Trains and Boats and Planes

Hopperational Details
Date & Venue	Saturday 3 September 2022 at the Sunseeker International County Ground
Result	Hamworthy United 0 Gosport Borough 0
Competition	FA Cup 1st Qualifying Round
Hopstats	Ground 756 on the lifetime list, chosen pragmatically this time as one of only two grounds on my priority list hosting a cup game today, and choosing this one allowed me to tick off one of the longer journeys while the weather is good.
Context
Hamworthy arrive on my Step 4 priority list this season having arrived in Southern Division 1 South (or whatever it’s called these days) as Wessex League Champions. Gosport play at Step 3 in the Southern Premier South. They sit in the upper half of their table after six games and enter the competition at this stage. Hamworthy have already despatched Bradford Town (4-0 away) and Badshot Lea (3-2 home) in earlier rounds and are going well with an undefeated start in the league after four games.
In One Sentence
Sometimes dour, sometimes tetchy, always competitive.
So What?
Replay on Wednesday, draw for the next round on Monday.
Pre-match Entertainment
A stroll along London’s South Bank between trains, followed by a stroll through Hamworthy Park to Poole Quays with views over Poole Harbour.
Match Report
Gosport got into their rhythms quicker and fashioned the first couple of half-chances, but nothing really close. Hamworthy gradually got themselves into the contest, but goal efforts for both sides tended to be high or wide. The game was largely fought between the defensive lines and it was honourably goalless at the break. The game turned potentially when Gosport’s keeper Patrick O’Flaherty was sent off for clattering an opponent just outside the box. I was at the other end so can’t comment in detail other than to say that the ref consulted his assistant first. Number 9 Dan Wooden became the new occupant of the shirt – literally – in the first example I’ve seen (see below) of the high-performing Green keeper top staying on the pitch when its occupant was dismissed… (by the way, new readers, don’t take me too seriously).   Gosport showed some character with spirited defending and blocking as Hamworthy tried to take advantage. A B-52 bomber and some of the Red Arrows display were also visible in the distance as a nil-nil stalemate looked more and more likely. Gosport had a half-chance in stoppage time but a low shot was saved comfortably enough, and the sides will meet again in midweek.
Ground Pix
Match Pix
Post-Match Entertainment
Glimpses from the Bournemouth Air Show had been a feature of the afternoon, and the Red Arrows passed directly overhead moments after the final whistle. Then it was back to Hertfordshire via the South Bank again, where no-one, as yet, is worrying about turning off the lights.
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 257 matches is here, on this separate page. Today was a contest between Radioactive Bile and Green. Clean sheet for each. Pre-match Prediction based on Keeper Top Colour: Prediction: Away Win Was the prediction correct? No % of correct predictions so far 45% (50 from 112) 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! At some point I have to get to Plymouth Parkway to re-complete “everywhere down to Step 3” and there are 20 more grounds for “everywhere down to Step 4”, but including some long journeys that might not be practical in the winter months, even without budget considerations.