On the Surface, a Fair Result

Hopperational details
Date & Venue	Saturday 22 December 2012 at The Gallagher Stadium
Result	Maidstone United 2 Worthing 2
Competition	Isthmian League Division One South (Step 4)
Hopping	Ground #497 on the lifetime list
Pre-match preparation
Nothing specific – I had originally been expecting to head north today for non-football reasons, but then on this day of umpteen postponements, the chance emerged to head to the newest non-league stadium and its weatherproof artificial surface.
This match in one sentence
The league leaders came back from two goals down to earn a point in a thoroughly entertaining game.
So what?
Maidstone lead the division by two points plus a game in hand, and Worthing are 7th with an eye on the playoff positions.
The drama unfolds
Player ID in this report will be sketchy - I recorded the team announcement from the excellent PA system, or I would have done if I had pressed the "start" button.  Ooops.  So I have been cross-referencing with other sources, as they say.  Thanks to the NLP and the Maidstone website for helping me decipher my notes. Worthing started well, and after only three minutes and their third corner in quick succession, the ball was driven in hard by their number 10.  Jamie Brotherton celebrated as if he had deflected the ball home, but everyone seems to agree today that this was an own goal by Maidstone's Alex Brown.  0-1 after 3 minutes Maidstone had their first sight of goal after 10 minutes, but Alex King was muscled out, and then Brotherton glanced a header just wide at the other end after 15.  Here is my scene-setter clip (Maidstone are in the amber-and-black) which ends with a neat defensive tackle (Tom Mills, I think), and clip 2 follows on immediately. Worthing had edged the half in terms of threat and territory, but their keeper JJ Banasco-Zaragoza almost got embarrassed after coming a long way out of the box to tidy up a long ball.  Fortunately, by the time Maidstone got the ball in midfield, the keeper was back in time to catch the 50yd shot as if nothing had happened.  The league leaders caused a couple of minor tremors in the visiting defence but Worthing held the lead to the interval.  0-1 at half-time I reckon most of the crowd expected Maidstone to come out with dry hair for the second half (so to speak) but actually Worthing went two up with a scruffy goal.  Keeper Deren Ibrahim reacted well to save a deflection but Matt Daniel was in the right place to score from close range.  0-2 after 56min As might be expected, Maidstone made attacking substitutions.  Here's a clip. However, the next notable event was an excellent save by Ibrahim after Worthing exploited the extra space to create a clear shooting chance on the left.  That might, with the benefit of perfect hindsight, have to go down as the hinge point of the game.  Maidstone created their clearest chance so far after 69 minutes when sub Ade Olorunda headed just wide arriving at pace from a right-wing cross, but then they had a goal back with a "route one" goal.  It was a lovely weighted ball, and King's neatly lobbed finish was excellent.  Game on in all senses of the word and the momentum had switched.  1-2 after 70 minutes This clip is from 78 minutes. There was a momentary panic as a curling Worthing free-kick needed another Ibrahim save, and then full-back Steve Metcalf almost scored with a header at the far post.  This would prove costly, because, with my watch showing 85 minutes, this happened.  The scorer is Ade Olorunda.  2-2 after 85 minutes The rain came down hard in stoppage time for my final clip.  Maidstone pressed for the winner but Worthing held on for the point.  Final score 2-2
The programme
Something random
I’ve had a bit of Faroe Islands nostalgia this week, with one of my photos of the ground at Eiði winning a prize courtesy of the lovely people who look after the European Football Weekends group.  So as it happens, I have written about football on artificial surfaces before, on the page that remains the most-hit on this blog:  http://modushopperrandom.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/groundhopping-in-faroe-islands.html However, today’s match at Maidstone was interesting in that both teams were playing the traditional English style anyway.  The ball was up in the air and down the channels a lot more than I saw in the Faroes, but it was noticeable that players stayed on their feet more.  I have to say that I am a fan, and the FA really do need to have a re-think about their position.  This was the only game on across the region.
Hopping for Moorfields Update
Four goals taking us to 123 from 35 games, round about half-way for the project at an average of just over 3.5 goals a game.  At the moment, the penny-a-goal pledges look to be costing about £2.50 each by the end of the season.  You can add a pledge at any time by contacting me via Twitter or by email – headyapp (at) hotmail (dot) com
What Next?
Weather permitting, a Boxing Day double to take me to 499 on the lifetime list and the big 500 before the end of the calendar year.  No idea where as yet – there will be randomness involved if the rain allows!  Follow @GrahamYapp on Twitter for the announcement in due course.

Worthing Were The Worthy Winners

Hopperational details

Tuesday 14 September 2010 at the A2B Stadium, two Step 4 sides from different leagues (Isthmian Div 1 South  v Southern D1 Central) in an FA Cup 1st Qualifying Round replay: Worthing 5  Ashford Town (Mdx) 1.  I am here because my son rolled a 7 on my 10-sided die!

This match in one sentence

Worthing deserved their win, playing with the driving second-half wind and rain, as Ashford collapsed shortly after equalising.

So what?

Worthing go on to visit Enfield Town in the next round, and Ashford concentrate on their chosen league.

Who caught the eye on the pitch?

Ashford Town’s #9 Chamal Fenelon was introduced warmly over the PA as a former Worthing favourite, and he was much in evidence in the early stages, probably trying too hard to score against his old team.  He is a burly and powerful figure, with the aerodynamic qualities of the Space Shuttle (fellow geeks will know that is not a great compliment) but undeniable presence and a powerful shot.  This is a man rebuilding his life after a prison sentence, and some fans’ forums have likened his case to that of former West Brom striker Lee Hughes.  Lee was given an initial rehabilitation chance by Oldham Athletic and has since been a great success at Notts County. Ashford Town’s well-known manager Jamie Lawrence is building a reputation as a developer of young players and a “man manager”, and the club have stuck with him after relegation from Step 3 last season.  By all accounts it was a difficult season, especially after Mark Butler's departure for a short-lived stay at Margate, and Jamie is a heart-on-the-sleeve motivator who places a high value on commitment and loyalty.  Unusually, he led the team out for a warm-up after only five minutes of the half-time interval last night.  The 46th minute-equaliser seemed initially to confirm this as a stroke of managerial genius, but the conditions soon worsened significantly and Ashford’s defenders were undoubtedly hindered by an in-your-face performance from the elements.

This match had the same effect on my pulse rate as …

Landing on Chance and turning over the “Go to Jail. Go Directly to Jail.  Do Not Pass Go.  Do Not Collect £200.” card in a game of Monopoly while sharing a glass of Chianti with Sir Anthony Hopkins.

A snippet from the programme

Programme editor Sam Skilton wrote in his notes about the process of producing the new issue (56pp, £2).  His Sunday was transformed by the 88th-minute equaliser by Ashford Town in Saturday’s original tie.  E-mails had to be sent to the various contributors and a cover photo secured from the official match photographers.  The various tables of statistics needed updating, and the league table was affected by other clubs’ results too.  Sam notes that “as an aspiring sport’s journalist it is another good experience, and something that I am sure I will be getting used to over coming years!”  I now face a classic teacher dilemma.  Shall I point out to Sam that he had better get used to having his misplaced apostrophes pointed out by passing pedants?  Old habits die hard, as they say, and I trust Sam is big enough to take the point.  To be fair, this programme is excellent and is clearly a labour of love, contrasting sharply with last night’s offering at Bethnal Green and illustrative of the big organisational gap between Step 5 and Step 4.

What I learned today

Ashford Town turned down a chance to stay in Step 3 for 2010-11.  A place in the Southern Premier League became available after the demise of Merthyr Tydfil.  By then, the club had already begun preparing for life in Step 4 and it was decided that the additional travel burden would be too much to take.  It has only been for the last couple of seasons that I have been aware of the turbulence of close-season planning for non-league clubs.  There is a managerial merry-go-round that makes the Premier League look the essence of stability, and players seem to follow their managers more frequently.  At any given moment there seem to be about half a dozen clubs on the verge of extinction.  Some re-form with new technical identities (Chester and Farsley this season for example), thus posing a question for groundhopping rules.

Modus Hopper Random Talking Point

Today, an autobiographical snippet to explain how I come to be dipping my toe in the non-league blogwaters. I was a comparatively late starter to watching live football, my very first live game being Walsall 3 Wrexham 1 as a teenager in February 1971.  I then started to go to The Hawthorns to watch WBA, my home-town team.  My first game there was a 0-0 draw in 71-2 with the dour champions of that year, Derby County.  I qualified as a referee during my student days and ran a school football team.  However, I took a long break from watching live games during the years of fencing and segregation, and only started again in the early 90s during the Ossie Ardiles era at West Brom.  At some point, “doing the 92” league grounds became a personal objective and a 3-3 FA Cup R2 draw between Barnet and Wycombe in 1996-7 was the first game that I attended as a neutral with the sole purpose of “ticking off” the ground on my list.  By then, I had started to keep rudimentary records and keeping the programmes. I realised that ‘hoppers needed “rules of engagement” when I reached 91 current grounds in August 2006, having already re-visited several clubs who had opened a new stadium in the meantime.  I duly paid £100 to attend a friendly between Brazil and Argentina at The Emirates to complete The 92 on 3 September 2006, having decided that I would “allow” international friendlies in my personal rules.  However, I was disappointed to find that any application to join the original “92 Club” would be rejected.  This is because Hereford had been out of the league, and Fulham had temporarily left Craven Cottage, and by the club’s particular rules I would need to re-visit both.  At that point I decided, rather petulantly it has to be said, to push on into the world of non-league football, completing “The 116” (by my rules, yah boo) for the first time with a trip to The Dripping Pan, Lewes in December 2008.  I think I know what my rules are, but I have not written them down in case I am mistaken! I am not sure whether I will be able to keep up this pace, but I was lucky to be able to get to 136 games at 135 new venues in 2009-10, and found Twitter as a source of chat and inspiration.  As of today, I am up to a total of 322 venues for live football, needing a trip to Morecambe to restore my 92 and to Fleetwood Town to restore the 116.  I have discovered the joy of bank holiday non-league morning, noon and night trebles (three so far), Step 7, Portuguese fixture scheduling and the FA Sunday Cup.  Thank you for reading, and I hope I will be able to entertain you in the months ahead.