Cornish Crunch Game is Hard Cheese for Mousehole

 

Hopperational Details
Date & Venue	Monday 26th August at Kellaway Park
Result	Helston Athletic 4 Mousehole 2
Competition	Southern League Division One South
Hopstats	Ground 790 on my lifetime list, taking the chance to tick off one of the longer journeys on my hopping priority list.
Context
Helston were promoted to Step 4 from the Western League last season, the same route taken by Mousehole the year before. Both sides have made good starts to the league season though social media posts and a reduced subs list suggest that the visitors are depleted by injuries.
Match Report
This was an entertaining game, though the result was probably settled just before the hour when Helston got their third goal. The victory was due in no small part to their aerial dominance at set pieces. The early lead came after just six minutes when Mousehole’s keeper Ollie Chenoweth missed his punch, having called, and Jack Crago headed in. The second was a straightforward planted header by Aaron Bentley from a left-wing free kick. Helston had had much success down their right flank, including throw-in routines that seemed to work over and over again for them. It was 2-0 at half-time and could have been more. Credit therefore to Mousehole who scored a good goal soon after the break. Good work by number 11 who gave an inviting pass for number 9 Mark Goldsworthy as the home defence backed off. However, the result was in doubt for just a few minutes. The aforementioned third goal was again from a set-piece, and they added a fourth just ten minutes later. The scorers were a reprise of Crago and Aaron Bentley. Mousehole’s 11 (Jack Symons, I believe) added to his earlier assist with a consolation goal at the second attempt with 15 minutes or so left, but the home side were able to hold comfortably enough for their win. It had been a long drive to get here, and was to be an even longer one back the next day, but I’m very glad to have got this tick. So completes my bank holiday treble from Ipswich to Helston via Wokingham. I noted the big difference between the two step four crowds of 387 today and 82 two days ago in Suffolk, with Wokingham's Sunday Vase fixture somewhere in between.
Pix
Helston in blue ...   "Today's visitors are known as The Seagulls ..."
Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats Update
The background to this, and the latest keeper top colour league table, is here on this dedicated page. Today Orange defies the colour league table with a win over Grey. Pre-match Prediction based on Keeper Top Colour: Prediction: Away Win Was the prediction correct? No % of correct predictions so far 49% (82 from 169)
What Next?
No definite plans but quite possibly an FA Cup tie at a Step 4 ground at the weekend. At some point there will be three more trips in this direction as Plymouth Parkway, Falmouth Town and Mousehole itself are all on my priority list for this season.

 

Saracens Head for the Next Round

 

Hopperational Details
Date & Venue	Sunday 25th August at Emmbrook Sports & Social Club, Lowther Road
Result	Wokingham Town 3 Cheltenham Saracens 3 (3-4 on penalties after 90 minutes)
Competition	FA Vase 1st Round Qualifying
Hopstats	Ground 789 on my lifetime list, here because of its Sunday scheduling. Wokingham’s ground is shared with the town cricket club.
Context
A knockout game between two sides from different leagues. Wokingham (aka the Satsumas) are in the Combined Counties Premier North and Cheltenham are in the Hellenic League Division One. The FA website and Full-Time seem to be stubbornly displaying the host club’s previous name as Wokingham & Emmbrook.
Match Report
This match was not decided until the sudden death of the sixth Wokingham penalty, which was skied. It was a suitably dramatic end to a see-saw game. Wokingham were seemingly in control at half-time with a 3-1 lead. They scored early through Jack Webb, conceded an equaliser but then scored twice in first-half stoppage time with a double from Connor Richardson. The second goal was almost a great save by the Saracens stopper but the fierce shot went in off the post, and Richardson’s second was a neat near-post volley from a corner that caused much joy among the home coaching staff. However, the visitors kept their hopes alive with a route one goal just after the restart, the finish being a neatly executed lob. The game became less fluent, the dugout personnel became more agitated. The breeze picked up too, which didn’t help. Cheltenham drew level with another route one goal, made from a quickly taken freekick in the centre circle. The bounce seemed to deceive the home keeper Max West (more of him later) and it was an easy rolled-in finish. The game became tetchy and ended in a flurry of yellow cards while I was downloading the competition rules to confirm that we would have a penalty shootout after 90 minutes. Cheltenham went first and scored their first two, before their keeper saved Wokingham’s second. When he touched their next one on to the bar, so that Cheltenham were 3-1 up, it looked as if the visitors were home and dry. But Cheltenham missed their fourth, Wokingham had to score and did, and then Cheltenham’s fifth, taken by their keeper, was saved by his opposite number West. Hero to temporary zero for the visiting keeper. Once again, Wokingham scored, and so we were level at 3-3 after five. Into sudden death, and the record books will show that Cheltenham scored before watching their opponents’ next kick go over the top. All good fun for the passing neutrals, of which there were several if rucksacks and carrier bags are anything to go by. Shades of Green as the keepers go head-to-head The final kick goes over Cheltenham Saracens will play Roman Glass St George in the next round. For the record, their scorers were Callum Debonis, Stuart Midwinter and James Barnes-Wills, but not necessarily in that order! Apologies for not being able to identify the Saracens goalkeeper by name in this post. Black mark on my hopperblog card for these bureaucratic failings.
Pix
Wokingham in Orange-and-Black. Never seen this before! Back of the net! 1-1
Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats Update
The background to this, and the latest keeper top colour league table, is here on this dedicated page. Today, with both keepers in Green, albeit of different shades, a draw was predicted. Pre-match Prediction based on Keeper Top Colour: Prediction: Draw Was the prediction correct? Yes if you take the score at 90 mins % of correct predictions so far 49% (82 from 168)
What Next?
I’m heading even further west tomorrow (Bank Holiday Monday), into Cornwall, to tick off Helston Athletic, newly promoted into Step 4.

Impasse in Ipswich

 

Hopperational Details
Date & Venue	Saturday 24 August at the GBS Stadium, Humber Doucy Lane
Result	Ipswich Wanderers 0 Heybridge Swifts 0
Competition	Isthmian League Division One North (Step 4)
Hopstats	Ground 788 on the lifetime list, here pragmatically rather than randomly today because of the weather prospects. The steady rain eased during the first half and there was plenty of covered space for a smallish crowd. Ipswich Town were being dismantled at Manchester City at the same time, which could have been a factor.
Context
Second league game of the season for both sides.
Match Report
My match report theme this season will be the idea that every game has a hinge point or turning point, and if it occurs later rather than earlier in the game, the more enjoyable the experience for the passing neutral such as myself. In this game it happened just after the hour. Heybridge were awarded a penalty for handball. Wanderers’ debutant keeper Warren Burford saved it. Within a minute at the other end they had a penalty appeal of their own turned down as their attacker couldn’t get a shot away in a tangle of feet. Then they headed narrowly over from the resulting corner. I’d already had my suspicions that this was going to be a scoreless afternoon, and now I felt certain with about half an hour to go. This game, which had started in steady rain, was never boring. Defences were on top for both sides but had to work hard. These are two strong and well-organised sides, trying to play the modern way whenever possible. It’s now an era where players wearing number five are expected to control and pass for a significant portion of the game. The teams largely cancelled each other out during the poor weather of the first half with no significant chance at either end. Heybridge will rue the missed penalty, Ipswich will point to a strong final fifteen minutes in which they stretched the Heybridge defence several times in succession. However, they could also have lost a player with a straight red near the end of the first half for a cynical trip to end a Heybridge break. Overall, the draw was probably a fair result.
So What?
I am not a fan of league tables this early in the season, but Ipswich Wanderers have four points and Heybridge Swifts have two. Much too soon to be saying anything more.
Pix
Groundhoppers beware that some satnavs will take you to the wrong place. “We get it all the time!”, said the gatekeeper at Ipswich Town’s nearby academy after I drove in through their half-open gate. The ground had a good clubhouse and plenty of covered areas, and is clearly now under further development given the club’s rise to Step 4 level. However, surely the attendances will need to be larger for this to be sustainable. In these pix, the home side is in blue.
Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats Update
The background to this, and the latest keeper top colour league table, is here on this dedicated page. Today, Green (three simultaneous shades, no less) and Grey both keep clean sheets. Pre-match Prediction based on Keeper Top Colour: Prediction: Away Win Was the prediction correct? No % of correct predictions so far 49% (81 from 167)
What Next?
Not going to jinx it in case the traffic on my least favourite section of motorway ruins things, but I have provisionally planned a Sunday-Monday Bank Holiday double, with a few alternatives if I cannot get to the furthest destination on time. These days I am posting on Threads rather than the toxic wasteland of Twitter.

 

 

Going to Sussex, Back in Two Ticks

 Match 1 : No printed programme, this is a screenshot from the e-programme pdf.

Hopperational Details
Date & Venue	Saturday 17 August 2024 at Birchwood Ground, Shooting Field
Result	Steyning Town Community 3 Crawley Town Gatwick 1
Competition	FA Cup Preliminary Round
Hopstats	Ground 786 on the lifetime list, and here pragmatically in order to make a double with tomorrow’s fixture.
Other Things in Life Besides Football
For this match, nothing whatsoever except sitting on the M25 western section and the Leatherhead by pass in a long-line of slow-moving traffic.
Context
In the previous round, Steyning beat Hilltop 4-0 at home while Crawley Down Gatwick won 1-0 at Holmesdale.
Brief Match Report
The visitors embraced the play-out-from-the-back style that is possible on an artificial surface and took an early lead, which they held until the interval. Steyning had hit the post with a deflected shot, and the ref had been clattered in a player sandwich. Credit to him for getting up sharply as if nothing had happened. Presumably he didn’t touch the ball, as play continued. Steyning turned the game around with two goals in ten minutes after half-time. In both cases the attackers had a lot of time, but the hinge point of the game was after 65 minutes. Crawley Down claimed loudly for a penalty after an alleged foul challenge by the Steyning keeper. The ref said no and I’m not really in a position to comment definitively either way. Within a minute at the other end the third goal was hooked in by Mark Goldson (who’d also scored the second) and that was that. Steyning will have their third home tie on the trot when they host Merstham in the next round.
Pix : Steyning in Red

 

Match 2 : No printed programme, this is a screenshot from the e-programme pdf.

 

Hopperational Details
Date & Venue	Sunday 18 August 2024 at The Sportsfield
Result	Littlehampton Town 2 Faversham Town 3
Competition	FA Cup Preliminary Round
Hopstats	Ground 787 on the lifetime list. Littlehampton have a three-sided ground adjacent to the town’s cricket (and croquet) facility so this tie was switched to Sunday, making this Sussex weekend double a possibility.
Other Things in Life Besides Football
A morning walk around Littlehampton town centre, which seems to be suffering in the way that many English seaside towns are at the present, but is architecturally more interesting than most. The changes since my youth are sad to see, but I don’t honestly have a solution. I didn’t spend much mainly because I had no vaping, hair or nailcare needs at that time, and I think I counted four funeral directors within half a mile or so. Later, a walk along the promenade, alongside the pebble beach and being careful not to get in the way of the tractor-train that trundles along at  the speed of an arthritic sloth.
Context
Littlehampton beat Tooting & Mitcham 1-0 at home in the previous round, and Faversham won by the same scoreline at Bexhill United.
Brief Match Report
There’s an argument for two hinge points in this game, but Littlehampton coped so well after a first-half red card for Matthew Astle (for a high tackle) that I am choosing the second Faversham equaliser as my key moment. This was a curling left-footed freekick by Sam Hasler in the 86th minute, captured below. The teams had been level at 1-1 at the interval. Littlehampton’s lead came from a header as Alex Laing’s intelligent second-phase run to the far post was not picked up. The equaliser came not long after the red card, another good header, this time by Fran Collin. Faversham missed two other decent chances from close range, but Littlehampton responded well. They took the lead in the second half with Laing’s second goal after a good move down the right. I suppose the ten men of Littlehampton just ran out of the proverbial steam as Faversham committed more men forward. That hinge-point equaliser paved the way for Collin’s even later winner, his second close-range header of the day   in stoppage time. Knockout football, great for the passing neutrals but either joy or pain for everybody else. Thanks for reading this far, your interest is appreciated. Faversham will travel to Broadbridge Heath in the next round.
Other Pix : Littlehampton in Gold

 

Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats Update

The background to all this, and the latest keeper top colour league table, is here on this dedicated page. By coincidence, both matches featured Purple v Green. Pre-match Predictions based on Keeper Top Colour: Prediction: Away Wins x2 Was the prediction correct? No and Yes respectively % of correct predictions so far 49% (81 from 166)

What Next?

Hopping priorities for this year are new grounds for Truro City (Step 2) and Cray Wanderers (Step 3) alongside Plymouth Parkway. Those would restore my “everywhere down to Step 3” list. Then there are over thirty more current Step 4 grounds still to be visited. The list keeps changing with promotions and relegations, of course, and many would be long journeys needing me to be sure of the weather forecast before setting out. I doubt whether I can realistically complete this in one season.