Rain Before Seven

 

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

 

 

Before They Were Famous

 

Hopperational Details
Date & Venue	Tuesday 25 April 2023
Result	Arsenal U18 1 West Ham United U18 5
Competition	FA Youth Cup 2022-23 Final
Hopstats	My third visit to the Emirates Stadium. Impulsive purchase when I stumbled across the fixture earlier in the day.
Context
Routes to the final: Arsenal: Millwall (h) 6-0, Newcastle U (a) 3-2, Watford (a) 4-2 (from 0-2 down), Cambridge U (h) 3-2, Manchester C (h) 2-1 aet. West Ham: Sheffield U (a) 3-1, Burnley (a) 1-0, Stoke C (a) 4-1, Ipswich T (a) 4-2 aet, Southampton (h) 6-1. In their league campaign, West Ham have considerably out-performed Arsenal and won the U18 South division by a huge margin. Arsenal are managed by Jack Wilshere, West Ham by Kevin Keen.
In One Sentence
A promising start by Arsenal was washed away by a ruthlessly efficient performance from West Ham once the team had settled.
So What?
West Ham win this trophy for the first time since 1999 and the days of Michael Carrick and Joe Cole.
Match Report
The sensible ticket pricing had attracted a crowd of 34,000 of which 7,000 were filling the visitors’ section. They were in very good voice and the first action of note saw West Ham keeper Mason Terry make a flying save to keep out a free-kick by Michal Rosiak. Arsenal looked comfortable on the ball and clearly practise turning on the proverbial sixpence. It wasn’t long before they took a deserved lead. A surging but unchallenged run was made from his own half by Ruell Walters, who fed the ball out to Amario Cozier-Duberry, who’d already looked dangerous when running at defenders. Terry pushed the first shot away but the ball fell to Omari Benjamin on the left corner of the box, and he finished superbly. West Ham kept their heads and the equaliser came from another direct run down Route One. George Earthy found the back of the net and headed for the corner flag to celebrate in front of the home fans like a real pro. In just one more minute they took the lead. Callum Marshall had a tap-in to finish an incisive move down the right ending with Gideon Kodua’s cross. The celebration was duly repeated. The game then settled into a less frenetic pattern. Arsenal kept probing, though sometimes you could detect priority given to keeping the ball rather than risking a threatening move. Then, just before half-time, disaster. A miskick by Josh Robinson in the Arsenal defence let in Kodua who lifted the ball over home keeper Noah Cooper from distance. This prompted a celebration at the opposite corner flag, and an Arsenal team huddle at the instigation of captain Bradley Ibrahim. It would be essential for Arsenal to score first in the second half, and they created several half chances. Cozier-Duberry hit the side netting after good approach play from Robinson, and Terry made a close-range block from Rosiak. Cooper saved well to deny Earthy a second goal. Generally, though, West Ham kept a good shape and looked defensively brave and strong despite the efforts of the Arsenal subs. As time ebbed away, a growing sense of frustration spilled over and we saw two yellow cards at the end of some pushing and shoving. West Ham added two late goals from corners of their own, the first of which started the exodus from the home sections. The scorers were Kaelan Casey with a far-post header and Josh Briggs with his first touch. On the final whistle, another Arsenal huddle for managerial words of wisdom, and West Ham heading to their own supporters. I was willing to wait for the presentation but the setting up of the corporate staging took far too long, so it was time to head back to the trains. This was undeniably a great occasion for these young players, and I’ve listed all the names below so we can look back in a few years to see which ones break through to the elite level. The only advice I can sensibly give? Ditch the yellow shirt, Noah. No good will come of it … Arsenal U18 West Ham U18 Noah Cooper (gk, yellow) Mason Terry (gk, grey) Michal Rosiak Oliver Scarles Josh Robinson Regan Clayton Reuell Walters Kaelan Casey (Sean Tarima 79) Lino Sousa Ryan Battrum (Josh Briggs 90) Bradley Ibrahim (c) Lewis Orford Myles Lewis-Skelly Patrick Kelly Jimi Gower (Osman Kamara 46) George Earthy (Daniel Rigge 85) Amario Cozier-Duberry Gideon Kodua Omari Benjamin  (Sebastian Ferdinand 85) Divin Mubama Ethan Nwaneri Callum Marshall
Ground Pix
This is an undeniably impressive stadium, and the club leaves you in no doubt about its history, its characters, and its intended culture. The reminders cover the vast majority of internal and external wall space. I combined the game with a chance for some exercise, walking the two-and-a-bit miles each way from St Pancras Station, which takes around 45 minutes at moderate pace.
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 269 matches is here, on this separate page. Pre-match Prediction based on Keeper Top Colour: Prediction: Away Win Was the prediction correct? Yes % of correct predictions so far 44% (55 from 124) 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! I’ll also be going to Arsenal v Wolfsburg in the semi-final second leg of the Women’s Champions League at the same stadium next Monday. At the time of writing, 55k tickets have been sold.

 

Restoration Drama

Hopperational Details
Date & Venue	Sunday 17 November 2019 at The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
Result	Tottenham Hotspur Women 2 Arsenal Women 2
Competition	FA Women’s Super League
Hopstats	Ground 706 on the lifetime list. Restores for now my complete current “92” for the top four divisions in England (or 91 when you take account of Coventry City as a groundsharer). Likewise it means that I have been everywhere currently in use down to Step 2 National League N & S for the moment. Brentford’s and York City's new grounds will be opened sooner rather than later too so there will always be the need for restoration.
Context
Spurs Women usually play at The Hive, Barnet, but an international weekend and the prospect of a big crowd meant that this first WSL meeting between these local rivals was switched to the new place. The season is five games old. Reigning champions Arsenal have a slightly better win-loss record, 4-1 as opposed to Spurs’ 3-2. The hosts have priced the fixture very attractively (£7 for my ticket) and have made a pitch for parents-and-children attendance. I dare say there will be a few more groundhoppers dotted around too.
In one sentence
A record crowd (38000+) for a women’s club game in England saw Arsenal take the points with a composed, stylish and efficient performance.
So what?
Still early in the season but it seems that Arsenal will be title challengers and Spurs will be at least safely mid-table.
Match Report
I’m late with this and the game will have been covered in detail already for anyone interested, so I will be brief and impressionistic. It was a predictably cagey start to the game. Arsenal looked a touch more composed on the ball, and their patterns of movement looked promising. Spurs were more robust. There were few clear chances initially but by half-time Arsenal probably should have been in front. Spurs will also point to chances that could have gone in and changed the narrative, especially a shot by Kit Graham that went straight at keeper Manuela Zinsberger. In the end any Arsenal nerves were calmed by a great finish from Kim Little. She controlled a defensive header that fell nicely for her to control, manoeuvre and then fire into the corner of the net. Arsenal managed the game very well from then on. A short backpass gifted them a second, scored by Vivianne Miedema, and it looked for a moment as if Spurs could collapse. Anything more than 0-2 would have been harsh on the home side, who played a full part in an enjoyable, entertaining game of football. Rachel Furness caught the eye with an all-action and energetic display. As a neutral and blogger, I just have to comment on the cultural differences between the equivalent fixtures in the men’s and women’s game. I do not side with those who think the latter lacks something in the way of “passion”, that word that is so often used as an excuse or a proxy for poor personal standards or outright lack of self-control. The game played at this level deserves to succeed and all the signs are that it will. The men’s game changed forever once the suits realised there was so much money to be made from media and advertising. Like many groundhoppers, I lost a lot of interest from that point onwards and I hope the development of the women’s game does not make the same mistake and create too big a gulf between the rich and the poor clubs. There’s no evidence at all that Sky, BT and their sponsors really care too much about their wider unintended impact. There, I said it. I can only imagine that with a capacity crowd, the local infrastructure comes under severe strain. I watched a couple of teenagers deal with this by clinging limpet-like to the back of a bus as it headed south down the High Road. Not recommended. The teacher in me wanted to intervene, but I couldn’t get close enough and maybe it’s just as well.
Pix
It is a phenomenally impressive stadium. Up to now I’d have chosen The Emirates as best club stadium in England, but this one now takes the honour in my book. The asymmetry has been used cleverly to create a clear home end. The range of food outlets is impressive and diverse. Lighting, signage, sight lines and space are all excellent.
Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats
New this season – a pre-match prediction based only on keeper top colours as a preliminary test of the data.  Proper statistical significance test to follow in due course. Today was a contest between two very different shades of green. Pre-match Prediction based on Keeper Top Colour: Prediction: Draw Was the prediction correct? No % of correct predictions so far 52% (32 from 62) 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 half-and-half tops or 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 that orange is the best colour for a goalkeeper because it changes the behaviour of other players around the box. Full table on this page: KeeperTopColourStats
What Next?
Follow @GrahamYapp on Twitter! I’ve been everywhere down to Step 2 now, and I have two grounds (Atherton Collieries & Radcliffe) left at Step 3 and seventeen at Step 4. I've not been very active as yet this season but these remain my priorities.