Blue is Now The Colour at Kingsmeadow

 

Hopperational Details
Date & Venue	Wednesday 3 May 2023 at Kingsmeadow
Result	Chelsea 2 Liverpool 1
Competition	Women’s Super League
Hopstats	Second visit to Kingsmeadow, but the first was to see AFC Wimbledon v Chelmsford City in a Step 2 fixture in 2009.
Context
Chelsea have recently lost out to Barcelona over two legs in the Women’s Champions League Semi-Finals, but they return to league action with games in hand. Basically, the title is theirs if they can win those games, as they would overtake current leaders Manchester United. Liverpool will be looking for an improvement after a 4-0 drubbing at Leicester in their previous game. They currently sit in mid-table. I believe that this is a rearranged fixture, the original having been abandoned in freezing temperatures, and every spectator was given a free hot dog as a result of a promise made on-air at the time by Chelsea manager Emma Hayes.
In One Sentence
Chelsea eventually took the points after a patient and resilient display, but it needed a very late goal from Sam Kerr.
So What?
Chelsea are four points behind Manchester United and one point behind Manchester City with two games in hand.
Match Report
This is a catch-up post and the game has been well-documented elsewhere but here’s my brief two-pennyworth, for the record. Chelsea deserved to win the game but Liverpool were very organised and defensively solid. Their centre-back Gemma Bonner prevented two goals at least with skilful and timely interventions during the second half. Their keeper Faye Kirby was given the player-of-the-match award, and I hadn’t realised at the time that she was a debutant. Liverpool had taken a second-minute lead through Emma Koivisto and then spent most of the half soaking up pressure. Chelsea got their equaliser just before half-time with a glanced near-post header from Niamh Charles. However, they almost surrendered a lead again and it needed a good block by Eve Périsset to deny Natasha Dowie after the ball had looped up from a save by Ann-Katrin Berger.   Chelsea’s patient approach continued and they dominated second half possession in the same way. The industry of Erin Cuthbert and Melanie Leupolz in midfield had stood out. Jelena Cankovic replaced the former but the game pattern remained – Chelsea on top, Liverpool holding firm. The home side never resorted to desperate measures, but the winning goal is in the records as coming in the 86th minute. Jessie Fleming’s shot smacked the angle of post and bar and fell nicely for Sam Kerr, with enough time to take a composed touch before firing in.
A Few Pix
The Ground
The history of the ground is relatively complex and somewhat controversial. Originally the home of a Step 1 side, Kingstonian, it moved into private ownership when the club went into administration but with the club still playing there. In the early noughties, the newly formed AFC Wimbledon became tenants at around the same time as the original Wimbledon were controversially moving to Milton Keynes, but they then took over the lease whilst Kingstonian still remained in a groundshare arrangement. AFC Wimbledon then sold the ground to Chelsea for its women’s and academy sides, remaining as tenants until their new Plough Lane stadium was complete. This in turn displaced Kingstonian who have been in a succession of groundshares elsewhere, most recently with Tooting & Mitcham United. The ground is now much-improved and changed, with exclusively Chelsea colour and branding, and two mascots by the name of Stamford and Bridget.
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 271 matches is here, on this separate page. Today, Green beats Black (Anthracite officially, apparently) as expected. Pre-match Prediction based on Keeper Top Colour: Prediction: Home Win Was the prediction correct? Yes % of correct predictions so far 44% (56 from 126) 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! Another WSL fixture for me on Sunday, and a new tick, as Manchester United take on Tottenham Hotspur at Leigh Sports Village.