Carbon Cop It

Hopperational Details
Date & Venue	Saturday 19 September 2020 at the Skuna Stadium
Result	Atherton Collieries 0 Scarborough Athletic 2
Competition	Northern Premier League (Step 3)
Hopstats	Ground 712 on the lifetime list. I am here non-randomly because this is one of two unvisited Step 3 grounds for me, and the only one hosting a game today. Whether I could complete the tier at Radcliffe next weekend is now in doubt.
Context
First league game of the season for both teams. Debutants on both sides. On balance I went ahead with this trip. From Tuesday, as far as I can understand from the murky world of Covid-19 rules and regulations, this trip would have been allowed but not advised. No wonder we are all so confused.
In One Sentence
Very competent away win as Scarborough took two chances and absorbed everything that the home side could offer as an attacking threat.
So What?
Much too early to say, especially as the radio chat all day was about the prospect of further CV19 lockdowns.
Pre-match Entertainment
I took the scenic route across from Yorkshire to Lancashire as a leisurely drive in the morning sunshine. The rural north of England never fails to make me feel better as I pass through, and this allows me to forgive the locals for putting gravy on your chips if you give them the chance.
Match Report
Scarborough were on the front foot from the first whistle and scored in the second minute, having already threatened once before that. Good work by Michael Coulson eventually led to the scoring opportunity for Nathan Cartman. Colls were forced into backs-to-the-wall defence on another couple of occasions as the visitors settled quicker and imposed themselves on the game. It was half an hour before a home chance of note. The breeze was swirling enough to affect the game. Defenders had to play safe with first-touch clearances and the ball went sailing over the boundary wall at regular intervals. Both teams were forced to play percentages football with balls over the top for strikers to chase down the channels, but defences generally held firm. Colls had the ball in the net but it was correctly ruled offside, and they generally improved as the half went on. Half-time: Atherton Collieries 0 Scarborough Athletic 1 The next goal would be important, it almost goes without saying. It came to Cartman again, a tremendous route one clearance from keeper Ryan Whitely, its trajectory maybe affected by the breeze, put Cartman through behind the defensive line and he kept his composure to roll the ball into the net. The home side made Whitely pull off a few saves, but Scarborough had done the hard work now and looked fairly comfortable. They held on for an impressive win. Not the prettiest game I’ve ever seen, but effective in the conditions and at this early stage of the season.
Match Pix
Ground Pix
This is a great ground with lots of character. If you want to park at the ground, arrive early and be prepared to wait a few minutes at the end. Access is literally around the walkways on two sides. Hopefully the pictures capture the sense of a neat-and-tidy ground with a classic non-league slope.
Opinion
I’ve been commenting this season on the impact of CV19 on the groundhopping experience. Atherton Collieries have clearly taken things seriously as a club and were set up well for the day. Track and trace details were collected efficiently on arrival and the ground was well prepared with signage, floor markings and one-way systems as required. Clear reminders were given over the PA. I felt safe enough in the open air and never felt compromised by proximity. As far as I could see, spectators paid attention to the signs and the one-way systems, and to social distancing from people outside their own family or friendship group, for example in queuing for refreshments or at the entry turnstile. However, there seemed to be little or no attention paid to the floor markings out on the terraces. As I have seen elsewhere, everyone has decided their own bubbles. The limit on the crowd size meant that I could find a clear space for myself, no problem at all, and as I’ve said it was respected by other spectators. Now, here comes the “but…” As I’ve now seen several times, social distancing is not in general being taken as seriously as the government is asking. That comment is carefully phrased to be independent of whether I or you, the reader, agree with their request. My own feeling as a scientist is that the transmission rates are more significant indoors than they would be around the edge of a pitch in a crowd of this size, but even so spectators could have spaced themselves out more but chose not to do so. It has to be said that most of the other clear social distancing that I observed was with those of my age group or older. Younger groups are respecting the wishes of others but not, by and large, that bothered themselves. The advice is (or are they rules? Who knows these days!) not realistically enforceable by volunteer stewards especially when alcohol has been sold. To be clear, I have every sympathy with the club officials who had done their best to create a safe environment. I rather fear that the general population is not showing quite enough common sense, otherwise the numbers would not be moving as much as they are. Anyone from government looking at crowd behaviour at my six matches this season wouldn’t be letting five-figure crowds back into the upper tiers of the professional game anytime soon.
Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats Update
Usually accompanied by a pre-match prediction on Twitter just before kickoff. Working towards being able to compute a respectable statistical significance test by the end of the season. The full keeper top performance table from my last 213 matches is here, on this separate page.  Today, Orange faced Blue. Blue takes the win and a clean sheet, Orange drops below Maroon in the table. The correct prediction took the percentage back to 50%. Pre-match Prediction based on Keeper Top Colour: Prediction: Away Was the prediction correct? Yes % of correct predictions so far 50% (34 from 68) 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. The odd decimal places were caused either by undeniable half-and-half tops or lower league sub keepers 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 (and supported by anonymous scientists of some description) that orange is the best colour for a goalkeeper because it changes the behaviour of other players around the box. It is supposedly because of an innate primeval human reaction to the colour and the colour “spreads” more in the vision of a striker at the key moment of decision. Genius or garbage? The evidence is gathering here, increasingly leaning towards the latter.
What Next?
Follow @GrahamYapp on Twitter! If a trip to Radcliffe is ruled out next weekend, then I have my eye on an FA Trophy game at Melksham Town.