Joy and Pain, Sunshine but No Rain

Hopperational Details
Date & Venue	Saturday 20 May 2023 at Stadium MK, Milton Keynes
Result	Nottingham Forest Women 0 Watford Women 1
Competition	FA Women’s National League Promotion Playoff (Step W3)
Hopstats	My third visit to the ground, the first being back in September 2007. I like the stadium a lot but I’m less enamoured with the FA decisions that ultimately led to its creation. Water under the bridge.
Context
These two teams were the champions of the Northern and Southern Premier Divisions of the WNL. This is the third tier of the women’s pyramid and the winners will move up to Step W2, the FA Women’s Championship. The two step 3 divisions have twelve teams each. Forest won the Northern competition on goal difference from Wolves, and Watford did the same over Ipswich in the Southern division. Watford will be looking to return to the Championship after just one season at Step 3. The last meeting between the two sides was a 3-2 win for Forest in the league cup final.
In One Sentence
With very little between these two teams, the game was settled in Watford's favour by a first half header and a composed rearguard action when needed later.
So What?
Watford return to the Women’s Championship, the second tier of the game.
Pre- and Post- match Entertainment
A walk there and back from Central Milton Keynes with time to contemplate great philosophical questions such as whether buttercups look better in their own private clumps or integrated with the daisy population.
Match Report
One day, when I’m done with keeper top colours, I might investigate the impact of huddles. I’m mystified that there is more to be said once you are out of the dressing-room. The first quarter-hour was pretty even, as might be expected for a match between two regional champions. Watford took the lead in the 17th minute. Good interplay down the left gave Gemma Davison a chance to cross, and the curling ball to the far post was headed across and over the keeper into the opposite corner by Poppy Wilson. It would turn out to be surprising that it was the only goal of the game. Forest had a good chance to level the game before half-time. Sophie Domingo and Yasmin Mosby did almost everything right in a two-on-one break but Watford keeper Jacqueline Goldsmid came out to make a fine block of the latter’s shot. The second half started with a more open style from both sides. Watford had the ball in the net through Ellie Head, but it was correctly disallowed for offside. This triggered a comedy moment as the scoreboard operators tried to stop the premature on-screen celebrations, only to add several more goals to the Watford total. I think it was showing 0-12 before someone decided to switch it off and on again. Forest went really close through Amy West with 20 minutes to go, then Watford wasted a two-on-one break of their own. Their otherwise impressive Andria Georgiou, who likes a tackle and is generally very good at them, picked up a yellow card, as did one of her colleagues (I didn’t catch who). Watford became more defensively pragmatic in the last few minutes and stopped Forest creating clear chances. Charlotte Greengrass looped a header over the bar from a set piece. Then, in stoppage time, Goldsmid escaped with a yellow card after fouling Greengrass well outside her area. Becky Anderson’s freekick was wide, and that was that. Job done for Watford, and as is always the case on these occasions the stadium divided into zones of joy and disappointment. A crowd of just over 3000 had turned up to support the teams in bright sunshine, and there will be some sore and pink arms and heads this evening. For this passing neutral, a good, competitive game of football that mattered to everyone involved, and a credit to both teams.
Ground Pix
Match Pix
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 277 matches is here, on this separate page, and I’ll organise the test when we reach 300 pieces of evidence. Today, Grey beats Blue and keeps a clean sheet. No change in the league table positions. Pre-match Prediction based on Keeper Top Colour: Prediction: Watford Win Was the prediction correct? Yes % of correct predictions so far 46% (61 from 132)
What Next?
Follow @GrahamYapp on Twitter! Finals day for FA Vase & FA Trophy at Wembley tomorrow, EFL playoffs the week after.