Skelmersdale Almost Force a Draw at Greenfields

Hopperational Details
Date & Venue	Saturday 24 November 2018 at Greenfields Sports Ground
Result	Market Drayton Town 2 Skelmersdale United 1
Competition	Northern Premier League Division One West (Step 4)
Hopstats	This is ground number 666 on the lifetime list and I am here randomishly because of the specific symmetric properties of a cat-feeding mat that was drawn to my attention yesterday.  All is covered in the preceding blogpost, and arises because I had exactly 17 grounds from which to choose.  There happen to be exactly 17 distinct ways of combining elements of symmetry (such as rotation and reflection) to create a repeating pattern in two dimensions – they are known as plane symmetry groups, or “wallpaper groups”.  I always wanted this blog to be "different", so there.  Here’s the mat in question with rhombic unit cell, mirror lines and centres of 2-fold rotational symmetry marked up. Many thanks to @ThrstleFantstic for playing along on Twitter yesterday, and @ianshillaker1 for another image a few moments later which became my reserve.
Context
Neither team in good form – 14th plays 20th.
In one sentence
The home side held on for the win after a late dismissal but they had wasted several chances earlier in the game.
So what?
MDT up to 11th, Skelmersdale stay 20th with a gap of four points.
Match Report
MDT took the game to their visitors in the early stages and the tone was set by Glynn Coney hurdling a flying Skelmersdale tackle and crossing the ball from the left.  Daniel Beddows was arriving from midfield headed the ball firmly but wide.  So it continued with plenty of home chances with the occasional visitor break.  One of these needed a magnificent old-school tackle to prevent a shot on goal – and to be fair to the attacker, he took a moment to recover before just getting up and getting on with it. MDT took the lead after 20 minutes.  I was at the other end at the time, but could see that Skelmersdale keeper Terry Smith had come off his line to block an incursion into the left edge of the area but was then unable to stop an incoming shot from a wide position by Charlie Knowles.  The home side were caught asleep defensively though within two minutes.  On their first attack from the restart, Will Dunne scored an equaliser with a crisp shot from the edge of the area, untroubled by any challenge. Incredibly, MDT nearly scored again immediately as Skelmersdale themselves lost concentration for a moment, but soon after, with 26 minutes on the clock, they cut through the centre of the defence to retake the lead through Jud Ellis. My half-time note was to the effect that MDT deserved their lead but had been somewhat wasteful in front of goal and might regret that later.  As it happened, there were no more goals in the second half.  Knowles hit the bar, and then shot wide having been teed up by Ellis.  MDT continued to press, but as the game wore on maybe they tired or started defending deeper, and Skelmersdale were definitely showing ambition for a second equaliser.  It was end-to-end high-effort stuff, but both sides lacked precision in their final pass. It also became somewhat tetchy and the card-count increased.  A foul on an MDT player was loudly proclaimed from the bench as an “assault” and they had the ball in the net, but disallowed, from the resulting set-piece.  With about ten minutes to go, something happened at the far end that led to raising of hands, pushing and shoving, and a delay of a few minutes.  The outcome of the officials’ conference was more yellows and a red for MDT’s Lyndon Campbell. This meant a few nervy minutes of hanging on for MDT, but they managed it.  Probably a fair result overall but other clubs would be unwise to think of Skelmersdale (under relatively new management) as on their way to relegation.
Pix
Interesting ground for the hopper fraternity – all neat and tidy with clearly labelled facilities (think 1970s Batman TV series - but with a "catapostrophe" for you to spot), good views, friendly people, nice clubhouse.  Well worth a Shropshire diversion even if at times the players and the dugouts between them were making all the noise.  MDT in red.
Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats
New this season – a pre-match prediction based only on keeper top colours as a preliminary test of the data.  Proper statistical significance test to follow in due course. Today, as expected, Blue beats Orange.  However, no clean sheets and no change in the league table positions. Pre-match Prediction based on Keeper Top Colour: Prediction: Home Win Was the prediction correct? Yes % of correct predictions so far 68% (15 from 22) 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. For new readers the odd .5 was caused by a shocking half-and-half shirt and the .1 was due to a substitute goalkeeper 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 that orange is the best colour for a goalkeeper because it changes the behaviour of other players around the box.  It may not be statistically significant as yet, but football coverage ignores this point as a matter of routine. P W D L GC CS Pts PPG Red 10.0 5.0 1.0 4.0 11.0 3.0 20.0 2.000 Blue 41.1 19.0 7.0 15.1 57.0 14.0 77.0 1.873 Grey 48.5 23.0 10.0 15.5 79.5 14.0 69.5 1.433 Green 86.0 43.0 11.0 32.0 145.0 22.0 105.0 1.221 Fire Cracker 3.0 1.0 0.0 2.0 6.0 1.0 2.0 0.667 Maroon 5.0 2.0 1.0 2.0 9.0 1.0 3.0 0.600 Purple 19.0 8.0 3.0 8.0 41.0 5.0 11.0 0.579 Orange 42.5 13.0 8.0 21.5 80.5 6.0 -3.5 -0.082 Radioactive Bile 21.0 9.0 0.0 12.0 45.0 3.0 -3.0 -0.143 Yellow 33.0 9.0 7.0 17.0 70.0 5.0 -11.0 -0.333 Pink 17.0 5.0 5.0 7.0 35.0 1.0 -10.0 -0.588 Black 6.0 2.0 3.0 1.0 15.0 0.0 -6.0 -1.000 White 1.9 0.0 0.0 1.9 4.0 0.0 -4.0 -2.105
What Next?
Follow @GrahamYapp on Twitter!  36 Step 4 grounds left to go until I reach my next personal landmark of “The 388” (everywhere in England in the top eight tiers of the game).

Dynamo Charge Positively Around a Field and Stay Up

Hopperational details
Date & Venue	Saturday 22 April 2017 at The Nanpantan Sports Ground
Result	Loughborough Dynamo 4 Market Drayton Town 1
Competition	Northern Premier League Division One South (Step 4)
Hopping	Number 611 on the lifetime list.  Here because my Step 3 target grounds are all too far away for a term-time trip, and this is a game with a lot at stake.  At this stage of the season I tend to be a game-hopper as much as a groundhopper.  I much prefer the contest to have some possible significance.
Pre-match preparation
A run of three road wins, two of which were over relegation rivals, has given Loughborough the chance of a Great Escape.  Basically, they will stay up if they win, whatever happens elsewhere.  If they lose or draw, then the result from Rugby Town v Kidsgrove becomes relevant.  Rugby Town (a point behind at start of play but with an uncatchable favourable goal difference) need to do better than Loughborough to stay up.  A home loss here today and Rugby only need a draw, and a draw here means that Rugby would need to win.  I am expecting drama, passion and shouting.  Loughborough will also be encouraged to see that Market Drayton’s goalkeeper has moved to Stafford Rangers this week for some reason.  His replacement, Glynn Coney, has made his previous appearances up front!
This match in one sentence
It took until the second half before Karl Demidh completed his hat-trick to ensure that Dynamo did enough to avoid relegation, and the tension evaporated after an hour or so.
So what?
Loughborough Dynamo stay up, Rugby Town are relegated.  Market Drayton finish in mid-table.
The drama unfolds
It was certainly tense.  Market Drayton started strongly and had the better of the opening half-hour.  It was stop-start stuff, with several free-kicks and two stern ref lectures for visible dissent.  Dynamo were forced into an early substitution, and had just once half-decent chance on the break.  I made a note that Dynamo had weathered the storm just in time for them to concede.  A well-placed glancing header by Daniel Beddows from a right-wing cross was greeted with gloom, especially as the news filtered through that Rugby had the lead against Kidsgrove.  0-1 after 28 mins Fortunately nerves were settled reasonably quickly.  As a home forward burst through on goal, collision with keeper Coney was inevitable.  He escaped with a yellow card, but was powerless to stop Demidh’s excellent placed penalty low to his left.  1-1 after 30 mins I was at the other end when Coney was fouled having dropped the ball, the resulting tap-in being disallowed.  In the end there was nothing else to report either here or at Rugby, so as things stood Loughborough were going down to Step 5.  1-1 at half-time The tide turned a few minutes into the second half.  Dynamo had been more, er… dynamic and got the lead with a slightly lucky goal.  The chance came from good work by full-back Tom Rigby, who beat his man to a clearance and then powered towards the goal before playing in Danny Durkin behind the defence.  His cross may have looped up off a defender’s foot before finding the far corner of the net.  Cue celebrations.  2-1 after 51 mins Dynamo hit the post soon afterwards, which added to the tension at the time but in the end was not an issue.  Twitter confirmed a Kidsgrove equaliser at Rugby and then Demidh curled in a delightful long-range freekick from the left.  Cue wilder celebrations.  3-1 after 61 mins  It got a bit fractious, we had some pushing, some shoving and a melée.  Then Dynamo settled to periods of keep-ball as news filtered through of a second and third goal for Kidsgrove in quick succession.  Demidh completed a hat-trick in the closing moments with a calmly rolled penalty to the left this time.  Cue, well you know.  I left them to it and headed back to the M1.  Final score 4-1
Ground Pix
This ground is definitely worth a daylight visit.  Adjacent cricket and bowls too.
Match Pix
Dynamo are in the gold and black.
Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats
Today, a relatively rare appearance and win for Pink over Green.  The table is now based on 108 matches. The story so far: 3pts for a win, 1pt for a draw, -1pt for a goal against (GA) and +5pts for a clean sheet (CS), rank order by Points per Game (PPG) P W D L GA CS Pts PPG Red 8.0 4.0 0.0 4.0 8.0 3.0 19.0 2.38 Blue 28.1 11.0 5.0 12.1 44.0 10.0 44.0 1.57 Maroon 4.0 2.0 1.0 1.0 6.0 1.0 6.0 1.50 Grey 39.5 19.0 8.0 12.5 64.5 11.0 55.5 1.41 Green 53.0 26.0 7.0 20.0 89.0 15.0 71.0 1.34 Orange 20.5 7.0 4.0 9.5 29.5 5.0 20.5 1.00 Purple 10.0 5.0 2.0 3.0 22.0 2.0 5.0 0.50 Yellow 23.0 6.0 6.0 11.0 46.0 4.0 -2.0 -0.09 Radioactive Bile 11.0 4.0 0.0 7.0 24.0 1.0 -7.0 -0.64 Pink 12.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 26.0 1.0 -8.0 -0.67 Black 5.0 1.0 3.0 1.0 14.0 0.0 -8.0 -1.60 White 1.9 0.0 0.0 1.9 4.0 0.0 -4.0 -2.11
What Next?
No definite plans, so follow @GrahamYapp on Twitter for details!