Man Goes to See Mangos

e-Programme

Hopperational Details
Date & Venue	Saturday 17 October at Cossham Street
Result	Mangotsfield United 1 Cinderford Town 2
Competition	FA Trophy 2nd Qualifying Round
Hopstats	Ground 716 on the lifetime list. Not a random visit, this one. Chosen for pragmatic reasons, ticking off one of my longer remaining Step 4 journeys given a dry weather forecast, and choosing an area in the lowest risk category for CV19 case numbers.
Context
This is a knockout game, of course. Both clubs are at Step 4 in the Division One South of the Southern League. It’s fair to say that Mangotsfield have had a rotten start to the season with four league defeats and an FA Cup loss. Cinderford started well enough, and went one further round in the FA Cup, but arrive here on the back of three big defeats. The Goals Against columns for both teams suggest that this will not be 0-0.
In One Sentence
Cinderford secured the win with a workmanlike first half display and then coped well enough with the Mangotsfield second-half improvement.
So What?
The usual cliché about Mangotsfield concentrating on the league and Cinderford looking forward to being in the hat for the next round draw.
Match Report
Nothing of note from the sparring of the first fifteen minutes, as both defences held firm. I was distracted by the gentleman climbing the ladder on to the roof of the stand at the main road end as Cinderford went close twice in quick succession. It looks as if my search for quiet corners once again meant that today’s goal action was all at the other end. These first chances had come from a direct freekick and the resulting corner and the players’ reactions suggested that Cinderford had come very close to breaking the deadlock. They did get the opening goal in the 18th minute. Will Gibbons made space running the ball from centre to left and his low shot back across the keeper found the bottom corner. Nice finish. The lead was doubled before half-time. Mangotsfield had given the ball away in midfield and got caught on the break. It took a great save from Jakob Glover, tipping the ball over the bar at full stretch, to prevent the goal … but only for a moment. From the corner, Matt Macdonald got on the scoresheet to put the visitors firmly in control. At half-time I noted that throughout the first half Cinderford had defended well from a good number of freekicks and corners whilst themselves always looking a threat on the break. A classic away performance really. Half-time: Mangotsfield U 0 Cinderford T 2 Mangotsfield made a couple of changes and improved in the second half and they forced an early save from the Man in Black, Nick Jones. A goal then could have changed the course of events but as it happened, chances were few in number as the time ticked away. Jones was called upon to make another good save. It was not until the 78th minute that Matthew Binding (I think!) prodded the ball home from close range, again after a corner, to make the last few minutes more interesting. Home striker Olaoluwakitan Jaiyeoba had been a physical presence all afternoon, though Cinderford shackled him pretty well once his threat had become clear early on. He had a half-chance in the last minute to send us to a penalty shootout, but the shot went high and wide to the right. Cinderford’s day, and on balance over the whole game they deserved the win.
Match (and Ball Retrieval) Pix
Mangotsfield in sky blue and claret, Cinderford in green.
Ground Pix
Next to a road where passengers on the top deck of passing ‘buses get a quick peek at the game. A ground with a bit of character and slope, and a refreshment hut called the Mango Munch.
CV19
No problems. Signage in place, details handed over, reminders given over the PA. I was able to find my usual quiet corner and it all felt safe enough, certainly safer than going to work! I don’t wander around during the games now though, so all ground pix are from before kickoff and all match pix are from the same viewpoint.
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 217 matches is here, on this separate page. Today, Orange lost to Black, with no clean sheet for either. The black top was a direct clash with the referee kit. I remember that being one of the questions in my FA Class 3 referees’ examination back in 1978-9. Before anyone asks, I refereed some inter-college games at Cambridge University but couldn’t keep the commitment going once the teaching career had started, though I did referee plenty of inter-school games back in the day. Pre-match Prediction based on Keeper Top Colour: Prediction: Home Win Was the prediction correct? No % of correct predictions so far 49% (35 from 72) 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, and is leaning towards the latter.
What Next?
Follow @GrahamYapp on Twitter! Half-term break coming up, but likewise the strong suggestion of a circuit-breaker lockdown coming up so any decisions will be made next Friday. Many of my priority grounds for this season are in the northern counties of England and I’m expecting travel restrictions to be applied fairly soon.