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

Trophy is Shaded by the Shaymen

 

It’s a (very good) double reverse-orientation programme

Hopperational Details
Date & Venue	Sunday 21 May 2023 at Wembley
Result	Gateshead 0 FC Halifax Town 1
Competition	FA Trophy Final
Hopstats	Second part of my 27th visit to the refurbished Wembley stadium, and the 30th game (there having been two previous double-headers).
Context
Both these Step 1 clubs were in mid-table at the end of the Conference season. Both needed more than one penalty shoot-out on the cup run, including both the semi-finals where Gateshead beat Barnet and Halifax defeated Altrincham. Halifax had the edge in the two league meetings with a 2-0 home win and a 0-0 draw away.
In One Sentence
Tight and tense at times, Halifax won the game with a goal that was slightly fortuitous but created for them by a short backpass.
Pre-Match
The interval between the two games is the main reason why I have skipped this event many times. No exit or re-admission is allowed, and on my first such occasion I was disgusted by the prices and the range of refreshments on offer. On other occasions the time passed more agreeably because I was part of a group, although one year anything that I would choose for food or drink ran out. I had low expectations that anything would be different, and I was largely right. The inter-game entertainment consisted of loud dance music and another pitchside interview with Stuart Pearce, who performed his regular (but very genuine) ritual blessing on the non-league world. This year, I have Duolingo to hand, and my mastery of the subjunctive tense in Spanish increased significantly before kickoff as I surged up my Diamond League. If you know, you know. You wouldn’t see a happier Owl outside of Sheffield this week. The stadium was segregated into four main zones. I’d been with the animated Newport Pagnell faithful for the first match. (I always Go West if I have the chance, so as not to be sunblasted.) Now, there were more stewards than spectators. There were literally six of us in an entire seating block for the Trophy game. I estimated a total of around 300 remaining on the Vase side of the ground. Halifax outnumbered Gateshead in about the same proportion as NPT had outnumbered Ascot. I’d say 17000 out of the day’s 27000 were still here. In summary, this event doesn’t quite work as a double-header, but I dare say I will tolerate it if it gives players from these sides a chance to play here. My recommendations would be – get rid of extra-time for the Vase final, go straight to penalties if need be. Speed up the presentation and get rid of the pointless pyrotechnics. Reduce the length of the gap between the two games. I’m predicting here and now that none of this will happen, no matter how many times fans give the feedback. Scroll back one post in the blog for the report on the FA Vase final.
The Match Report
I’ll be brief because this match has been well-covered elsewhere now. It was a frantic start, with Halifax on top territorially, but the defences of both sides were well-organised and efficient and I didn’t record any gilt-edged chances for either side. James Montgomery in the Gateshead goal had to be alert and dived bravely at the feet of Rob Harker, but then calamity struck just before half-time, leading to what turned out to be the game’s only goal. A backpass was hit too weakly – Montgomery got to the ball first but his clearance was charged down by Jamie Cooke. The ball looped up gently and bounced into the net. Gateshead responded as you would expect and a header by Owen Bailey flashed just wide. Then Montgomery prevented a second goal for Halifax with a close-range reflex save from Jack Hunter. Although the game was never “over” as a contest at any point, the Halifax defending was effective and resolute. Gateshead created a couple of shooting chances but on both occasions the final shots were weak. As the desperation increased, Halifax keeper Sam Johnson was needed to make a good save from Adam Campbell in the 86th minute, and there would be one more near-miss before the final whistle. I couldn’t face another long wait for a stage-managed presentation so I headed out to walk the four miles back to the Yappmobile at Harrow-on-the-Hill, burning off the over-priced carbs from earlier in the day.
Match Pix
Halifax in Blue.
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 test of statistical significance, it looks like an Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) test will be appropriate. The full keeper top performance table from my last 279 matches is here, on this separate page, and I’ll organise the test when we reach 300 pieces of evidence. The Halifax keeper top is an unusual one, dominated by Orange & Black from front and back respectively. It’s not the first such event, and the points are divided evenly between the two colours. Either colour would have been predicted to beat the Gateshead Yellow in any event. The two sides of Sam Johnson Pre-match Prediction based on Keeper Top Colour: Prediction: FC Halifax Town Win Was the prediction correct? Yes % of correct predictions so far 47% (63 from 134)
What Next?
Follow @GrahamYapp on Twitter! EFL Playoff weekend coming up next and I will try to get to all three games. Two out of three tickets secured so far. I may have to befriend someone from Yorkshire later in the week.