Making Progress Down Football's Left Wing

Hopperational details
Date & Venue	Saturday 22 August 2015 at Broadhurst Park
Result	FC United of Manchester 3 Brackley Town 2
Competition	Conference North (Step 2)
Hopping	I am here at ground 576 to restore “The 160”, that is all of the current English grounds down to Step 2.  It actually comprises only 157 venues at the moment because of groundsharing arrangements for Gloucester City, Worcester City and Hayes & Yeading.  It’s a new stadium and plenty of hoppers will have it on this season’s hotlist.  Indeed, plenty have already been.
Pre-match preparation
FC United are looking for their first win at this level.  The club has risen pretty steadily up the pyramid since its formation, and this is their first full season at their own stadium.  Brackley Town are mid-table.
This match in one sentence
FC United showed resilience after going a goal down but also left themselves a nervy last few minutes on their way to a first step 2 victory.
So what? The not-won-yet burden is removed and Brackley stay in mid-table.
The drama unfolds
Despite an early departure from Hertfordshire, I only made it to the ground just in time for a quick batch of ground pix and a hasty pie and peas before kickoff.  Hello again, M6 northbound and your mysterious blockages.  This match will be well-covered elsewhere, so I will be brief.  I watched the first half from high-up in a corner of the end terrace housing the home fans.  Brackley Town’s 10th minute lead came rather against the run of play.  FC United failed to deal defensively with a ball down near the corner flag and the ball came back to Brackley full-back Stephan Morley in acres of space.  His cross was met firmly by the head of Steve Diggin who had lost his marker in a well-timed run to the near post.  0-1 after 10 mins The equaliser was created by another full-back, this time United’s Liam Brownhill.  He controlled the ball well on the flank and turned to create space for a left-footed cross which floated perfectly to give Matthew Wolfenden an unmissable close-range header.  1-1 after 14 mins It was Brownhill’s work again, this time with his right-foot, that led to a corner.  As the pressure built, Sam Madeley was in the right place to score and give United the lead which they held comfortably enough until the break.  2-1 after 26 mins and at half-time Madeley gives FCUM the lead and wheels away to celebrate ... I moved to the other end for the second half, and watched Brackley get back into the game.  More of their players were 6-foot plus and they started to use their physical advantages a bit more effectively.  Their substitute David Moyo looked a handful and cut inside to hit the woodwork after 57 minutes.  An equaliser looked on the cards, but somehow United weathered the storm and created a one-on-one chance for Tom Greaves.  He didn’t miss.  3-1 after 71 mins Cool finish from Greaves The tension eased and even the small core of Brackley fans seemed to accept the impending awayday defeat.  Then they received an unexpected gift in the form of a defensive lapse that let Moyo in to score with several nervy minutes still ahead.  3-2 after 81 mins It was indeed nervy.  Brackley had a set piece chance but the freekick went wide.  United’s clearances were hurried and they headed for the corner flag whenever they could.  However, the results pages will record that they hung on for a first Step 2 victory and another landmark.  Final Score 3-2 The thunderstorms that I encountered on the way back south gave me the worst driving conditions I have ever experienced.  They meant that I failed to get far enough down the M1 before the bollards meant that we queued for ages to get down to one lane.  Nine hours in total behind the wheel of the Yappmobile today.  It would be terrible to be a southerner and have to drive every week to watch football in Manchester.  Just saying.
Ground Pix
Match Pix
Something You Don’t Get in the Premier League
Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats
Green beats blue, but no clean sheets.  Full points table next time.
Soapbox Section
Their formation and progress has been well-documented elsewhere, and FC United look to be in a pretty healthy state with a very professional setup.  The stadium is still a work-in-progress but is already functioning perfectly well for this level.  They are an inspiration to other clubs who have sat contentedly in the lower leagues.  Altrincham are the nearest rivals in Step 1 and FC United have now caught up or overtaken the many established Step 2-4 clubs on the patch.  I think they are realistic enough not to expect annual promotions, but it is hard to imagine them getting relegated.  It is quite easy to imagine them as a sustainable League One outfit but then they would hit those barriers between sport and business that led to their formation in the first place.  Their average attendance will be around the 3000 mark, 2996 today.  At some point, just like it did for AFC Wimbledon, a competition will throw them up against Manchester United.  That will be interesting for the neutrals.  The only extra comment that I have about sustainability is that they have found a home closer to the Etihad than to Old Trafford, and yet in their terrace chants they have brought with them an anti-City sentiment.  Maybe this will in time put a limit on their fanbase, because people round here seem to be born blue or red.  Or maybe it will take twenty years for the club to have a core of supporters who are indifferent to the original Reds.  Mind you, the current FC United take the pitch looking just like my 1970s Manchester United Subbuteo team with simple and vibrant red shirts, white shorts and a green goalkeeper.  It is a great no-nonsense kit, and it sells well too.  Overall, I must say that it was a very positive matchday experience for this passing neutral.  It’s a left-leaning political place – see all the slogans on their flags and be prepared for pie queue conversations about which food companies pay tax in the UK – but I liked it and didn’t feel that I was gatecrashing someone else’s party.
What Next?
This visit leaves me with eleven Step 3 grounds to complete the next layer of English football, and I will be trying to get to all of them this season.  Most of them are in the Northern Premier, so plenty more time to come on the M6 for me then.  Work is about to take control of my life again as the new school term approaches, but watch @GrahamYapp on Twitter for details, and maybe become my latest 100th follower.  I have been hovering around the 1000 mark all summer.

FC United Flying at High Altitude in Buxton

Hopperational details
Date & Venue	Saturday 3 February 2013 at The Silverlands
Result	Buxton 0 FC United of Manchester 3
Competition	Northern Premier League (Step 3)
Hopping	Ground 505 on the lifetime list.  This is an “unfinished business” trip – I was headed for Buxton (because England beat San Marino 5-0, do keep up*) back in October for Non-League Day.  On that occasion, a major holdup on the M1 meant that I was forced to divert to Rugby Town.  This is the first home fixture since then that has worked logistically for me. *New readers catch up here: http://modushopperrandom.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/let-nation-decide-again.html
Pre-match preparation
The season is very much alive for both sides.  They sit just outside the playoff positions but a combination of cup runs and bad weather means that they have games in hand.  Buxton’s goalkeeper Ian Deakins is out with a knee injury and a loan of Craig Dootson from Kendal Town has been rushed through.  This will be a rarity at step 3 – a segregated game for spectators.
This match in one sentence
FC United took their chances and Buxton’s challenge, though it looked good for much of the first half, faded away after the second goal.
So what?
FC United are now indeed in the playoff places.  Five games in hand (after their Cup exploits) mean that on paper they still have a championship challenge too.  Buxton drop to 8th and although their season is still alive, they can’t afford too many days like this.
The drama unfolds
Buxton so nearly took the lead in the 4th minute.  They had started really brightly and Lee Morris headed a fraction wide with keeper James Spencer watching anxiously.  Then Spencer had to be alert to tip over Scott Maxfield’s shot from a neatly-worked free-kick that had been given for an off-the-ball trip.  Buxton were looking settled and confident, and so it was that FC United took the lead with their first real attack.  It was a crisp finish from Matthew Wolfenden from right to left across the keeper.  0-1 after 9 minutes I took a scene-setter clip midway through the first half, and another one on the half-hour.  Buxton are in blue. Although Buxton were pressing and looking dangerous, FC United were also threatening on the break and it took a brilliant save from the debutant Dootson to keep out Tom Greaves.  In first-half stoppage time, a low driven cross from the Buxton left went straight through the six-yard box.  It all happened so fast, but I think then a shot came in from the right, hit the angle of post and bar and then bounced clear off United’s Kyle Jacobs.  It would turn out to be another “if only” moment for Buxton.  0-1 at half-time Wolfenden so nearly ran all the way through the Buxton defence straight after the restart, but United had their second within a few minutes anyway.  Dootson made a reflex save to push out a ricochet but it only bounced back off someone else to give Michael Norton a tap-in.  0-2 after 51 minutes The tide turned and United now looked the more likely to score and they did so midway through the half.  Dootson got a hand to Norton’s close-range header but it went in to remove all doubts about the result.  0-3 after 65 minutes It should have been 0-4 immediately afterwards.  As the temperatures dropped even lower the United connections increased as Rhodri Giggs, brother of Ryan, came on as a sub for the visitors.  The tabloid tales of last year gave the home fans something to sing about as their team tried for a consolation goal.  To be fair, they deserved to get on the scoresheet.  My nominal second half clip is from the touchline after about 84 minutes, and it could have been a goal-of-the-month contender if Wolfenden's volley had gone in.  There were no more goals, and this is a very, very good result for FC United.  Final score 0-3
The programme
Something random
Today's hop has made me reflect on how I got here.  The story of the formation of FC United has been well documented and the fans have an impressive array of banners as you will have seen from the clips.  The links to Manchester United are obvious, starting with the red-and-white, and the feelings for the current state of the fans’ first love come through in the yellow-and-green (the colours of protest against the owners) and slogans such as “Pies Not Prawns”, “Traffordable Football” and “Two Clubs, One Soul”. I am used to unsegregated football these days and I’ve been in similar-sized unsegregated crowds at King’s Lynn, at Stocksbridge (for the visit of Chester) and at Whitley Bay in the FA Vase.  I was wondering why a visit of FC United is seen as a bigger risk, and then the flares came out after the first goal.  Don’t get me wrong, I have a degree in chemistry and I love fireworks and pyrotechnics, but in some ways their presence today was incongruous.  I’m not sure that it helps the developing club’s image and their bridge-building with the residents of Moston (see below), to be honest.  The police moved in on the first occasion but seemed less concerned for the second and third. FC United are fighting the planning rules and regulations in their quest to build a home of their own in Moston – the very latest news is positive, though some local residents are contesting their plans.  This supporter-owned club is almost universally regarded as a “good thing” and their website is clear about their vision and the need to build bridges with the local community.  They are clear that football needs to find a different way, and on this I agree with them completely. In case there are any doubts about my position on this for the casual reader:  I am a fan of sport and of the game of football.  I was born in West Bromwich and the Albion result is always the one I will look for first, but they have priced me out of The Hawthorns, and they let me down badly with their cynicism the last time I went to see them live.  I'm not bitter as such - they are generally regarded as a beacon of excellence in the professional game.  The market forces pushed me out, and I was replaced by someone else making different spending choices.  That's fine.  I don't watch TV and wouldn't recognise most of the players if they knocked on my door.  Except Peter Odemwingie, of course, but he turns up where he likes, or where his agent tells him to, anyway.  I do, however, watch a lot of football.  Live. I am less misty-eyed about "old grounds of character" than most groundhoppers - I quite like to wash my hands after going to the toilet, for example.  However, the complex balances of media influence, advertising and economics are making a lot of people rich through football, and the supporters are paying, through their TV bills, the merchandising and the ticket prices.  We must be mad.  Imagine spending all of that on our health or on our children's education.  I can't bear listening to 6-0-6 where week after week supporters criticise their board for not spending or "investing", taking risks that no-one would take with the finances of their house, job or family.  "Gloryhunter" supporters are a pet peeve too.   Mr C Samba of Shepherd's Bush will apparently earn more in a week than I did as the headteacher of a secondary school in a year, and some (not all) of the behaviour and examples set by some (not all) of his even-richer counterparts were unwelcome on our playgrounds and playing fields.  It's unfair to single him out.  There is too big a gap between the PL and the rest.  Ask anyone in Portsmouth.  There is even too big a gap between the "top four" and the rest, and in my view the Champions League has been an astonishing own goal in the long-term context of the sport.  It has set 90% of the status quo in stone and undermined our own FA Cup and League Cup.  Too many clubs have become "rich men's toys" and the discussion about Financial Fair Play is as much about finding ways round it as about agreeing with the spirit of it. I sincerely hope FC United find their niche, make friends with Moston and set a good example for the rest of the game.  I look forward to being among the early visitors when they get a new home.
Hopping for Moorfields Update
The 42nd hop of the season was the ninth three-goal game and means the average is 3.36 goals per game.  Nothing else to report today.
Mars Bar Watch 2013
The murky world of chocolate retail was laid bare today at The Silverlands, with standard 58g Mars Bars on sale at two different prices within the space of 25 metres.  The pre-match 70p purchase from the refreshment hut was by way of dessert to an excellent main course northern pie, peas and gravy combo.  This had a brittle but pleasant external chocolate casing whose mechanical properties could be due to the low ambient temperature.  This stadium is said to be at the highest altitude in England, and is also said to be *&%#! parky.  I agree.  I am quite used to this, though, as a West Brom fan by birth.  At half-time, whilst in the clubhouse for 15 minutes of warmth, I secured a 60p Mars Bar in the interests of research.  The warmer outer casing did indeed maintain some characteristics of plastic flow, an advantage in the drinking context as it means that you are less likely to drop specks of chocolate thus compromising the visual qualities of the foaming head on your beer. This experience proves how important it is to “shop around” and either exposes the cutthroat world of microeconomics in the harsh reality of Mars Bar supply, or that I need to get a life.
What Next?
A telling-off from my dentist.  Football-wise, no idea. Watch this space and @GrahamYapp on Twitter.  No rant next week, I promise.