The Owls and the Pontefract I Went to See

Hopperational Details
Date & Venue	Saturday 5 January 2019 at the Linden Club
Result	Cleethorpes Town 4 Pontefract Collieries 2
Competition	Northern Premier League Division One East (Step 4)
Hopstats	Ground 673 on the lifetime list.  I am here because the last digit of the time of the last goal in the Manchester City v Liverpool game was a 2.  The previous blogpost explains all, but essentially there were ten fixtures linked to the digits zero to nine.  Sergio Aguero (40’) initially pointed me towards Atherton Collieries before Roberto Firmino (64’) could have sent me to Morpeth.  However, Leroy Sané’s winner (72’) brings me here.  It’s randomish.
Context
12th plays 3rd.
In one sentence
A red card early in the second half eventually proved costly for Pontefract in a keenly-contested and occasionally fractious encounter.
So what?
Same league positions except that results elsewhere mean that Cleethorpes close the gap on Marske and Tadcaster have drawn level with Pontefract.
Match Report
Pontefract Collieries took the lead somewhat against the run of play after 17 minutes.  A great save by Theo Richardson was rendered academic as Eli Hey scored from the rebound.  Up to that point Cleethorpes (aka The Owls) had a slight advantage on balance of play, but caused only one significant save from Ryan Musselwhite in that time.  Both sides were strong, organised and well-drilled as I have come to expect from this division.  There was also plenty of shouty appealing from players and dugouts on both sides.  Everything was contested and the officials came in for stick as usual.  I don’t know how they tolerate it from players, I really don’t.  For me as a neutral, it was very hard to distinguish good from poor decisions as irritation with the officials mounted and a few yellows were shown for mistimed or over-zealous tackles. Both teams continued to attack in turn.  Hey missed narrowly (and may even have hit the outside of the post, I’m not sure) and then Josh Batty and Alex Flett shot just wide in quick succession for Cleethorpes.  Their equaliser was deserved and came from a powerful set-piece header from a right-wing corner.  Paul Walker was the scorer. That 1-1 score seemed to be set for half-time, until, with the clock at 47 minutes, Batty’s perseverance in the area won a penalty which he duly converted.  It seemed a soft penalty to concede, with the referee judging that Batty had been fouled in the act of shooting.  Needless to say, the decision was hotly disputed. The second half started with all to play for but the game situation changed drastically after only a couple of minutes.  Pontefract’s Gavin Rothery was given a red card for a studs-up tackle.  I was some distance away so can’t comment further, but the ref was well placed.  He then needed to speak to the visitors’ dugout, but I was at the other side of the ground so can’t shed more light.  All of this ramped up the tension. Pontefract were stung into response and Richardson saved superbly from Hey, tipping the ball over the bar.  An equaliser then would have made things interesting, but it was Cleethorpes who scored next, on the break.  Andy Taylor rounded Musselwhite on the right and rolled the ball in to beat a despairing defender’s lunge. The extra man was giving Cleethorpes more time on the ball but they were still having to soak up some pressure.  Pontefract kept on getting the ball into the box, and won successive corners, before being caught on the break once again.  This time, with less than ten minutes left, Jonathan Oglesby did well down the left and timed his pass well.  This time it was Musselwhite’s good initial save that was negated as Flett scored from the rebound. There was still time for Hey to get his second goal of the day, from the penalty spot after the ref had spotted something in a melée during a corner kick.   I was nearby, but can’t be more specific, and that seems to be a theme of the day.  Cleethorpes should probably have got a fifth during stoppage time too.  As a passing neutral, I can’t complain too much about a competitive six-goal game.
Pix
The ground is a work-in-progress but with a good playing surface and clubhouse.  Cleethorpes in blue-and-black.
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 based on the results from the last 174 games watched. Today, Orange beats Blue, against the form book. Pre-match Prediction based on Keeper Top Colour: Prediction: Away Win Was the prediction correct? No % of correct predictions so far 66% (19 from 29) 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 43.1 19.0 7.0 17.1 64.0 14.0 70.0 1.624 Grey 49.5 23.0 11.0 15.5 80.5 14.0 69.5 1.404 Green 90.0 47.0 11.0 32.0 149.0 23.0 118.0 1.311 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 20.0 8.0 4.0 8.0 42.0 5.0 11.0 0.550 Orange 45.5 15.0 8.0 22.5 84.5 7.0 3.5 0.077 Radioactive Bile 21.0 9.0 0.0 12.0 45.0 3.0 -3.0 -0.143 Yellow 35.0 9.0 7.0 19.0 77.0 5.0 -18.0 -0.514 Pink 18.0 5.0 5.0 8.0 37.0 1.0 -12.0 -0.667 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!  32 Step 4 grounds left to do, back to work this week so probably nothing before next Saturday.