Carlton's Textbook Showing at Loughborough Students

 

Online-only programme accessed with a QR code from the bar area.

Hopperational Details
Date & Venue	19 August 2025 at Loughborough University Stadium
Result	Loughborough Students 0 Carlton Town 3
Competition	Northern Premier League D1 Midlands (Step 4)
Hopstats	#802 on the lifetime list
Context
The kindest way to describe the Students’ start to the season is to say that they are undefeated at home – with one point from three games. Carlton have two league wins and a big FA Cup victory on their list already. The visitors will start as favourites.
Match Report
This is an extremely impressive facility, set within a large university campus. The site is also hosting two international tournaments for teams of men and women with cerebral palsy, so there was a lot going on in and around the central stadium. There is unlikely to be a main stand and playing surface better than this anywhere else at Step 4 in the country. I made the most of a rare opportunity to sit a few metres above ground level, whereas many of the Carlton faithful kept to their habit of installing themselves and their flags behind the home goalkeeper, including of course the half-time change-of-ends. Carlton showed their status as favourites early on with a pressing game to disrupt the students playing out from the back. They made the first few half-chances but the Students couldn’t take the best one of the game so far after 11 minutes. They soon went behind to an old-school corner, with the big number five Dean Freeman winning the ball in the air, and his textbook downward header found the back of the net with the help of a deflection. My photo seems to show a bit of streetwise shirt-pulling in the process. At half-time there was only one goal in it and the home side could not be discounted. There had been some lovely one- and two-touch approach play from both sides. The student defenders caught the eye, but probably because they had been the busiest players on the field. They always looked just a bit more anxious and stretched than their comfortable Carlton counterparts. Insert your own “degrees of freedom” joke here. I wrote a note to myself that “Carlton will need a second”, and went for a Mars Bar (also a second). That game-settling goal duly arrived after 66 minutes with a volley from striker Ashley Chambers, and then the third was an absolute screamer from wide on the left flank from Niall Davie. Great goal, ten minutes to go. To their credit, young heads did not drop and the Students almost got a consolation in the dying moments, but this was a fair result in an enjoyable game for this passing neutral. The day ended with a dreadful journey back south down the M1 “thanks” to a series of roadworks. Good job it wasn’t a school night.
So What?
The early league table has Carlton top, ahead of Corby on goal difference after three wins out of three games. Loughborough’s earlier point keeps them one place off the bottom.
Pix
Students in purple.
Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats Update
The background to this, and the latest keeper top colour league table, is here on this dedicated page. Today, Grey beats Orange (as predicted) and keeps a clean sheet. Pre-match Prediction based on Keeper Top Colour: Prediction: Away Win Was the prediction correct? Yes % of correct predictions so far 48% (90 from 187)
What Next?
No idea, to be honest, with other duties and commitments in the diary. I unfortunately can’t get to the West Lancs hop this coming weekend but I may be able to get to something down south. @ModusHRandom on Twitter/X for the reveals.

 

The Tigers Who Came to W

Hopperational Details
Date & Venue	Saturday 7 September 2019 at The Bill Stokeld Stadium, Stoke Lane, Gedling
Result	Carlton Town 1 Worksop Town 3
Competition	Northern Premier League Division One South East (Step 4)
Hopstats	Ground 702 on the lifetime list. I am here randomishly because of a certain event in the House of Lords yesterday. There were no games on at my Step 3 priorities today, so I had made a list of ten games at unvisited Step 4 grounds. On Friday morning, I tweeted that I would go to whichever ground was nearest the place associated geographically with the first peer of the realm to speak in the afternoon session. After a tough morning of pedantry, putdowns and clause-ripping, they finished the committee stage of the Withdrawal No 6 Bill and went for lunch. The opening postprandial event was Lord Rooker proposing that the House should receive the report of the committee. The noble lord, Jeff to his friends, is irrevocably associated with his former constituency of Perry Barr in Birmingham, a mere 55 miles away from Carlton Town, and significantly closer than anywhere else on my list. Runcorn Linnets were next nearest.
Context
Carlton are unbeaten in the league and have four wins out of four, coming back from two down for a 3-2 victory last time out. Worksop are mid-table and lost narrowly at home in the last fixture. They are back at this level following promotion from Step 5 last season.
In one sentence
An entertaining game won by the visitors with their more clinical finishing and exploitation of the first-half spaces left by the host.
So what?
The teams are 4th and 9th respectively in the league table.
Match Report
The early exchanges set the tone for an open, attacking game with plenty of effort on both sides. Worksop’s fullback Ben Rhodes had to make a triple block as early as the fifth minute to deny a chance for Tyler Blake. Then at the other end Craig Mitchell skied a good chance high and wide. Worksop took the lead after 12 minutes when Lynton Karcach hooked the ball back from the right flank into the box. Nial Smith was arriving from the fullback position to head home, largely unchallenged. Just two minutes later, space opened up on the left for Smith to overlap and cross, and this time Mitchell made no mistake. Carlton thus found themselves somewhat bemused and two down for the second game in a row. The hinge point in the game probably came with Carlton’s first attack from the restart. Aaron Opoku timed his run perfectly, showed good strength to hold of a challenge, but shot wide by the narrowest of margins. If that had gone in, I could be writing a different report. Carlton scored from the penalty spot after 19 minutes. Matthew Reay brought down Opoku and home captain Tom Maddison sent the keeper the wrong way. The rest of the first half settled into an even contest, with both teams looking equally likely to get the next goal. However, the defences had sorted themselves out until, just before the interval, space was created with a neat passing move for Mitchell to get his second and restore Worksop’s two-goal lead. It was a critical time to score, with a calm but again unchallenged finish. The second half was entertaining but less dramatic. Carlton pressed and created several half-chances, but the visitors had no need to commit defenders forward and they coped well enough. Territorially the home side probably shaded the second half but the damage had been done. Worksop keeper David Reay was the busier of the two, but much of his work was routine. If both teams play as well for the rest of the season they will certainly be at least safe at this level. A very decent game for the passing neutral.
Pix
Carlton in yellow-and-blue.
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, Green loses to Pink, in defiance of league position. Not enough to change any positions. This table is based on the last 203 games watched. Prediction percentages have steadily dropped back toward 50% after the initial success. Hopefully no shirts have been lost. Pre-match Prediction based on Keeper Top Colour: Prediction: Home Win Was the prediction correct? No % of correct predictions so far 52% (30 from 58) 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. P W D L GC CS Pts PPG Red 11.5 6.5 1.0 4.0 11.0 4.5 32.0 2.783 Grey 53.5 25.0 12.0 16.5 84.5 16.0 82.5 1.542 Blue 49.1 22.0 8.0 19.1 78.0 14.0 66.0 1.344 Green 111.0 55.0 12.0 44.0 194.0 25.0 108.0 0.973 Fire Cracker 3.0 1.0 0.0 2.0 6.0 1.0 2.0 0.667 Purple 22.0 8.0 5.0 9.0 45.0 6.0 14.0 0.636 Maroon 5.0 2.0 1.0 2.0 9.0 1.0 3.0 0.600 Orange 60.5 21.0 13.0 26.5 106.5 11.0 24.5 0.405 Radioactive Bile 24.0 9.0 1.0 14.0 51.0 4.0 -3.0 -0.125 Black 6.5 2.5 3.0 1.0 15.0 0.5 -2.0 -0.308 Yellow 39.0 10.0 9.0 20.0 88.0 7.0 -14.0 -0.359 Pink 19.0 6.0 5.0 8.0 38.0 1.0 -10.0 -0.526 White 1.9 0.0 0.0 1.9 4.0 0.0 -4.0 -2.105
What Next?
Follow @GrahamYapp on Twitter! 23 priority grounds for this season comprising Tottenham Hotspur, 3x Step 3 and 19x Step 4, many in the north and west of the country.