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

Three Goals and Three Points

 

Hopperational Details
Date & Venue	Sunday 7 May at Leigh Sports Village
Result	Manchester United 3 Tottenham Hotspur 0
Competition	Women’s Super League
Hopstats	Ground 767 on the lifetime list.
Context
Manchester United women are top of the table and, were they to win all of their last few games, can only be overtaken by Chelsea who have games in hand. They will see this as a must-win fixture. Spurs women are in mid-table.
In One Sentence
Once Beth England had been thwarted early on, United settled into a good pattern and the result was never in doubt after the first goal had gone in.
So What?
The gap between United and Chelsea remains the same because the latter thumped Everton later in the day. Chelsea are four points behind with two games in hand. The fact that Manchester City lost at Liverpool now means that United are guaranteed a place in European competition next season.
Match Report
The game was preceded by an embarrassingly botched attempt at the national anthem. When the piped audio failed to work, the crowd on my side began their own almost tuneless rendition, which petered out just as a completely different part of the recording became audible, and we descended into laughter. Insert your own metaphor for the nation right here. Given that the match was televised, I’m going to be brief. Manchester United took the initiative but the first real chance came for Spurs’ Beth England. It took a great intervention by Maya Le Tissier after England had rounded keeper Mary Earps. Later on we would be wondering, “What if…?” because it wasn’t to be the visitors’ only chance to get on the scoresheet. United were two up at half time, with Spurs showing almost no more attacking impact other than a break just before the interval. The scorers were Leah Galton, seizing on a defensive error and rolling the ball into the far corner, and Alessia Russo, volleying in a loose ball from close range. Emma Toone caught the eye for her industry, always ready to receive the ball and play progressively. Nikita Parris added a third goal after the interval with a good finish after some defensive hesitation, and with the points secure, it began to resemble a training game, maybe with players thinking about next week’s Wembley visit for the Cup Final. I managed a couple of Duolingo Spanish lessons on and off during the various stoppages and substitutions. Earps was called upon to complete a fine double block to protect the clean sheet but all in all this was as close to a straightforward, routine victory that any team could wish for at this end of the season. Beth England had headed wide, and there was another set piece that went through the six-yard box untouched. Apparently, England manager Sarina Weigman was among the spectators. I’d love to know what she gleaned from the experience, if anything.
A Few Pix
Modern ground, good facilities, very professional and readable programme. I parked in Leigh town centre, about 15-20 minutes away on foot.
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 272 matches is here, on this separate page. Today, Blue beats Orange, as expected, and keeps a clean sheet. Pre-match Prediction based on Keeper Top Colour: Prediction: Home Win Was the prediction correct? Yes % of correct predictions so far 45% (57 from 127) 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! I have three more women’s fixtures lined up with Chelsea v Leicester on Wednesday, the Women’s FA Cup Final at Wembley between Chelsea and Manchester United at the weekend, and then another key WSL fixture in West Ham v Chelsea. Later in the month there will be FA Vase/FA Trophy Finals at Wembley (Newport Pagnell Town v Ascot United & Gateshead v FC Halifax Town). As I write, I am in a 40-minute online queue for the National League playoff final between Notts County and Chesterfield. I’m getting a few games in because some of my students are now in the exam season so I work fewer hours per week at this time of year. If you are in one of my classes, and reading this, cease and desist immediately and get back to revision...