Gloucester 'Ave A New Manager, Avenue Manage A Point

 

Hopperational Details
Date & Venue	Saturday 9 October 2021 at New Meadow Park
Result	Gloucester City 0 Bradford PA 0
Competition	National League North (Step 2)
Hopstats	Ground 731 on my lifetime list is not random at all. It’s the only current unvisited Step 2 ground on my list. Gloucester City went through many years of groundsharing after catastrophic flooding at their former home, and this is their first season with a home of their own since 2007. This hop restores "The 160" for me, except that it is currently "The 158" after the demise of Macclesfield Town and Bury, leaving two divisions of the pyramid one club short for this season.
Context
Neither side is setting the division alight, and Gloucester have had a recent change of manager after four consecutive league defeats, parting company with ex-WBA player Paul Groves. This is a game of 21st plays 18th but we can be encouraged by the fact that a recent meeting between the teams ended up in a 4-4 goalfest. (Post-match edit: I jinxed it…) Both sides are likely to start with at least one debutant.
In One Sentence
Bradford’s defence is not easily breached, and when it was, the woodwork was in the way.
So What?
It’s now 20th and 18th respectively for these two sides, but still only about one-fifth of the season completed.
Pre-match Entertainment
Firstly, a trip to the Jet Age Museum which is at the boundary edge of Gloucester Airport, a few miles outside the city. The volunteers who run the place deserve a mention. This is another little gem of a collection with both local and national interest, with the artefacts displayed and explained to a high standard. Well worth a visit and a voluntary donation. Flying visits – literally – are possible if you taxi your plane off the runway at the right point!   Secondly a walk around the redeveloped dock area and the city centre. It’s quite possible my great-great-great grandfather Jasper Saul, a horse-trader turned boatman, passed through here working the boats up towards the West Midlands, where he eventually settled on Canal Side Cottages near the phosphorus works in Oldbury.
Match Report
I suppose it is one of life’s inevitabilities that substitutes are more likely to kick a ball out of the ground than the chosen eleven. Just before kickoff, I really felt for the Bradford official (or volunteer) that had to slosh around in the mud puddles on wasteland behind the stand when his team’s hapless subs launched several footballs out of the ground in quick succession. The home side, under the new interim management of Lee Mansell, started well and their first ping of the crossbar came via Leon Chambers-Parillion after only six minutes. However, for the next half-hour the teams largely cancelled each other out. Midfield was congested. Gloucester were slightly more adept at working triangles and reaching the byline, but with no end product. Kevin Dawson completed one such run just before the half-hour but no-one was there for his pull back. At the other end, home keeper Jake Cole was untroubled by Dylan Mottley-Henry’s header as it drifted wide. Neither keeper had been really tested until Bradford’s Jonathan Saltmer had to be alert to push away an effort from close range after a long throw had caused problems. Gloucester were on top for these closing minutes of the first half and it took both a good saving tackle from Luca Havern and the width of a post to deny them. An excellent shot from distance hit the woodwork and Saltmer showed good reactions to catch and smother the rebound. The second half followed a similar pattern but Bradford continued to be well-organised defensively. Again the sides rather neutralised each other in the middle third. A superb flowing move from the right flank led to Gloucester hitting the bar again through Jordan Young. By now I was resigned to a nil-nil scoreline, though Bradford did cause a few scary moments in the closing minutes. At one point keeper Jake Cole was treated by the physios having ended up flat out in the goal net. There were several minutes of added time before the final whistle confirmed a share of the points.
Match Pix
Gloucester City in red.
Ground Pix
Tidy and well-appointed as you would expect, with an artificial surface. Good montage of flags and banners at the T-End. I parked at the Castle Mead Way car park which was £6 for the day. It was close to the docks and centre for my pre-match perambulations and about 10-15 minutes from the stadium.
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 232 matches is here, on this separate page. Today, two colours from the top end of the table share the points and both get a clean sheet. No change in the positions. Pre-match Prediction based on Keeper Top Colour: Prediction: Home Win Was the prediction correct? No % of correct predictions so far 48% (42 from 87) 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! As it happens I have only one new ground to restore complete coverage of Step 3, and that is Wimborne Town. My next realistic chance to go there is not until 6th November due to other commitments, so in the meantime I might be able to pick off another Step 4 ground or two by randomish means. On my list, Guernsey is the ground that will need most forward planning (and expense).