Easter 2024 : The Wild West & Wolverhampton
Thursday 28 March
Postponed :
Honiton Town v Sidmouth Town
Having spent over five torrid hours driving down from Hertfordshire, through horizontal rain at times and with a couple of genuinely scary motorway moments, I was amazed to find the game still on as I reached the ground. However, the match referee took a different view about 45 minutes before kickoff so that was that. At that moment, the prospect of the subsequent seven games all going ahead seemed very remote. The six SW grounds occupy positions 774 to 779 on my lifetime list. The Molineux visit was my third, but a quarter of a century since the second so it has changed a bit!
Friday 29 March
Torrington 1
Crediton United 0
Vicarage Field
SW Peninsula Premier East
Keeper Tops : Grey
v Orange
Winning goal
in the first half, fired into the top corner after a scramble. Crediton hit the
bar once but Torrington held on throughout a range of weather conditions from
spring sunshine to hailstorm. Add to list of "Grounds from which a Steeple is Visible".
Torridgeside
0 Okehampton Athletic 3
Donnacroft
SW Peninsula
Premier East
Keeper Tops:
Grey v Green
All the goals
in the first half, started with a complete miskick from the man in Grey, and
finishing with a direct freekick just under the centre of the bar where the said
keeper had taken an unusual starting position at the far post. Visitors played
the last few minutes with ten men after a dismissal for dissent. Can go on the
list of “Grounds With Farm Animals Visible” and also onto the "Grounds Where I Also Saw a Rainbow".
Holsworthy 0
Bude Town 0
Upcott Field
SW Peninsula
Premier West
Keeper Tops:
Pink v Green
Fair play to
the hosts who had done well to dry out part of the pitch with a space heater and
they were rewarded with a gate of 906. A grimly entertaining game between two
hyped-up teams and thankfully no broken ankles from the tackling.
 |
| Holsworthy were clearly in-tent on getting this game on |
Saturday 30 March
Liskeard Athletic 2 Dobwalls 0
Lux Park
SW Peninsula Premier
West
Keeper Tops: Orange
v Green
A goal in
each half sealed the result of a match that had started in a downpour. Lots of
strong tackling on a wet surface. A Dobwalls sub appeared in a number 99 shirt.
Ground can be added to list of “Grounds with the Same Name as a Unit of Measurement
in Physics”.
Elburton Villa 1 Bovey Tracey 2
Haye Road
SW Peninsula
Premier East
Keeper Tops:
Radioactive Bile v Green
Bovey Tracey
had the best kit design of the weekend. They took a two goal lead into the
final half-hour but were lucky (from where I was standing) not to pick up a red
card. Then what looked initially like a fabulous block did result in a red card
for handball and the hosts scored from the penalty. The rest was rather undignified
and fractious, with a red card for each side during over twelve minutes of
stoppage time. Most of us just wanted this one to end.
Ivybridge
Town 6 Dartmouth 0
Erme Valley
SW Peninsula
Premier East
Keeper Tops: Blue
v Yellow
The result reflected
the league table top v bottom status but four of the goals were late on, and some
credit has to go to the visiting keeper for the saves which kept the score in
single digits. Ground can be added to the list of “Pitches adjacent to flowing
water needing someone with a net”.
Sunday 31 March 2024
Arsenal Women
1 Chelsea Women 0 (aet)
Molineux, Wolverhampton
Women’s League
Cup Final
Keeper Tops: Black
v Yellow
Rather a disappointing
game with the latter stages overshadowed by the collapse off the ball of Arsenal’s
Frida Maanum, now thankfully recovering. It appeared that no-one wanted to be
the one to make a mistake. Stina Blackstenius got the very late goal in
extra-time that spared us from a penalty shootout. Ground can be added to list of "Grounds Also Known as Dingle Dell" to those itk.
The overall effect on the #keepertopcolourstats league table is here. Four more games and I will have a sample big enough for a proper statistical test, if I can teach myself how to do it. It’s called a Kruskal Wallis One-Way Analysis of Variance and I promise you that no other football blogger goes there. This is because they are sensible and I am not. Thanks, as ever, for your interest. Credit to the clubs and the organisers for getting these games on. A tremendous effort.
https://modushopperrandom.blogspot.com/p/p-w-d-l-gc-cs-pts-ppg-red-11.html
