Last-Eight Leiston Leave it Late

Hopperational details
Date & Venue	Saturday 12 February 2011 at Victory Road
Result	Leiston 2 Long Buckby 1
Competition	FA Vase Round 5.  These two clubs play their league games at step 5 in the Eastern Counties Premier and United Counties Premier Leagues respectively
Hopping	Venue #371 and the 65th new one for the season
This match in one sentence
Leiston were one down at half-time but came back and then managed to land a late final blow in a hard-fought contest.
So what?
Leiston reach the last eight of this competition for the first time in their history and join Coalville Town, Dunston UTS, King’s Lynn Town, Poole Town, Rye United, Torpoint Athletic and the holders Whitley Bay in the proverbial hat for Monday’s draw.
The drama unfolds
Both sides tried hard to impose themselves on the game in an end-to-end start.  Long Buckby soon began to look physically stronger on a wet pitch.  They had already drawn one sharp save from Leiston’s keeper Jamie Stannard before Fazel Koriya crossed from the right and Ashley Robinson only narrowly missed making connection.  This proved to be a dress rehearsal, as Long Buckby lost the ball on the half-way line, Koriya advanced into the vacant left-back space and crossed low again.  This time Robinson couldn’t miss.  Leiston almost equalised immediately and may have begun to feel that it was not going to be their day.  0-1 at half-time. This first clip captures the end-to-end nature of the game just before the first goal. Leiston started the second half strongly – perhaps a Sizewell-powered nuclear hairdryer had been used by manager Mark Morsley?  Long Buckby began to tire and Leiston began to find space up front.  Nevertheless, their first goal had an element of good fortune.  A right-wing corner from Stuart Boardley ended up in the net when Stephanou tried to palm it away but only deflected it in.  To be honest, I had it down as an o.g. although it was announced that Danny Cunningham had got a touch.  I don’t think so, but 1-1 nevertheless with 20 minutes to go. Leiston’s luckless Michael Brothers then nearly broke the post in half with a shot across the keeper, and we looked at our watches and asked the assistant ref whether we were facing extra time (indeed we were).  At this point, Leiston were well on top and had several more half chances from corners and crosses, as these two clips show. Right on 90 minutes, another Boardley set-piece cross, this time from the left, was bundled in at the far post by home captain David Head.  Cue joyous celebration for a 2-1 scoreline. There was still time for Long Buckby to win a direct free-kick which Greg Ling smacked off the crossbar with Stannard nowhere near.  Fair play to Long Buckby for their contribution to a great day for the passing neutral.  Final score 2-1.
Alternative activity of equal excitement for tourists in Snape
Trust me on this one - go to a concert in the unusual and acoustically astonishing setting of the Snape Maltings Concert Hall, just a few miles away from Leiston and home of the Aldeburgh Music Festival.  I am not a fan of Benjamin Britten and/or Peter Pears myself, but I saw the National Youth Wind Ensemble perform Michael Torke’s “Rapture” here in 2003 with Colin Currie as the percussionist.  Great stuff, the equivalent of extra-time and a 20-19 penalty shootout.
A snippet from the programme
No, Leiston FC, I am giving you some stick for this.  Your so-called “Ladies Page” with two risqué jokes that I would not want as a parent to have to explain to a young child, and one of which is dependent on perceptions of average human penis length, is inappropriate and unfunny.  No place in a football programme in my opinion.
What I learned today
Leiston is the nearest town to the Sizewell B nuclear power station, a pressurised water reactor design that has been active since the mid 90s and is capable of producing around 3% of the nation’s energy needs.  These days, British Energy is part of the EDF group.  Sizewell A is the big ugly concrete thing that is now being decommissioned, and Sizewell B has a distinctive white golfball structure.  Consultations about a Sizewell C are under way. Sizewell A, B (just about visible) and a space for C If you want to read about the technical design of the reactor and read the monthly newsletters (e.g. no-one affected by work related accidents in December 2010 and the staff raised over £2300 for charity) then start with http://www.british-energy.co.uk/pagetemplate.php?pid=96 If you want to see how much the plant has allegedly cost and how much more could be gained from wind power along the east coast, start at http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/nuclear/sizewell-b-the-facts If you need to know about protestors in fish masks highlighting the threat of coastal erosion, try http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/education/sizewell_b_power_station_still_shut_down_1_793360 If, however, you can’t be bothered with energy politics and just want to vote on kitten cuteness there is always http://kittenwar.com/
Something random
Mr Holderness and a melée The referee for this match was Mr Barry Holderness from Essex and he had a decent game as far as I am concerned.  I noticed his pre-match tweet as @BCHREF saying how pleased he was to be appointed to this fixture, and a post-match tweet about how tired he was.  I think a tweeting ref may be a good thing in the interests of balance, so I trust you will all follow.
What Next?
Hopefully a local-ish hop on Tuesday evening.  For the record, I tried to get to Shepshed Dynamo last week but ended up stuck on the M1 northbound for an hour-and-a-half.  I decided not to blog about the Chicken Tikka at Teddington Services.

Doughboys Rising Up

Hopperational details
Date & Venue	Saturday 8 January 2011 at The Dog & Duck
Result	Wellingborough Town 2004 3 Long Buckby 2
Competition	United Counties Premier League (Step 5)
Hopping	Venue #364. I am here because of an early Twitter confirmation by @WoroTownFC that this game was on, the club’s first since 14 December!
This match in one sentence
Fuelled by the perceived injustice of an early penalty given against them, the home side asserted themselves for a great win against their higher-placed visitors.
This match summed up in the style of: John Motson
This five-goal thriller in step 5 of the English non-league structure takes the average number of goals per competitive fixture at this ground this season to exactly 3.5, oh yes. Heh heh.  Michael Boyle-Chong became the first player with a “double”-barrelled surname to score in separate fixtures covered by this blog, taking his tally to “double” figures for the season.
So what?
Wellingborough Town stay in 15th but have games in hand on every team above them, and the top half of the table looks a realistic ambition.  Long Buckby’s second defeat in a row means that they stay 3rd for now but are now unlikely to feature in the final race for the title as St Neots Town tighten their grip on the division.
The drama unfolds
I was right at the other end of the ground when the ref awarded Long Buckby an early penalty to general amazement.  Their attacker was running away from the goal and, according to those nearby, either fell over his own feet and/or the incident was outside the area anyway.  I will never know but the penalty was smacked straight down the middle by Richard Bunting. 0-1. This kind of thing happened a lot in the first half The home side briefly looked in danger of going down to a heavy defeat but gradually got into the game and just before half-time a shot by Michael Boyle-Chong pinged in off the woodwork for a deserved equaliser.  1-1 at HT. Wellingborough took the lead with a cool finish from striker Jason Turner, who has scored in 5 of the last 6 matches. 2-1.  As Long Buckby searched for the equaliser (and to be fair, very nearly had one as several last-ditch blocks in succession kept them out), Simon Underwood popped up from centre-back with an unchallenged header from a set piece.  3-1. Noisy, happy Doughboys on the far side of the main stand Dan Quigley got one back almost immediately, and after a frantic five minutes Wellingborough held on comfortably enough for the last five. Final score 3-2.
Alternative activity of equal excitement for tourists in Wellingborough
Sneak out of your hotel at night and paint a sequence of white footprints along the High Street with a message “I must fly again” at the end.  This is best done in the early hours of 1 April and the locals will be pleased because it has not happened since 1959.
A snippet from the programme
A “Meet the Player” page for Paul “Smudger” Smith reveals that he is 29 and unmarried with no tattoos or piercings, that he drives a Honda Civic Type R and that although honest, he can be moody.  He likes watching anything with cooking on TV.
What I learned today
The club’s nickname of The Doughboys comes from a local delicacy called Ock n’Dough.  If you were to call it Hock and Dough you would immediately reveal yourself as a foreigner.
Something random
No prawn sandwiches round here ... An icon of beauty. The Mona Lisa of burgers. It was unprecedented in my experience to be presented with such a vast menu for a step 5 fixture, and so of course I simply had to tackle a Belly Buster in the public interest.  For the record, it was delicious, and I will probably be hungry again round about Tuesday or Wednesday.  Thanks to burger monster Haydn who watched with good humour as I photographed his creation.