Like Father, Like Son

 

 

Hopperational Details
Date & Venue	Monday 29 May 2023 at Wembley
Result	Barnsley 0 Sheffield Wednesday 1 aet
Competition	League One Promotion Playoff (Second Tier)
Hopstats	Third visit to Wembley in consecutive days, and the fourth season that I’ve been able to secure tickets for all three EFL playoffs. This year I needed help, and thanks today go to Agent W who knew Agent C, and with some timely financial admin involving Agent R, I’m here as an honorary Owl. Given that they are managed by WBA legend Darren Moore, I’m very happy with that.
Context
The third and fourth placed teams have made it to Wembley. Barnsley were the latter, and they saw off Bolton Wanderers in the playoff semi-final. Sheffield Wednesday needed one of the most remarkable comebacks in the history of English football. 0-4 down against Peterborough United after the first leg, they needed a 98th minute goal in the second leg to get back on level terms. They conceded first in extra time, but scored again themselves before going on to win the penalty shootout. Sheffield Wednesday finished two points behind Ipswich Town in the last automatic promotion place, and ten ahead of Barnsley. They had led the division for much of the early and mid-season. Their final total of 96 points is a record for a third-placed side.
In One Sentence
A tense and largely forgettable game eventually erupted, defined by a controversial red card for Barnsley and the latest of extra-time winners from Josh Windass, whose father Dean has form of his own in such matters.
So What?
As is the way with playoffs, Sheffield Wednesday are going up to the Championship. Barnsley remain in League One.
Pre-match Entertainment
A reverse of yesterday evening’s walk, along the South Bank of the Thames from Blackfriars to Westminster in the sunshine before taking the Jubilee Line to Wembley Park.
Pre-Match Pix
In the absence of anything more original, this year’s running joke on the blog has been bits of the Bobby Moore statue. As I was circling it looking for a new angle today, a steward politely enquired whether I was OK. I explained, and she laughed, and she suggested that it would have to be Bobby Moore’s Booty today. She was very clear that she preferred the term Booty to Bum, and I’m not going to argue. So here is Bobby Moore’s Booty, the one that he used to ease Jairzinho of Brazil off the ball in the 1970 World Cup in Mexico. A World-Cup winning Booty of the highest footballing pedigree.
Match Report
This was a tense, attritional game in the first half. Two early half-chances for Wednesday, and a shot over the bar for Barnsley. A momentary mix-up in the Wednesday penalty area that needed a decisive booting out by their captain Barry Bannon, just before half-time. He was not happy with his defence. He had been at the centre of his team’s better moments. Barnsley had looked a bit sharper and more decisive in their passing but were also pretty toothless. I was up on the back row near the halfway line and Owls’ fans near me were fretting about ponderous play, but it was also so, so tense. We were a long way from the action up there but we were all surprised by the appearance of a red card. The second half had started with a VAR check for a possible Barnsley penalty, not given by the ref, and then a couple of minutes later he produced the card for Adam Phillips after a tackle on Lee Gregory. VAR supported the decision. Perhaps surprisingly, this didn’t change the game as much as you would think – at least at this point. Barnsley coped well. Wednesday’s main method seemed to be to engineer crossing opportunities from the flanks, and many of the passing decisions seemed sub-optimal. Only Bannan seemed to have his footballing brain in gear. Barnsley so nearly took the lead when Liam Kitching’s header hit the bar. The game came alive as Wednesday hit back and Bannon shot just wide. Harry Isted in the Barnsley goal had been solid all afternoon and he made an excellent stop on the hour. His opposite number Cameron Dawson also did well to tip James Norwood’s shot over the bar with ten minutes to go. It did not seem that eleven were playing ten. The last few minutes and stoppage time drifted by, and so to extra time. In the first extra fifteen, Bannon shot over the bar again and Isted saved at point-blank range during a frantic minute of Wednesday pressure. The fans near me were warming up, feeling that the Barnsley defensive dam was about to burst. Isted saved from Bannan again, and then … this game’s “What if?” moment came with Barnsley on the break. Kitching ran from midfield, played it right to Luke Thomas, whose pass put a goal on a plate to Luca Connell. Unbelievably, he missed the target. There had been more goalmouth action in the last ten minutes than in the first ninety. But still nil-nil. Will Vaulks, a Wednesday sub, hit the back of the net with a rasping, rising shot in the first minute of the second period. Cue euphoria, music, celebrations, somersault and backflip – until the assistant’s offside flag was spotted. Bannan shot yet again, this time a volley directly at Isted, and that was his last contribution as the cramp that had been threatening for a few minutes finally had its way. With everyone now thinking about penalties, especially me after my pre-match prediction, the dam did finally burst. Lee Gregory’s cross found sub Josh Windass, whose diving header won the game. An astonishing end. There was a nominal restart before an immediate final whistle. Josh’s father, Dean Windass, scorer of a playoff-winning goal for Hull City, was in the stands. For the third day in a row, the stadium divided. It has seen two penalty shootouts and a 120th-plus minute winner. This felt even more harsh and cruel than the other two. The event managers clicked into gear and started assembling the various bits and pieces of celebration paraphernalia. None of them were necessary. Some Wednesday fans were too relieved to be ecstatic, and Barnsley fans were already on their way home. These events are brutal. Absolutely brutal. I’ve been a fly-on-the-wall for them all this year, and I’ll probably try to do it again. Thanks for reading.
Match Pix
Sheffield Wednesday in blue and white stripes.
Darren Moore and Other People Doing Their Jobs
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 test of statistical significance, it looks like an Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) test will be appropriate. The full keeper top performance table from my last 282 matches is here, on this separate page, and I’ll organise the test when we reach 300 pieces of evidence. Today, as yesterday, was Green v Green, and the prediction of a draw with penalties was very, very close to being correct. Pre-match Prediction based on Keeper Top Colour: Prediction: Draw & Penalty Shootout Was the prediction correct? No, Not Quite! % of correct predictions so far 47% (65 from 137)
What Next?
Follow @GrahamYapp on Twitter! That is almost certainly the end of the 2022-23 season for me, but I may well take a tangent or two into other sports before 2023-24 starts.

 

 

Fine Playoff Margins Yet Again

Hopperational Details
Date & Venue	Sunday 28 May 2023 at Wembley
Result	Carlisle United 1 Stockport County 1 aet (Carlisle win 5-4 on penalties)
Competition	EFL League Two Promotion Playoff (Fourth Tier)
Hopstats	29th visit to the refurbished Wembley, three were double-headers so 32nd game. Sadly, I have no complete records of my visits (10 approx) to the original Wembley with the Twin Towers.
Context
Stockport finished 4th, four points behind the final automatic promotion spot, and defeated Salford City on penalties in the playoff semi-final. Carlisle were three further points behind in 5th place, and beat Bradford City in order to be here today, overturning a 0-1 first-leg defeat. In the league meetings, Stockport have the edge with a home win and an away draw. For Stockport, this has been their first season back in League Two after their 2011 relegation, which saw them drop to the sixth tier of the pyramid for four seasons. Over the same period, Carlisle reached League One at the end of 2005-6 with a second successive promotion after just one season in the fifth tier and their current spell in League Two started in 2014-15.
In One Sentence
Another typical tightly-contested playoff with the result in doubt right up to the brutal ending of a penalty shootout.
So What?
Carlisle head up to League One and Stockport will, as they say, “go again” in League Two.
Pre-match Pix
A recorded Clive Tyldesley tells us what we can't do as we approach the stadium this year. The lunchtime kickoff meant that pre-match was largely restricted to finding another bit of Bobby Moore to keep your interest. Here is his left ankle, which played such a pivotal role in his exemplary sense of balance as a defender.
Match Report
Stockport are the other Hatters in the league and there was a nice comment in the buildup that yesterday had been the day of the Straw Hatters and the real ones were here today. I hadn’t known about such headgear rivalry before. Not much happened of note in the first quarter of the game except a pre-planned 15th minute of applause in the Carlisle end. This was in memory of Lewis Michael Kirkpatrick, a 15yo who had died after getting into difficulties in the River Eden last weekend. Stockport’s Ben Hinchcliffe was the first of the keepers to be called into action, pushing away a goalbound header by Joe Garner. Then Jon Mellish had a few minutes to forget as he first picked up a yellow card and was then given the unwanted credit for the opening goal. Originally credited in the stadium to Tanto Olaofe, it became clearer on the replay that his intended cross had looped up over Tomas Holy in the Carlisle goal from Mellish’s unlucky deflection. Carlisle responded and just before half-time some dithering in the centre circle by Fraser Horsfall allowed United’s Joel Senior to get away. Horsfall should probably have been yellow-carded for that, but his defensive colleague Akil Wright got back at pace to make a saving tackle. Then Carlisle had another chance in first-half stoppage time as John-Kymani Gordon created space to shoot, but the ball went over the bar. The second half started in similar fashion with Carlisle on the front foot, while Stockport looked dangerous on the break. Some surging direct running from the midfield got the crowd going, but strong Stockport tackling and blocking protected the lead. There is usually an “If Only” moment in these games, and today’s arrived just before the hour mark. Wright should have scored with a header from a set piece to put Stockport two up. Carlisle made a double-substitution and changed formation. I made a note that I thought this would end up as 1-1 or 2-0, something would have to give. We had an end-to-end spell as some of the players began to tire. Carlisle had a decent shout for a penalty and it took a timely intervention by Senior to stop Olaofe from the resulting Stockport breakout. With seven minutes plus stoppage time left, Carlisle created a great shooting chance for Mellish. His effort struck a defender on the line but VAR weren’t supportive of the claims for handball. However, Carlisle did get their equaliser a minute later. Substitute Omari Patrick got himself on the scoresheet with a very calm finish. There could have been another twist in the final minute with a close range block at the other end to complete a chaotic few moments in the six-yard box. So, to extra-time. My notes from the next half-hour are sparse as no-one wanted to make a mistake. In the second added fifteen, both keepers were needed to make a good save each. Holy saved from Jack Stretton and Hinchcliffe somehow pawed a header away (pictured below) as the scores remained level. It seemed inevitable that both keepers would end up centre stage as the need for a penalty shootout was eventually confirmed. Penalty shootouts are, essentially, a lottery. Yes, they are not truly random events, but there is a huge element of fortune involved. The mental strength of players has to be as good as any technical or physical aspect. The record books will show that Ryan Rydel’s kick, the Stockport second, was saved by Holy. They scored three out of four, but Carlisle had scored all of theirs too, so the sequence unfolded with Ryan Collar having to score from Stockport’s fifth so as not to end it all right there. He did. So Taylor Charters could still win it for Carlisle with their fifth. He did, sending Hinchcliffe the wrong way as his shot went to the left corner. The stadium, as it does on such occasions, divided. Joy and pain. There were very few Stockport fans left in the seats by the time the interminable formal presentations were under way. At least some would have been on their way to empty the local stores of after-sun cream. For this passing neutral, the playoff addiction remains. A Yorkshire battle coming up next with a place in the Championship at stake.
Match Pix
Stockport in blue. Wembley Stadium ought, in my view, to be clearer in their advice to spectators about the likelihood of sustained direct sunlight in a given seating position. I’ve been here many times now and know that the south-west corner is always in the shade, and that the upper tiers are more likely to be in the shade than the lower. But if you are in lower north (especially for lunchtime kickoffs) or lower east you are going to get fried in undiminished sunshine for two hours. For playoff and lower league games, there’s a higher chance that spectators will be infrequent or even first-time visitors. The apparent trajectory of the sun (or the earth’s rotation if you are pedantic) might even be part of the reason why a rumour started about a lucky and unlucky end when the place was first refurbished.       The shootout pix are Stockport's first and fifth, and then the winning moment for Carlisle.
Post-Match Pix
Post-Match Entertainment
An attempt to walk back to West Hampstead was abandoned because the route through an industrial estate and alongside the North Circular was just too dusty and unpleasant. So I took the Tube from Dollis Hill into central London and walked from Westminster to Blackfriars to get my daily total back up to around five miles again before picking up the train back to Hertfordshire.
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 test of statistical significance, it looks like an Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) test will be appropriate. The full keeper top performance table from my last 281 matches is here, on this separate page, and I’ll organise the test when we reach 300 pieces of evidence. Today, I made an early call to predict the penalty shootout when both keepers turned up in Green. Pre-match Prediction based on Keeper Top Colour: Prediction: Draw & Penalties Was the prediction correct? Yes % of correct predictions so far 48% (65 from 136)
What Next?
Follow @GrahamYapp on Twitter! Back to Wembley yet again shortly for the League One playoff between Barnsley & Sheffield Wednesday.