Pilgrims' Ambition is More Than a Feeling

Hopperational Details
Date & Venue	Saturday 25 September at The Jakemans Community Stadium
Result	Boston United 2 Guiseley 1
Competition	National League North (Step 2)
Hopstats	Ground 729 on the lifetime list is not a random choice. After my recent attention to The 92 & 115, there is only one sequence of fixtures for ticking off my three remaining Step 2 grounds on consecutive Saturdays to restore The 158, so I am here. It would normally have been The 160, but the combination of Bury and Macclesfield Town folding, alongside the disruption of promotion and relegation during the pandemic, means that the National League, and National League South, are running with an odd number of teams this season.
Context
13th v 15th before kickoff. Both teams have similar mixed records and sit in mid-table. Boston will be looking for a third consecutive home win to follow on from a 6-0 hammering of Corby Town in the FA Cup last weekend. Guiseley also won in the cup, winning away at Colne.
In One Sentence
Workmanlike rather than impressive, but a win is a win.
So What?
A move of one place for each team, up to 12th and down to 16th respectively. Both have home FA Cup ties next weekend. Boston United host East Thurrock United and Guiseley host Blyth Spartans.
Pre-match Entertainment
One of the reasons for taking car rather than train today was to be able to make a morning visit to the nearby Bubblecar Museum in Langrick. What a magnificent collection, with the distinctive and unusual vehicles supplemented by collections of furniture, toys, kitchen utensils and other domestic artefacts. It is well worth an hour of your time if you are ticking off this new ground this year.   As I then drove towards the town centre, clusters of people at the roadside, many with cameras, indicated that something unusual was about to happen. I parked up and joined them, and a discreet enquiry established both that, no, I’m not from round here, and the Flying Scotsman was imminent, on its way to Skegness. Well, I had a glimpse of it last Tuesday evening, and it would have been rude not to wait until it had passed by today.  I then had a pleasant walk around some of Boston’s town centre and side streets. The town has an active port (shellfish, I believe) and an interesting religious and political history with connections to the settlement of what is now the United States. Walking down the footpath alongside the A16 to the ground takes around 30-40 minutes. There is a shuttle bus as an alternative, but I wanted the exercise. It’s perfectly OK in daylight on a dry day – it’s not a walk I would particularly want to do in the rain or in darkness, or with young children. You have to cross and re-cross the busy A16 as you get close to the stadium.
Match Report
Guiseley started well and it was only a superb block by Luke Shiels on Jordan Thewlis that stopped them taking an early lead. Shiels was impressive throughout that first half. Kaine Felix had the visitors’ second chance with a one-one-one breakthrough but a defender got back just in time to disrupt his shot. When Boston took the lead after 14 minutes it was somewhat against the run of play. An excellent trap and turn in midfield by Danny Elliott allowed him to fashion a move down the right flank through Jordan Preston and when the ball came in Jordan Burrow was in position to score. The game entered a spell of mutual cancellation. Patient Guiseley buildup in the modern fashion was met with good Boston defensive organisation, and they themselves looked dangerous on the break. Andi Thanoj sent in a fierce strike, but too high, on one such occasion. The rest of the scoring was completed in a two-minute spell before half-time. With 38 minutes on the clock, a misplaced clearance from home keeper George Sykes-Kenworthy left him out of position and an empty net for Thewlis To roll home the equaliser from distance. However, Boston were back in front almost immediately. Keeper Luke Jackson did well initially to block a shot from Connor Dimaio but the ball bounced up for a free header for Fraser Preston to score what turned out to be the winner. Just after the break, Guiseley hit the post with a neatly-worked freekick routine from the training ground, but as the half wore on, a third Boston goal began to look more likely as the visitors ran out of ideas. A flick from Burrow rolled just wide of the post, at the end of a few minutes of sustained pressure. It was a game that rather fizzled out rather than reached a crescendo, but a win is a win.
Match Pix
During the pandemic I tend to stay in one of the quieter corners of the ground, hence the lack of variety in the pix this season.
Ground Pix
This is a classy new build with features that remind the hopper of similar developments at Aveley and AFC Fylde, for example. Plus Rushden and Diamonds, of course, and Boston United, like the others, will need to get up a tier sooner rather than later. The ambition is clearly there. It’s an excellent playing surface. On balance you can understand why they moved away from their previous town centre position, with a compromise over location. There is scope for further development on the fourth side.  Some groundhoppers talk about “proper” old grounds but for me these are the standards that future generations will rightly expect. You never catch them talking about “proper” old school buildings for their children, to make a comparison with my own field. Hopefully readers will pick up the 1970s musical reference hidden in the blogpost title. It was initially going to be called Transports of Delight but on balance my days out are more about the football than the cars, trains, boats and planes.   The floodlights of the old ground are still there, for now
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 230 matches is here, on this separate page.  Today, it was two shades of Green facing each other, and neither kept a clean sheet. Once again the league table of colours remains unchanged. Pre-match Prediction based on Keeper Top Colour: Prediction: Draw Was the prediction correct? No % of correct predictions so far 49% (42 from 85) 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! The provisional plan has been revised to York City v Whitby Town in the FA Cup next Saturday, followed by Gloucester City v Bradford the following weekend. Always subject to weather, roadworks and Covid19 of course, and now also on the availability of fuel for the Yappmobile.

Two-Nil is a Dangerous Scoreline Again

Hopperational details
Date & Venue	Saturday 9 May 2015 at Victory Park
Result	Chorley 2 Guiseley 3
Competition	Conference North Playoff Final (Step 2)
Hopping	Ground #569 restores my current “Top 160” (everywhere down to Step 2) which at the end of 2014-15 is 157 venues because of groundsharing by Worcester (at Kidderminster), Gloucester (at Cheltenham) and Hayes & Yeading (at Maidenhead).  The list becomes instantly incomplete again at the start of 2015-16, for example with a new ground for FC United of Manchester.
Pre-match preparation
The teams finished 4th and 5th respectively behind champions Barrow in the regular season.  The playoff semi-finals in this league are two-leggers and Chorley overcame Boston United on penalties after a very dramatic 95th-minute equaliser (an overhead kick too) which took the game to extra-time.  Chorley had been two goals down.  Meanwhile, Guiseley were impressively beating AFC Fylde home-and-away.  The league fixtures were both fairly recent and resulted in narrow home wins.  At the same stage of last season, Chorley were coming up from Step 3 as Northern Premier League champions and Guiseley were losing to Altrincham in the Conference North playoff final. In the language of the week, this one is too close to call
This match in one sentence
The archetypal game of two halves, and Chorley will point to the three enforced defensive substitutions as a big factor in the turning of the tide.
So what?
Step 1 Conference National for Guiseley
The drama unfolds
The ground filled up early.  I hadn’t realised that the match would be segregated and I entered a Guiseley gate.  As it happened I got lucky with my positioning for this dramatic game.  Fantastic for the passing neutral.  My scene-setter clip starts with the opening goal from the first corner of the game, and by the way, this is a splendid ground of character and characters.  Dale Whitham’s corner is headed in by Andy Teague and the lino confirms that the ball was over the line as keeper Steven Drench can only push it into the top of the net.  Chorley (the Magpies) are in black-and-white.  1-0 after 5 mins Guiseley were looking shaky in defence and there were more shaky clearances before suddenly Chorley’s keeper Sam Ashton was called into action for the first time.  Chorley looked dangerous from every set-piece and another header from Teague was correctly disallowed for offside.  The second goal, as they say, was coming – it arrived when Paul Jarvis received the ball on the left flank, cut inside to beat a defender and then score with the aid of a deflection.  2-0 after 24 mins Chorley were dominant and it took at least one more decent save from Drench to prevent further damage before the interval.  I wrote a note to myself wondering if the real Guiseley would turn up for the second half – by now they had already needed to take striker Oli Johnson off.  2-0 at half-time I had the camera ready for Guiseley’s first corner in the second half and was very surprised to see it taken as an outswinger by a right-footer. However, they did get back in the game with a route one goal, after Chorley had lost both goalscorers Teague and Jarvis to injury. Adam Boyes produced a great first touch to control a dropping ball and score.  2-1 after 56 mins When keeper Ashton was also forced off, to be replaced by Aaron Grundy, you feared for Chorley.  I filmed the next Guiseley set-piece, this time an inswinger and almost the equaliser, but the clip is most notable for what happens to one Guiseley spectator just behind the goal… The equaliser duly arrived with a header from Liam Dickinson.  2-2 after 73 mins The winner was scored by another Guiseley sub, Nicky Boshell, sparking scenes of jubilation at the away end and probably a feeling of growing inevitability at the other.  2-3 after 78 mins Guiseley survived most of the remaining time easily enough and had chances for a fourth, but Chorley made one final push as the game entered six minutes of injury time.  They came so, so close as sub Matt Flynn’s header hit the woodwork.  Jack Dorney’s shot was saved easily by Drench, and here is the moment of the final whistle.  Final score 2-3 The excellent Chorley website says that Harry Winter was red-carded after the final whistle but I have no insight into that.  The hosts waited on the pitch patiently and respectfully until a shambles of a presentation was finally completed.  As is traditional in these matters, a man in a suit could not get out of the way in time of the first burst of bubbly.  Well done to Guiseley, commiserations to Chorley.  I hope that plenty more hoppers turn up to visit your ground.
Ground Pix
Match Pix
1st half: Teague's effort disallowed Jarvis mobbed after scoring the second Chorley goal 1st half: Drench keeps the deficit down to two 2nd half: Dickinson celebrates the equaliser
Something You Might Not Get in the Premier League Next Season*
Magpies... *satire
Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats
Sky Blue 2-3 Purple and there will be an end-of-season final table.  Chorley had two blue ones today.   Ashton is helped to the dugout and Grundy takes over.
Soapbox Section
I really ought to make a political statement here in this week of all weeks.  Looks like we are in for another period where competition between human beings and their organisations is more important than collaboration.  This, of course, works for some.  Like today, there will be winners and losers.  In my professional life, all I can now say to the “kids of today” is that in the next decade it will be more important than ever to get control of your adult life through being flexible, educated and qualified.  No-one is going to cover the costs of your lifestyle or even your basic needs by paying taxes for you.  You will need to sort yourself out.  If you have interpersonal skills, good communication, abilities in maths and sciences, you will be fine because you can join the winners.  Speaking more than one language will help.  Then your generation, in turn, can decide how best to ignore the rest like this one has now done.  Democracy got selfish in my lifetime, I reckon.
What Next?
Follow @GrahamYapp on Twitter for details!  I will be going to the Scottish Cup Final between Inverness Caledonian Thistle and Falkirk at the end of the month, and I usually find some late drama in the Essex Olympian League in mid-May!