Tens and Tens' Ability

Hopperational Details
Date & Venue	Saturday 4 September 2021 at the Winklebury Football Complex
Result	Basingstoke Town 4 Bridgwater United 1
Competition	FA Cup 1st Round Qualifying
Hopstats	Ground 725 on the lifetime list and I am here randomishly because of a world-wide sequence of events involving goals in World Cup qualifiers last Thursday. I had three unvisited Step 4 grounds hosting FA Cup ties to choose from. The letter B linked Basingstoke with Belarus, Belgium, Benin, Bolivia, and Burkina Faso. They scored more goals between them (eight, of which five were from Belgium) than the five teams I had alphanumerically linked to C (for Corinthian) and R (for Runcorn Linnets). The full story, which gripped the nation briefly, is explained here. For new readers to the blog, hello, and please get used to this kind of thing.
Context
Basingstoke beat AFC Totton 2-1 at home, entering in the Preliminary Round. Bridgwater have two home wins to get here – 2-1 over Brixham in the Extra Preliminary Round and 3-0 over Ilfracombe Town. Let’s assume league form counts for nothing, but the home side play in the Step 4 Isthmian Division One South Central and the visitors are in the Step 5 Western League Premier Division. They became United rather than Town in March 2021 after a merger with a women’s side from Yeovil.
In One Sentence
The scoreline does not reflect the full story, although no doubt the better team on the day eventually got the win.
So What?
As is usual with Cup games, Basingstoke go into the proverbial hat for the next round, and Bridgwater concentrate on the league.
Pre-match Entertainment
I took an early train into London St Pancras and walked through Bloomsbury and Covent Garden to Waterloo. Then in Basingstoke I sauntered through Eastrop Park and Basingstoke Fen before walking out to the ground. Later on I walked across London again for a total of about 11-12 miles for the day. In London, I realise how much I was either inattentive or looking down at the pavement during my younger years. I'm increasingly obsessed by rooflines, and the adjacent co-existence of old and new architecture in towns and cities. So much to see and reflect upon. As I walked past the labelled hospital, I wondered whether the rich male benefactors expected honours, praise and thanks just for doing the right thing. Some things haven't changed that much. I liked Basingstoke. It seems to be a town that has made an effort to be interesting. There seem to be some excellent museums too that I could have chosen for the high-culture part of my day had the weather been different. By the way, the town has claims on the history of Jane Austen, if you were wondering about the blog post title. The match report should make it clear!
Match Report
Most of the early pressure came from the home side. Maybe it takes a while for visitors to adapt to the artificial surface – though that’s perhaps less true these days with more of them around. Bridgwater blocked repeatedly and conceded a string of corners, but defenders put bodies in the way and there was one good parry from keeper Jake Viney. Gradually, Bridgwater got better at keeping the ball but hardly ever in the final third. It’s a credit to their defence that it took until the closing moments of the first half before Conor Lynch, wearing number ten, found time and space down the left edge of the area to shoot and open the scoring. In the second half, the home side had an early scare with a moment of penalty area confusion, and the woodwork struck, before the Bridgwater defensive line was broken and Lynch added his second with a neat finish. The visitors were still not yet beaten however – they hit the woodwork and Jordan Greenwood’s goalbound overhead kick was headed off the line. The former was a shot from Morgan Williams (I think) that pinged the far post and rebounded straight back across the six-yard box without going in. Their comeback ambition, however, appeared to be snuffed out by a straight red card for Mike Duffy. Most of the action of my season seems to have been at the other end from where I'm standing, but I think it was for, shall we say, physical contact of violent intent as he squared up to an opponent. There must have been a raised hand or arm for the ref to make that decision. The ref also soon had to have a word with the Bridgwater captain as things started to get a bit more heated. Lynch had a chance to complete a hat-trick from the spot but as the pic shows, Viney was untroubled by his penalty. Then Bridgwater did get a goal back. Nick Woodrow, also wearing ten (pay attention now), hooked the ball home after a neat flick on. He retrieved the ball rapidly to show that he still thought there was a chance for his side. It was not to be. In the last few minutes with spaces at the back, Basingstoke added two more. Firstly D’Andre Brown calmed the home nerves with a fierce shot to make it 3-1 and then Lynch (wearing ten remember) was able to complete a hat-trick with a curling shot after Viney seemed to have misjudged a bounce at the edge of his area. The right team won, but 4-1 is a bit flattering. It matters not in the next round.
Match Pix
Basingstoke in Yellow and Blue.
Ground Pix
Most readers of this blog (when I say most I probably should say both) will know why a second visit to see Basingstoke Town has been required. Their new rented home is the county facility for Hampshire FA, and it is very neat and tidy with an artificial surface. Negotiations about the future of their previous home seem to have stalled and it would be unwise for me to comment but there is an update on the club website, and also here in the local paper. The story involves wealth and politics. Doesn't it always.
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 226 matches is here, on this separate page. In a repeat of last week, Orange plays Green, but this time it goes the other way.  Pre-match Prediction based on Keeper Top Colour: Prediction: Away Win Was the prediction correct? No % of correct predictions so far 49% (40 from 81) 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! School term starts this coming week and I can’t make definite plans just yet. I have 24 grounds on a priority list which will complete everywhere in England at Step 4 and above.