Five-One to the Albions

  

Hopperational Details
Dates & Venues	Saturday 6 January 2024 at The Vestacare Stadium Sunday 7 January 2024 at The Hawthorns
Results	Avro FC 0 Witton Albion 1 West Bromwich Albion 4 Aldershot Town 1
Competition	Sat: Northern Premier League D1 West (Step 4) Sun: FA Cup Round 3
Hopstats	Saturday finds me at ground 773 on the lifetime list, and here because Avro made an early Game On declaration giving me enough time to make the journey north. Mind you, I needn’t have worried – this is a 3G surface. Sunday is a rite-of-passage game for the Yapps. I take over the Grandad role (which means a pocket full of half-time sweets) and join my son and grandson for the latter’s first-ever game. Three generations staying true to the family roots.
Context
Avro are performing very well in their first Step 4 season but maybe of late have struggled to convert draws to wins. Witton Albion are mid-table. West Bromwich Albion are in the Championship play-off positions but are likely to field a side of squad players for the FA Cup game against National League Aldershot. Aldershot have seen off Lewes, Swindon Town and Stockport County in earlier rounds. The Swindon game was a remarkable 7-4 scoreline, with the Shots having been 7-0 up.
In One Sentence Each
Witton Albion edged a very close encounter with a first-half goal, but were pushed to the end. West Bromwich Albion had a comfortable win built on two early goals, Aldershot’s consolation coming at the very end of stoppage time.
So What?
Avro drop to 5th but remain in the play-off places. Witton are three points behind, in 9th. WBA will await the fourth-round draw and Aldershot will concentrate on the FA Trophy in the first instance with a trip to Bishop’s Stortford next weekend.
Match Report : Avro v Witton
The only goal of the game came after 14 minutes. It was a really good finish by Harry Brazel. The ball sat up nicely for a first time low shot into the left corner. These two evenly-matched and well-organised sides then largely cancelled each other out. Witton’s keeper Ollie Martin made one block with his foot and his opposite number James Coates prevented a second Witton goal with a spectacular flying save as the first half ended. The second half started with chances at either end, but gradually Avro’s urgency started to dominate. Witton looked very solid in defence until 69 minutes had passed when Martin made the first of two exceptional saves in quick succession. This was a diving stop with a strong left arm. Avro continued to get the ball into the area and there were a couple of games of pinball which could easily have produced the equaliser. With eight minutes to go the floodlights went out and I wondered whether I would end up having to make this long journey again. My personal groundhopping rules have not yet been tested with an abandonment! Fortunately, illumination was soon restored, the Avro pressure was renewed and the Witton defences did enough. This was a very hard-earned three points for the visitors.
Ground Pix
The Vestacare Stadium has a good deal of character about it, with various types of locations for watching the game. Watch the potholes in the car park if you are coming for an evening game in the dark, though!
Match Pix
Avro in the black and blue stripes.
Match Report : WBA v Aldershot
This game has been well-covered in the mainstream media so I will merely add that the main interest was in the promising performances of a number of young debutants and squad players. The result wasn’t really in doubt once the Baggies were three up after half an hour. Tom Fellows on the right flank had been doing most of the damage, albeit in lots of space that he was allowed by the defence. The first goal was a peach of a finish from Nathaniel Chalobah. The second was a gift for Jovan Malcolm, and the third was a powerful instinctive finish from an inadvertent loose ball by Daryl Dike. This was Dike’s return from serious injury and he did not reappear for the second half. The visiting fans, not unreasonably it has to be said, gleefully gave us a rendition of, “Is this a Library?”. Fellows had to wait until the 88th minute before getting his name on the scoresheet and there was still time for a consolation for Aldershot’s Ollie Bray which took a bit of gloss off the result. Much of the game was played at training ground pace, and Albion conceded a fair bit of possession in the second half, playing on the break. Caleb Taylor looked comfortable on the right side of the back three in his second appearance, and there were five WBA debutants all told. The only one who won’t want to see the highlights again is Layton Love, who skied a good chance when through on the break. Job done, though, and we were at pains to point out to my grandson that … It. Is. Not. Always. Like. This. At. The. Albion.
Ground Pix
Tony Brown, Albion legend of 60s & 70s Boiler Man, current Albion legend. Or laughing stock. Fair play to Aldershot who filled the Smethwick End with 5700 fans
Match Pix
Aldershot in red.
Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats Update
Usually accompanied by a pre-match prediction on Threads just before kickoff. Working towards being able to compute a respectable test of statistical significance, it looks like an Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) test will be appropriate. The full keeper top performance table from my last 289 matches is here, on this separate page, and I’ll organise the test when we reach 300 pieces of evidence. This weekend Pink lost to Yellow on Saturday and Grey beat Green on Sunday. Pre-match Prediction based on Keeper Top Colour: Predictions: Home Win & Home Win Was the prediction correct? No (Sat) & Yes (Sun) % of correct predictions so far 48% (69 from 144)
What Next?
Unsure because we are in the weather-dependent segment of the season. I have to be in the Midlands again next weekend and will look to pick off another one of my 21 target Step 4 grounds if I can. My next chance to tick off Plymouth Parkway to complete Step 3 is not until the following week.

Witton Wisdom of the North

Hopperational Details
Date & Venue	Saturday 26 September 2020 at the Neuven Stadium
Result	Radcliffe 1 Witton Albion 4
Competition	Northern Premier League (Step 3)
Hopstats	Ground 713 on the lifetime list, and if anyone asks I was here for an eye test. Radcliffe and Witton sounds a bit like a northern independent optician chain. This completes Step 3 for me, but there are some new grounds higher up the pyramid.
Context
Third competitive game of the season for both clubs. Witton have lost both (one league, one FA Cup). Radcliffe lost their opening league game but had a remarkable 5-3 comeback FA Cup win over Workington in midweek.
In One Sentence
Ruthless and streetwise display from Witton, as a first-half hat-trick from Scott Bakkor secured the points.
So What?
Too early to say. I don’t believe in having league tables this soon!
Match Report
The grey-haired player warming up for Witton looked familiar and a quick search reminded me that Steve McNulty (ex Luton and Tranmere among others) had signed. Witton were two up before he’d had too much to do. Scott Bakkor’s first goal was an unstoppable shot from long range in the fifth minute and it was the second chance for the visitors who had started very impressively. He got his second with a low shot into the corner after only nine minutes and Radcliffe were stunned. They reacted well and created a chance, drawing a double save by Chris Renshaw in the Witton goal. The second shot was from an offside position though he wouldn’t have known that. In fact, Renshaw was quite busy and Radcliffe had already shown this week that a two-goal deficit is not insurmountable. It was interesting to watch McNulty at work, organising others and reading the game so as to be in the right place at the right time. Just after the half-hour he mistimed a header that went straight up in the air, but he did enough to challenge for the second ball and the subsequent clearance went down the centre to Bakkor who was through one-on-one. He rounded the keeper Cameron Belford to the right and completed a notable first-half treble. Renshaw was called upon again to save, this time with his feet after a mazy direct run by Jean Louis Akpa-Akpro. I made a note that this first half had not been as one-sided as the score suggests, but Witton had been clinical. Half-time: Radcliffe 0 Witton Albion 3 The second half was less explosive until the last few minutes. There was no need for Witton to take any risks, and Radcliffe still failed to find a cutting edge. They went close from a Matty Crothers freekick which clipped the top right of the crossbar but also had to clear a Witton effort off their line. Radcliffe finally got on the scoresheet with ten minutes left, as Crothers scored from another direct free kick. Any hope of another comeback was extinguished by a defensive slip. Belford did well with an initial save from sub Steven Tames but the rebound fell to Will Jones who had an empty net in front of him. Belford had more work to do before the end, with two more decent saves in stoppage time. Good, entertaining game for the passing neutral.
Match Pix
Radcliffe in blue.
Ground Pix
Many groundhoppers like old-school character and personality for their ticks and this place has plenty. I’m a big fan of standard front doors appearing in random places, and people watching over the walls from their adjacent gardens. This club felt welcoming and friendly from the moment of arrival.
The Covid Commentary
Today was less of a risk for me personally than a normal day in my school workplace, where I spend two hours at a time in the company of teenagers, albeit very sensible ones and in a well-ventilated room. I can again give a club credit for doing its best. There was signage, there were announcements, there were one-way systems, there were seat markings, there were advanced online tickets linked to track and trace details. However, yet again there was a significant degree of non-compliance among the largely male crowd in attendance. A PA request to socially distance more adjacent to the bar area got a partial response, and this is the first time I’ve seen a club making an extra effort to enforce the expectations. I felt absolutely fine at a personal level. I had my own space and everyone was courteous. As with all matches I have attended this season, people are in effect making their own friend-and-family bubbles. Any government official looking on today would never suggest going beyond 500 or so for any football match. The photos I took today are representative of what is really happening all over the country. On the drive home, I heard Chris Sutton on BBC 606 asking why more spectators can’t be allowed to watch football under socially distanced conditions. The answer, Chris, is that sadly there is no evidence whatsoever that football fans would respect the expectations, even when the club does everything to make it easily possible to comply. Anything more than this kind of number would come into even more close contact on their journeys to the ground and in the pre-match pubs and fast-food places. I can imagine that the lower league season could go on like this almost indefinitely, and without getting too much into the science (but track down my Facebook page if you want to see more commentary) I just cannot see bigger numbers being allowed back into the professional leagues this season. I hope I’m wrong, but if what I am seeing at lower league football is typical, and taking this alongside the emerging picture from schools and universities, then we should be headed for a no-alternative two-week circuit-breaker lockdown in October so that politically less acceptable decisions can be avoided around Christmas.
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 214 matches is here, on this separate page. Today, Purple loses to Radioactive Bile and drops one place in the table, but neither gets a clean sheet bonus. The prediction success rate dips below 50% once again. Pre-match Prediction based on Keeper Top Colour: Prediction: Home Win Was the prediction correct? No % of correct predictions so far 49% (34 from 69) 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! My priorities will be Brentford, Gloucester City, York City and Boston United but these may not be possible anytime soon. I have fourteen Step 4 grounds left to complete, not including Guernsey who are taking a year out of competition, and there is a chance of ticking one of them next weekend in the FA Cup. Which one may depend on clarification about spectators from the FA, for those who are hosting a Step 2 side, and of course on ticket availability.

The Witton Wisdom of a Groundhopper

The floodlights of Northwich Victoria in the background (though the Vics have been displaced to be tenants at Stafford Rangers at the moment)

Hopperational details
Date & Venue	Tuesday 1 January 2013 at the Help for Heroes Stadium
Result	Witton Albion 2 Nantwich Town 2
Competition	Northern Premier League (Step 3)
Hopping	Number 501 on the lifetime list, and one of my priorities for the season, leaving me 12 more (8 Northern and 4 Southern) to complete all current English grounds to step 3.  I’m here because of an early “game on” tweet from the club.
Pre-match preparation
This is likely to be a keenly contested game between local rivals – Witton play in Wincham on the outskirts of Northwich.  Witton are in the divisional playoff positions and Nantwich are just outside - five points separate them.  Nantwich are unbeaten in five league games but have not played for almost a month.  Witton won their last league game back in the middle of December.
This match in one sentence
Hard-fought and sometimes forgettable, as Nantwich battled back twice to take a point and keep the unbeaten run alive with a late freekick.
So what?
Witton are 4th and Nantwich are 8th in the league.
The drama unfolds
There was not much to note for the first 15 minutes other than a midfield stalemate while I sipped my mulled wine.  Mulled wine!  A first for this hopper, and very good it was too.  I eventually took a scene-setter clip at around the midpoint of the first half, and I offer it as an addition to the world’s stock of cures for insomnia. There was plenty of effort, a bit of suspicion about how the ball behaved in certain areas of the pitch, and a bit of niggle too.  On 25 minutes, Nantwich defender Darren Moss did well to outmuscle Shaun Tuck as he had to turn on to his right foot, so the chance was snuffed out.  Then Witton’s Steve Foster appeared (from a distance) to put his foot in on the prone Nantwich keeper Jon Brain (There was definitely foot movement but I couldn’t tell you whether there was any contact or whether the keeper has been watching too many episodes of Casualty.)  The ref felt strongly enough to both book him and have a word with his captain Josh Hancock.  More niggle ensued. Brain made a good block save but then rather flapped at a corner.  Captain Hancock went in the book.  It was all rather mediocre until suddenly Foster stepped up after 44 minutes to curl a lovely right-footer around the goalkeeper.  1-0 at half-time The second half was also dour to begin with, but Witton almost had a second on the hour as a header hit the post with the keeper beaten.  Tuck was also denied, by Rod McDonald this time.  However, Nantwich were never out of it and drew level a few minutes later.  A square ball from the left wing to midfield gave the chance for a superb diagonal through ball from Mark Beesley to Lewis Short, and the latter finished neatly.  1-1 after 71 minutes Chances continued to be few and far between and the home crowd grew rather restless.  Here is a clip from about 80 minutes. Witton put together a few minutes of sustained pressure.  Moss earned his keep again by dealing with a cross from Foster to onrushing sub Alex Meecham.  Hancock turned on a proverbial sixpence and fired just wide.  Then Brain was adjudged to have brought down Foster – penalty and yellow card.  Anthony Gardner calmly scored from the spot.  2-1 after 85 minutes Witton then went down to ten men as Foster was dismissed and the conditions suddenly worsened.  Here are a couple of clips from Nantwich trying to get back on level terms – the third one has Sean Cooke’s freekick from which they succeeded, and the last one shows how they almost nicked the win.    2-2 after 89 minutes and at full-time
The programme
Something random
The Witton Albion club museum is just wonderful – far and away the most organised and loved display of memorabilia I have seen on my travels.  Here are some pics to give the sense of awe and wonder.  I don't know enough about the club to understand the significance of some of the items but I was so impressed with what has been put together.
Hopping for Moorfields Update
Four goals taking us to 129 goals in 39 games at an average of 3.31.
Mars Bar Watch 2013
A new blog feature for this year.  I feel the nation needs to know whether there are regional variations in the supply and pricing of this important hopping staple, and how to recognise cases of Mars Bar mistreatment or exploitation. Witton Albion FC Snack Bar – 60p (1/1/13) Good undamaged condition.  An early benchmark for this vital research.  It must also be said that there were plentiful supplies of pies at this ground, which I may have sampled depending on who is asking.
What Next?
Follow @GrahamYapp for any announcements!