TW3

 

Sunday 5 May 2024 at Wembley

National League Playoff Final

Solihull Moors 2 Bromley 2 aet

Bromley win 4-3 on penalties

 

All credit to Solihull for coming back twice with equalising goals, but in the end it was the poor quality of their penalty kicks that mean that Bromley will join the ranks of League Two next season for the first time in their history. Michael Cheek had given Bromley the lead just before the interval, only for Joe Sbarra to level the match just after the restart. Cheek’s goal was disputed by Moors, who claimed a foul in the build-up. Cheek scored his second from the spot to restore the Bromley lead, and then Jamie Osborne equalised again with a cool finish. There were no more goals in extra time. This match had been something of a clash of styles. Bromley could have easily been two up before Solihull turned up. Then Moors did better by playing the ball patiently on the ground, working their triangles. Bromley were more dangerous in the air, and more direct. But as the end of the match drew nearer, Bromley looked stronger and fitter. Bromley keeper Grant Smith saved Tyrese Shade’s first penalty, Cheek scored his and then Joss Labadie missed too. Although Moors’ keeper Nick Hayes saved from Ashley Charles it was still advantage Bromley and it fell to skipper Byron Webster to roll a penalty in and signal the start of a promotion party.

 

I’m going to grumble again about an £8 A4-sized programme in a stadium limiting bag size to A4. I don’t think I have ever paid that much for a programme and it is simply exploitation.

 

Tuesday 9 May 2024 at Lord’s

T20 Cricket, Oxford University v Cambridge University

CU Women 163-4 (20 ov) beat OU Women 127-8 (20 ov) by 36 runs

OU Men 160-5 (19.4 ov) beat CU Men 156-7 (20 ov) by 5 wkts

 

Cambridge Women were put into bat and they recovered from the early loss of Alice Bebb to post a formidable total. Issy Routledge and Ciara Boaden shared a 50 partnership. Routledge fell for 40 and Boaden was unbeaten on 77. Oxford’s fielding was somewhat ragged under pressure with a key moment being a six that went through the fielder’s hands on the boundary. Their bowlers had also struggled with line early on. Hannah Sutton finished with all four Cambridge wickets to fall, for 29 runs, but the other bowling figures all had zeroes in the final column.

 

It was not long before Oxford fell behind the required run rate and the innings was eventually strangled. The result was never really in doubt from an early stage although all of the top order got off the mark and into double figures. It was Routledge’s day as she took a hat-trick and finished with a magnificent 4-0-12-4 and a hand in a run out as Oxford’s batting turned to desperate measures. She was supported by Garima Kakkar with 2-22.

Ciara Bowden on her way to the top score. #keepertopcolourstats deemed inadmissible by the rules committee (i.e. me)

 

Cambridge men also lost the toss and were asked to bat first. They made a good start including some sharp running between the wickets but the bowling of Oxford captain Ben Swanson arrested the pace of progress. Zak le Riche was bowled by the hostile pace of Justin Clarke after an opening stand of 37, and opening partner Harry Houillon was run out for 49 as a non-striker, much to his surprise as he jogged towards the crease. That was great work by Toby Brown in the field. Alex Ferreira and Hari Kukreja weighed in with 22 and 32 respectively, but they struggled to get the rate above six an over and it felt a little short of what they would need.

 

Cambridge took two Oxford wickets in the power play overs but opener George Roberts was now joined by Justin Clarke. Roberts did most of the scoring but they were able to accelerate and get well ahead of the rate required by the end of the tenth over.  Oxford were 98-3 compared with Cambridge’s 74-2 at the same stage. Cambridge in the end did well to take the game to the final over. Roberts managed to keep enough of the strike to secure the victory, as at times his partners were becalmed at the other end. There was a moment of hope for Cambridge when Roberts fell for 79 off 51 balls, but Josh Royan came in to score 11, joining Max Kirby who finished with 15 off 27, with enough bat-on-ball moments to see their team over the winning line with two balls to spare and five wickets in hand.

 

Roberts reaches a half-century with a push to off

Saturday 11 May 2024 at Wembley

Non-League Finals Day

FA Vase : Romford 3 Great Wakering Rovers 0

FA Trophy : Solihull Moors 2 Gateshead 2 aet

Gateshead win 5-4 on penalties

 

This event suffers from the usual between-match imprisonment and it felt somewhat flat in the concourses at times compared with other years. The proportion of fans staying to watch both games seems to have declined. I was particularly irritated today at being asked to make a move (from the Moors section) even before the FA Trophy had been presented to Gateshead. That is culturally wrong and very disappointing. I politely declined and nothing came of it. I’ve given up on bemoaning the existence of popcorn, candy floss and pic n’mix, partly because I couldn’t seriously recommend the pies as the traditional football fare. I will, however, give credit as due for a sensible double programme at a fair price of £5.

 

But I digress. On the pitch, Romford (in blue) looked the more likely to score. It took 37 minutes for Great Wakering to have a real sniff in the opposing penalty area. It remained scoreless at half-time. Hassan Nalbant’s composed left-foot finish opened the scoring for Romford after 52 minutes, and it was soon followed by a second. Great Wakering were appealing for a penalty. On the resulting break, Sam Deering scored after Finlay Dorrell’s shot had been saved. The destination of the Vase was never really threatened after that point and eventually Nalbant would get his second goal in stoppage time. This was another very neat finish, a curling shot with the outside of the foot.

 

The FA Trophy final came down to penalties, and the deja-vu for Solihull must have been overpowering. You have to feel for Moors keeper Nick Hayes. He saved three spot-kicks and ended up on the losing side, and that must be very rare indeed. Tyrese Shade and Joss Labadie were given redemption chances after last week’s misses – and they both missed again. Gateshead’s Dajaune Brown finally sealed the win, and would have been very relieved to do so. The game had finished 1-1 after 90 minutes and then 2-2 after extra time. Regan Booty had given Gateshead the lead in first-half stoppage time, but Solihull again showed resilience when their equaliser came from frontman Mark Beck with 20 minutes left. This was a brave diving header from Joe Newton’s cross. Beck then scored from the spot in the first period of extra time only for Brown to redeem himself after a couple of missed chances with a goal timed at 111 minutes. Penalties were inevitable after that, but don’t mention the word anywhere near Solihull any time soon. Brown’s winner was the end of the ninth round of penalties. Cruel game, sometimes. The video clip below is Beck's penalty for the short-lived Solihull lead. Gateshead are in white.

 

No. Just No.

The four sporting confrontations so far this week gave a chance to play at one of the world’s great sporting venues to some lesser-known players, or those at the start of their sporting lives. The Wembley events are great days out (mostly) for the fans of the clubs that don’t get to play there so often. I may have seen an international cricketer or two learning their craft at Lord’s. Time will tell, but first we had two big name clubs back at Wembley. Having said that, whoever wins this next match will make club history.

Sunday 12 May 2024 at Wembley

Women’s FA Cup Final

Manchester United 4 Tottenham Hotspur 0

 

This game has had lots of coverage elsewhere. Beth England was to hit the bar in the second half but that was one of the few bright spots for Spurs. Manchester United had looked the better side from the start, but the timing of Ella Toone’s magnificent run and curling shot could not have been better, coming just before the interval. Rachel William’s headed second was from the textbook – she had had a near-miss in the early minutes, and then Lucia Garcia was gifted a third by a misplaced pass from Becky Spencer in the Spurs goal. Garcia would add her second, thanks to a neat assist from Millie Turner, before United rang the changes by bringing on their classy substitutes including Melvine Malard & Nikita Parris with no noticeable loss of dominance. Mary Earps in the United goal had very little to do other than breathe a sigh of relief when England’s header hit the woodwork. Now both of these sides will indirectly decide the destination of this season’s WSL title in the week ahead. Chelsea play Spurs on Wednesday and United next weekend and will need to win both.

So, that's 37 games at the "new" Wembley for me, spread over 33 visits because of the four double-headers. This week has seen the keepertopcolourstats database and table arrive at 301 matches, so it is time for me to learn how to do a Kruskal-Wallis One-Way Analysis of Variance test. This may take me a while! Solihull’s results were against the trend, Romford’s and Manchester United’s went to form. The table is here, and That Was The Week That Was. Thank you for your interest.

Any of my readers know how to do one of these? Image credit: Wikipedia

To Win, Work Hard and Play Harder in the Second Half

Small enough to fit inside an A4 bag - joined-up thinking at last!

 

Hopperational Details
Date & Venue	Sunday 14 May 2023 at Wembley
Result	Chelsea Women 1 Manchester United Women 0
Competition	Women’s FA Cup Final
Hopstats	My 26th visit (28th game) to the refurbished Wembley, my second Women’s FA Cup final (the first being at QPR).
Context
New territory for the relatively new entity, Manchester United Women. Their first final, their first time at Wembley, up against the only team that could yet pip them to the league title after their excellent season. As for Chelsea, this is their seventh final (sixth at Wembley) and they have won this competition for the last two seasons.
In One Sentence
An assist from the excellent substitute Pernille Harder gave Sam Kerr a close-range finish after these teams had largely negated each other for long periods.
So What?
Three in a row for Chelsea and now both teams turn their attention back to league action. Manchester United could reach 56 points if they win their two remaining games (Man City (h) and Liverpool (a)). Chelsea are a point behind and have an extra game in hand. Their fixtures are West H (a), Arsenal (h) and Reading (a). The teams currently have identical goal difference, so this race will almost certainly go to the final day of the season.
Match Report
I’m writing my own brief take on this game before I see the highlights and read any other reports. I’d privately predicted, having seen both teams in recent weeks, that Chelsea would win this. This was because I felt there were more players in Chelsea’s side with multiple big-game experiences, and more strength in depth to come off the bench if needed. The factor against Chelsea was possibly fatigue after a midweek game. Manchester United are a work in progress, and they have done fantastically well in a relatively short time, but Chelsea boss Emma Hayes has been there, done that and stacked up the T-shirts in the women’s game in this country. Of course, Ann-Katrin Berger’s green top might be helping too (see below). Chelsea looked well off the pace at the start. United had the ball in the net after 27 seconds but there was an offside call. In the last two games, I’d watched Melanie Leupolz and Erin Cuthbert impose themselves on the game from midfield, but this was a different tactical plan, maybe due to the presence of Ella Toone in the United side. They looked to play longer balls over the top down the flanks for the willing runs of Lauren James on the right and Cuthbert on the left. However, the full-backs held firm and for the first half, Sam Kerr wasn’t in the game as much as usual. It was the same with Alessia Russo up front for United. The first-half ended scoreless, and pretty even. At one point we’d had a so-called Mexican wave in the crowd, never a sign of a classic game of football. After that crazy first minute, to my mind each side had one excellent chance. Both keepers were at full stretch to push away goalbound efforts. Earps needed the help of the post too to stop James’ looping header. Then in stoppage time United had a credible shout for a penalty, but the incident, a trip by Niamh Charles on Nikita Parris, began just outside the area, presumably confirmed by VAR – there was no communication of this in the stadium that I could see or hear. The second half began more positively for both teams. Chelsea made the first substitutions, and the introduction of Pernille Harder proved decisive. There were half-chances at both ends and Harder’s was the better one for Chelsea. However, she was released on the right and her ball along the six-yard line just evaded Maya Le Tissier and arrived at exactly the right time and place for Sam Kerr to steer it past Earps. It was Kerr’s fifth goal in three FA Cup finals and the celebration was a well-executed cartwheel and somersault. United made their own substitutions and it was a bit of a surprise to see Toone withdrawn. Kerr set up the other Chelsea sub Sophie Ingle with a clear shooting chance and it really should have been 2-0. As it was, Chelsea’s game management plans needed to be on point. Earps herself came upfield for a corner in the dying seconds, and there was one very scary pinball moment in the Chelsea box, but no goal, and that was it. I think it was another sub, Kedisha Buchanan, making the final clearance. Quite a few of the crowd had dispersed by the time the cup was presented by the Prince of Wales. It seems to take so long to get these formalities over and done with these days. As an occasion, however, this had been superb, and it was a privilege to have been there. As a game of football, there have been better and more exciting ones (yesterday’s for example) but there is no denying Chelsea’s achievement. I doubt whether the history books will record anything other than the result, and Sam K’s tumbling, and I can’t see Manchester United fading away into obscurity now they have had a taste of a big occasion.
Pix – Outside the Stadium
Pix – Inside the Stadium - from Pre-Match to Celebrations
I was pushing my compact camera to its limits at times so one or two of these are a bit fuzzier than I would like. The crowd of 77390 is apparently a record for a women’s domestic game. There seemed to be no segregation in place. I was able to complete a whole circuit of the ground in the Level 5 concourse, tutting every time I went past a popcorn stand. Popcorn has no place in football culture as far as I am concerned 😉 Without wishing to rant, I'd have much preferred spontaneous celebrations to all the stage-managed stuff. Dear Event Organisers, Stop burning hydrocarbons unnecessarily and let the players come over to the fans a lot sooner. Why do you think the stadium is half-empty before you make a start on the presentations?   Any closer together and this would be a huddle
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 275 matches is here, on this separate page. Regular readers need no further information, but the details are there for anyone interested. All this arises from an interview with Petr Cech. Today, Green beats Yellow and keeps a clean sheet too. No change in league table positions. Pre-match Prediction based on Keeper Top Colour: Prediction: Chelsea Win Was the prediction correct? Yes % of correct predictions so far 46% (60 from 130)
What Next?
Follow @GrahamYapp on Twitter! I will be at West Ham Women v Chelsea Women on Wednesday evening to see the next instalment of this story. Then at the weekend I have a third-tier Women’s playoff at Milton Keynes (Watford v Nottingham Forest) on Saturday and the men’s Non-League finals day at Wembley again (Newport Pagnell Town v Ascot United, Gateshead v FC Halifax Town) on Sunday.