Battering Rams

 

Hopperational Details
Date & Venue	Saturday 12 September 2020 at Southwood Stadium
Result	Ramsgate 0 Chipstead 3
Competition	FA Cup Preliminary Round
Hopstats	Happy Birthday to the blog itself! Modus Hopper Random took its first tentative steps on Friday 10 September 2010, announcing its own birth just before heading out to Witney United v Kidlington. The match report followed two days later after I got to grips with the Blogger interface, and I’m pleased that the tradition of punning in the post title has been maintained ever since, along with some tongue-in-cheekiness. This is ground 711 on the lifetime list and I am here non-randomly because the club made tickets available online in plenty of time.
Context
Not much that can be said as it is the first competitive game of the season for both these Step 4 Isthmian League sides. Ramsgate are in the South-East and Chipstead are in the South-Central divisions respectively. The league seasons start next week, all being well.
In One Sentence
Competence from Chipstead and below par from Ramsgate, and in the end a comfortable win.
So What?
Ramsgate concentrate on the league, Chipstead are in the hat for the next round, and any other clichés applicable in this situation.
Pre-match Entertainment
On arrival in the town, a few miles around the harbour and along the promenade, taking in the uniquely English seaside vibe. Very pleasant, it has to be said. Trivia: Smack Boys were mostly from the workhouse and were the apprentices on the fishing vessels, known as smacks. At the ground, my first bacon baguette in six months followed by a bit of hanging around a cage at a safe distance from the youngsters watching Jack Downer aka Street Panna (he’s an influencer just like me (cough) except with 185x more followers and better hair) demonstrating his nutmeggery tekkers. I also observed sterling work by the club’s mascot. Now there was a man not at ease with his costume on a very warm day, but he stuck to his task – and his trousers – well. Street Panna (Jack Downer) makes some more links
Match Report
The first half was soporific and forgettable in the warm sunshine. One Chipstead shot was beaten away, and some of the supporters started discussing politics instead. I heard the raised voices before I realised the context. It didn’t go well, and I have more to say on this below. On the pitch, at last there was some football action of note with virtually the last kick of the half. Tom Collins was fouled and hit the bar with the resulting freekick. The rebound ended up with a chance taken by Spencer Cripps to open the scoring. Half-time: Ramsgate 0 Chipstead 1 Chipstead killed the game off more or less with two more goals before the hour mark. A bouncing ball caused defensive problems for Ramsgate. Again Collins was involved in challenging for the initial cross, and the ball popped up for Jack Beadle to loop a gentle header over the keeper and over the line. Within two minutes, the best goal of the day, and annoyingly for Ramsgate scored on the break after they had at last threatened something themselves. Sam Bell, who was frequently the outlet for Chipstead attacking moves on the right flank, broke clear into a good central position and buried the shot.  That was more or less game over, but still with time for Oliver Pain to save a Ramsgate penalty by diving to his right. The home side will have to have better days when the league season starts up.
Pix
This is a fantastic venue with an old-school feel. Ramsgate in red.
Opinion
Congratulations to Ramsgate FC for taking the chance to spruce up the ground before the start of the season. The stewarding and signage was very good, and very sensible and clear one-way systems were in operation for the refreshments. I arrived early and the ground was already alive with two children’s matches and street-soccer activity in the two cages at one end of the ground. It felt very warm and vibrant. Ticketing arrangements had been very good too, and I generally felt safe and uncompromised in relation to hygiene and social distancing. The manager gave an interview over the PA before kickoff and made a point of welcoming the supporters and especially the large number of youngsters in attendance. At a couple of points during the match, the club was let down somewhat by the unchallenged behaviour of some of its supporters. Two grown men got into a very loud political argument lasting several minutes and their language, unparliamentary shall we say, was embarrassing. They have the right to hold their opinions of course but the rest of us, including the large number of youngsters in the vicinity, should not have to put up with that. The debate technique consisted of shouting and swearing loudly until the other participant gave up and walked off. I also watched a bunch of youngsters deliberately discard and crush their drinks cans, leaving them on the floor for someone else to clear up with a bin no more than ten paces away. In days gone by I might have said something in both cases, as I would in my workplace of course, but in 2020 and at the age of 62 I feel less inclined to put myself into those situations in public. It just takes a bit of the shine off the day. Mr Shouty was very concerned about protecting English culture from the invaders. If this is representative of it he can keep it, and the club and its excellent army of volunteers deserves better. As at all of the matches I’ve attended this season, spectators were largely considerate of spacing to other people but are clearly paying scant attention to social distancing in their chosen friend-and-family groups. Certainly among the dozens of youngsters watching the cage action, there was no evidence of social distancing or of relevant parental expectation. As for me, I felt safe enough and would go again because it was possible for me to err on the side of caution and find open spaces without being forced into difficult situations.
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 212 matches is here, on this separate page. Today, Blue loses to Purple, and the clean sheet sends Purple several places up the league table. The overall prediction success rate falls below 50% for the first time in 67 games. Pre-match Prediction based on Keeper Top Colour: Prediction: Home Win Was the prediction correct? No % of correct predictions so far 49% (33 from 67) 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 in the direction of the latter.
What Next?
Follow @GrahamYapp on Twitter! If possible I will tick off one of my two remaining Step 3 grounds at Atherton Collieries next weekend.

Merstham Miss 'Em, Ramsgate Get 'Em

In January 2015 I had to accept the reality that the growing demands of my job (I am back in full-time teaching as Head of Science in a large comprehensive school) meant that I could no longer find the hours to travel and blog.  I found myself getting drowsy at the wheel and staying up later and later in midweek to keep up with it all.  It was unsustainable and I had to take a break.  Now I’m trying to make a comeback.  This isn’t a random hop, but it is an impulse trip to a fixture that has some significance for both teams, always a criterion for this end of the season.  If you saw someone marking a set of chemistry exam papers on either First Capital Connect or Southern trains, that was me.  Hope you enjoy the blog – thanks for the messages so far.

Hopperational details
Date & Venue	Friday 3 April 2015 at Moatside
Result	Merstham 0 Ramsgate 2
Competition	Isthmian League D1 South (Step 4)
Hopping	My first match of 2015, ground 556, chosen for travel convenience this time.
Pre-match preparation
Merstham have secured a place in the end-of-season playoffs but cannot catch runaway leaders Burgess Hill, so all that is left in five more league games is the jockeying for home advantage or a preferred opponent in the playoff semi-final.  They are 9pts ahead of Whyteleafe and 4pts behind Folkestone.  On the proverbial paper, this is a home banker against a team in the relegation zone, and three goals today would see Merstham with a league ton. However, this is football of the “soccer” variety and Ramsgate will realise that this is their game in hand on their rivals, and a win will take them out of the red zone.  I think this result is more unpredictable than it looks.  (I promise you I wrote that at 9.00am on the day of the game!)
This match in one sentence
Ramsgate have three vital points from a smash-and-grab road win.
So what?
Not much has really changed for Merstham – in all likelihood they will have an away playoff semi-final at either Folkestone or Faversham.  Ramsgate, however, have a two-point cushion over their relegation rivals.
The drama unfolds
I felt instantly among friends with a mug of coffee served with the ATL logo.  Other teaching unions are available, but ATL is the WTG IMO. A quick look at the teams suggested that Merstham, for the second successive game, were resting or without several of their first choice players.  The spectators waited in respectful silence before KO and it took a while for this game to wake anyone up.  Ramsgate had the first real chance when a looping ball forward fell into no-man’s land and Matt Adams poked the ball past the keeper but on to the post. My scene-setter from 18-20 minutes has a Ramsgate break following a Merstham set-piece.  Merstham are in gold-and-black. On the half-hour, home keeper Brannon Daly got enough behind an awkward shot to scoop it out.  I took a second clip and considered deleting it to be brutally honest, but here it is because it shows the ground from the other side. Daly was in action again in stoppage time with a full-length save, and I was wondering whether Ramsgate would eventually rue these missed chances.  0-0 at half-time Merstham imposed themselves on the second half and suddenly looked much the stronger team.  Ramsgate sub Scott Punton made a last-ditch clearance, a rebound from another clearance went just wide, and visiting keeper Adam Highsted made a good save after a mazy run and shot by Tauren Roberts.  However, Ramsgate got the vital first goal.  Chris Elliott whipped in a free-kick left-footed from the right flank.  It came off defender Junior Kaffo for an own-goal – Daly could only parry the deflection in off the bar.  Irony alert all round since Kaffo had been the hero last time out with the goal that secured the playoff spot.  0-1 after 65 min Ramsgate sub Tom Chapman led several breaks as Merstham piled forward.  Punton was in the right place for a magnificent short-range block with 10 mins to go, and I took a clip of some of Merstham’s increasingly frantic efforts. With just over a minute to go, a freekick sent Ramsgate’s Joe Taylor into the corner.  Instead of holding it there, he seemed to catch the home defence out with a ball into the six-yard box and Adams finished neatly with a first touch.  That, ladies and gentlemen, is a road win to savour.  0-2 after 88 mins and at full-time
Ground Pix
No-one is keen to get this ball back!
Match Pix
Something You Don’t Get in the Premier League
PL is more about Bentleys than Rollers
Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats
Green beats blue and takes a clean sheet to jump over Grey into second place, and still no interest whatsoever from Opta. The full story so far since this quasi-statistical nonsense began: 3pts for a win, 1pt for a draw, -1pt for a goal conceded and +5pts for a clean sheet P W D L GA (-1 each) CS (+5 each) Pts Pts per Game Purple 5.0 3.0 1.0 1.0 9.0 2.0 11.0 2.20 Green 22.0 11.0 2.0 9.0 27.0 7.0 43.0 1.95 Grey 23.5 10.0 7.0 6.5 31.5 7.0 40.5 1.72 Maroon 4.0 2.0 1.0 1.0 6.0 1.0 6.0 1.50 Red 4.0 2.0 0.0 2.0 5.0 1.0 6.0 1.50 Blue 10.0 3.0 3.0 4.0 16.0 3.0 11.0 1.10 Orange 7.5 2.0 2.0 3.5 10.5 2.0 7.5 1.00 Yellow 10.0 2.0 4.0 4.0 19.0 2.0 1.0 0.10 Radioactive Bile 6.0 2.0 0.0 4.0 12.0 0.0 -6.0 -1.00 Pink 7.0 1.0 3.0 3.0 16.0 0.0 -10.0 -1.43 Black 1.0 0.0 1.0 0.0 3.0 0.0 -2.0 -2.00
Soapbox Section
Nothing from me this week. The nation has too many people on soapboxes at the moment.  Just don’t get me started on school places, teacher workload, league tables, Ofsted, 11-plus selection and the scandalous regional variation in Mars Bar prices.
What Next?
Watch @GrahamYapp on Twitter for details!  Maybe something else tomorrow, but almost certainly Cambridge United v Accrington next Saturday as an unofficial extra as part of my return to Selwyn College, 40 years after pitching up as a wide-eyed 17-year old to start a degree in Natural Sciences.  More about my soft spot for Cambridge United in due course.