home side took more of their chances in a very open and entertaining game as Stafford fell apart defensively in the last half-hour.
So what?
Bamber Bridge climb to 11th place, only one place and one point behind Stafford Rangers.
Match Report
Someone will need to explain to me why the club have the soporific John Denver imploring us to take him home on country roads to West Virginia as their gladiatorial entry music.  I suggest that leaving him in West Virginia in the first place is the better option.  In bright sunshine, the teams started to attack each other and Bamber Bridge clipped the bar before Alistair Waddecar opened the scoring with a dipping shot over the keeper after the ball had fallen kindly.  He could have had a second when he headed over.  Unmarked, he should probably at least have hit the target. 1-0 celebrated 1-1 as Coulson heads past Byrne Rangers drew level with a looping header from centre-back Sam Coulson from a second corner kick in quick succession, the first of which had originally arisen after a flying save by debutant home keeper Oliver Byrne, on loan from Blackburn.  However, parity lasted only two minutes as Waddecar set up Andrew Howarth for a good low shot into the corner to restore the lead.  The game continued in this open fashion with the ball spending plenty of time in the box and the defences working hard.  Harrison Holgate was getting into good positions from full-back down the left flank for Stafford – one cross led to a shot hitting the bar and then a fantastic block by Matt Lawlor to prevent the second equalising goal.  Maybe that was the game’s hinge point – or it could have been the goal-line clearance in first-half stoppage time that protected the lead from another corner.  Stafford would have gone in at the interval feeling confident that they could get back into the game and maybe they should even have been in front. I moved from the stand to the touchline for the second half, and the game continued in the same vein.  A glancing header from Waddecar made it 3-1 and then I moved again in order to be a greater distance from the World’s Worst Dad.  I decided that I was neither brave nor stupid enough to intervene as his stream of expletives and insults set the worst of examples to his young son. Waddecar channels Shearer for celebration I arrived at the other side of the ground in time for Bamber Bridge substitute Jordan Darr to arrive at the back post to score from close range, possibly with his first touch.  4-1 was beginning to feel harsh on Stafford (I am a Staffordshire lad by birth after all) and when they hit the bar again (maybe touched on by Byrne) you felt that it was not their day.  Nice approach work by Darr led to a trip on fellow substitute Matthew Dudley, and Waddecar powered his penalty kick into the top corner to complete his hat-trick.  The man-of-the-match award was even announced before he added his fourth, an insult-to-injury sixth for his side, rounding the keeper as we entered stoppage time.    Now that is a top-corner penalty - look closely. Waddecar's hat-trick. There’s no getting away from the fact that this turned into a drubbing which would not have been expected from the first half displays.
Pix
Bamber Bridge (white and black strip) are recent arrivals in Step 3.  The main stand is excellent.  The playing surface is very good.  Arrive early if you want street parking nearby.
Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats
New this season – a pre-match prediction based only on keeper top colours as a preliminary test of the data.  Proper statistical significance test to follow in due course.  Based on the last 158 matches that I have watched. Today, Yellow beats Orange, but no clean sheet for either, and no change in league table position. Pre-match Prediction based on Keeper Top Colour: Prediction: Away Win Was the prediction correct? No % of correct predictions so far 69% (9 from 13) 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.  It may not be statistically significant as yet, but football coverage ignores this point as a matter of routine. 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 Blue 39.1 17.0 7.0 15.1 55.0 14.0 73.0 1.867 Grey 47.5 22.0 10.0 15.5 79.5 13.0 61.5 1.295 Green 83.0 42.0 10.0 31.0 139.0 21.0 102.0 1.229 Fire Cracker 3.0 1.0 0.0 2.0 6.0 1.0 2.0 0.667 Maroon 5.0 2.0 1.0 2.0 9.0 1.0 3.0 0.600 Purple 17.0 7.0 3.0 7.0 38.0 4.0 6.0 0.353 Radioactive Bile 19.0 9.0 0.0 10.0 37.0 3.0 5.0 0.263 Orange 36.5 11.0 7.0 18.5 69.5 6.0 0.5 0.014 Yellow 32.0 9.0 7.0 16.0 66.0 5.0 -7.0 -0.219 Pink 17.0 5.0 5.0 7.0 35.0 1.0 -10.0 -0.588 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!  I will be concentrating on 42 Step Four grounds now, hopefully with some more randomishness along the way.  Many of these are long drives north or west so I will be restricted to Saturdays in practice. It will take me at least two seasons to complete “The 388”, which will almost certainly not be The 388 by then due to further regional restructuring of the football pyramid.  Other new stadia within The 248 will also be completed within that timescale.  There is no chance of completing the whole of Step 5 in my hopping lifetime, even if I start taking performance-enhancing drugs!  The general plan is to drop lower and local after that (I will be in my mid-sixties) in order to get to 1000 on the big list.