Money Not Folding at Waterside Park

Hopperational Details
Date & Venue	Saturday 10 November at Waterside Park
Result	Thatcham Town 0 Moneyfields 2
Competition	Southern League Division One South (Step 4).
Hopstats	Ground 664 on the lifetime list and I am here randomishly because the home club were the first from my shortlist of 12 to tweet into my timeline this morning.
Context
15th plays 4th.  Thatcham Town are holders of the FA Vase and in their first season back at this level.  Moneyfields came up from the Wessex League at the end of 2017-18.
In one sentence
A dour midfield battle with few clear chances until the deadlock was broken with a spectacular goal from distance.
So what?
Thatcham stay 15th, Moneyfields up to 3rd.
Match Report
I made very few notes during a dour first half that started in a downpour and was punctuated with frequent stoppages and sharp showers.  Moneyfields looked marginally on top at first but there were no clear chances.  The best moment of skill was a defensive block by the visitors’ centre back (Sam Pearce I think) to deny a shot on goal.  Thatcham’s James Tennant was injured leading to several minutes of stoppage time at the end of the first half. The deadlock was broken with an excellent goal, scored from a good way out by Steve Hutchings to give Moneyfields the lead.  We then witnessed two fouls – one scissor tackle by a Moneyfields defender, but not given, followed by a possibly retaliatory one by Thatcham, given and with a yellow card too.  When Thatcham hit the bar from distance with the keeper well beaten, you sensed it was not their day. Thatcham took the game to Moneyfields, and heads did not drop, but the visitors defended very well.  Moneyfields almost added a second from a set-piece routine before the second goal was also scored by Hutchings.  His shot was partially stopped by the home keeper but rolled slowly over the line.  The home support cheerfully sang about winning again one sunny day, and to be fair, they were more supportive than many supporters that you see.
Pix
I watched from the main stand today because of the intermittent heavy showers.  Thatcham in blue.  Nice Autumnal look about the ground today and a chance to add to my collection of non-league tree pictures.
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.  Table now based on my last 165 games seen. Today, Orange loses to Green, and the latter has another Clean Sheet.  No change in league positions. Pre-match Prediction based on Keeper Top Colour: Prediction: Away Win Was the prediction correct? Yes % of correct predictions so far 70% (14 from 20) 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 Blue 40.1 18.0 7.0 15.1 56.0 14.0 75.0 1.870 Grey 48.5 23.0 10.0 15.5 79.5 14.0 69.5 1.433 Green 86.0 43.0 11.0 32.0 145.0 22.0 105.0 1.221 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 19.0 8.0 3.0 8.0 41.0 5.0 11.0 0.579 Orange 39.5 12.0 8.0 19.5 75.5 6.0 -1.5 -0.038 Radioactive Bile 21.0 9.0 0.0 12.0 45.0 3.0 -3.0 -0.143 Yellow 33.0 9.0 7.0 17.0 70.0 5.0 -11.0 -0.333 Pink 17.0 5.0 5.0 7.0 35.0 1.0 -10.0 -0.588 Black 6.0 2.0 3.0 1.0 15.0 0.0 -6.0 -1.000 White 1.9 0.0 0.0 1.9 4.0 0.0 -4.0 -2.105
What Next?
Follow @GrahamYapp on Twitter!  38 Step 4 grounds to go to my next landmark.