Every Underdog has its Day

Hopperational details
Date & Venue	Friday 6 May 2011 at Jubilee Park (Huntingdon Town FC, who play in the step 6 United Counties Division One)
Result	St Neots Town 0 AFC Kempston Rovers 1
Competition	The Hinchingbrooke Cup Final
Hopping	#399 on the lifetime list, the 100th match watched this season (at the 93rd new venue of the season).
This match in one sentence
A man-of-the-match performance by the Kempston goalkeeper, closely followed by those of his centre-backs, allowed the underdogs from the division below to protect a slender first-half lead.
So what?
The AFC Kempston Rovers captain had to lift this thing, and it is the first and only time in the season that St Neots Town have failed to score in a game.
The drama unfolds
To be honest, the first half was pretty tame before the goal, which came just after half an hour.  St Neots looked very pretty going forward but were sometimes guilty of over-elaboration around the box.  They did not really make the ‘keeper work very hard, though they had a lot of the ball. Here’s a scene-setter clip, and then the goal, a neat break and finish by Aaron Baldwin.  0-1 at half time Everyone expected St Neots to improve in the second half and so it proved.  Titanic defensive performances with several excellent saves and a goalline clearance secured this win.  Here are a few clips which show how and why AFC Kempston Rovers managed the win.  I am assuming from the programme that the goalie at the centre of the action is Martin Conway. Final score 0-1
Alternative activity of equal excitement for tourists in Huntingdon
A day at the races, pretending to know something about racehorses but in fact placing your bets on the basis of which ones demonstrated any impolite bodily functions in the parade ring or on the way to the start line.
A snippet from the programme
This particular competition, with its impressive trophy, has been in existence since 1894-5.  The Earl of Sandwich contributed five guineas to the 48 guineas to have it made. For the record, here is AFC Kempston Rovers’ route through this competition this season: Round One – AFC Kempston Rovers 1 Eynesbury 0 Round Two – AFC Kempston Rovers 2 Irchester United 2 (AFC Kempston Rovers win 4-2 on penalties) Semi-Final – AFC Kempston Rovers 3 Deeping Rangers 1
What I learned today
Gavin Strachan has joined St Neots Town, who are heading to step 4 after winning the United Counties Premier League and edging out King’s Lynn.
What Next?
Ground #400 … !  Decided in the original spirit of this blog by the fall of one of nature's most beautiful and perfect shapes - the tetrahedron.  Four identical faces in the shape of an equilateral triangle, with four vertices (corners) and six edges.  Some tetrahedral dice are simply numbered one to four on each face and the number that is hidden on the bottom face counts when you have thrown it.  On mine, the edges are labelled, and it is the number on the bottom edge that counts. So ... It's random.  Thank you, as ever, for your interest.

When the Saints Go Marching In (Repeat)

One of ten goal celebrations

Hopperational details

Tuesday 26 October 2010 at the Hunts Post Community Stadium, St Neots Town 10 (ten) Desborough Town 0 in the step 5 United Counties Premier League.  I am here because this was the first club of five to answer the ‘phone on a rainy day where I needed to check the game was on before travelling.

This match in one sentence

Goalless for twenty minutes before four goals in six minutes killed the game as a contest, and the last two came after the visitors had a man sent off.

So what?

St Neots are unbeaten in the league with a goal difference of +61 after 15 games, Desborough Town are bottom with only one league win all season.

Who caught the eye on the pitch?

I had to check the club website this morning to confirm that Shane Tolley and Stefan Moore both got hat-tricks – I must admit I thought Tolley had four, but it was an “I’ve lost count!” type of evening.  Youngsters frequently needed to turn to their dads to check the score.  I was perversely standing at the other end for a couple of the goals!  When Desborough missed two great chances at the start of the second half you feared the worst. Tolley, a former Peterborough youth who had been plying his trade in the west country, now has 24 in 14 games.  Stefan Moore, ex-Aston Villa and older brother of Luke (currently on loan at Derby from West Brom) playing here in step 5 after a controversial move from step 3 Halesowen, showed his class with two particularly beautiful finishes and at least one assist.  He has 11 in 7. Halesowen were very unhappy about the circumstances of his departure and issued a statement saying that they had fined him a month’s wages for bringing the club into disrepute.  Moore had told the press that the owners had failed to uphold certain promises about ambition (now where have I heard that recently?) and the club accused him of deliberately playing poorly in pre-season.  Halesowen also stated that they were reporting two clubs to the FA.  From where I’m sitting, the challenge of clubs to live within their means is in principle exactly the same at Manchester United as it is at Halesowen, just with more zeros on the numbers in the balance sheet.  The Saints fans will care not a jot and more double-digit victories are on the cards this season with this squad. Anyone fancy doing a PhD on “Why does society decide to pay people so much for playing games as a profession?”

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

… making the components for a desktop re-enactment of The Battle of Little Bighorn out of Blu-Tack.  Other tactile pressure-sensitive adhesives are available.

A snippet from the programme

Manager Dennis Greene has the step 5 version of the problem of keeping a squad of big names happy.  “A lot has been said over the last few weeks about the recent departures.  Please remember we are always looking to improve and this will ultimately mean that players move on.  The critical thing for the Club though is that we must introduce better quality … when the strikers came in and we switched to two up front Hughesy didn’t want to sit on the bench which led to his departure.  Over the course of this season we will play close on 60 games, had he been prepared to stay he would have probably played more games this season than last but he didn’t want to so he had to go.  I want to wish all those that have left good luck for the future.”

What I learned today

Thrashings are not actually that enthralling for the neutral.  To be fair, none of the ten goals were scruffy – they were all well-worked moves, with good curling crosses or one-touch passing at pace finding intelligent runners.  This was only the third-biggest win of the campaign for this team after an 11-0 FA Vase win over Felixstowe & Walton and a 13-0 league win at Yaxley.  This is a very tidy and impressive new stadium and presumably this club cannot afford to hang around in step 5 for long.  It’s so new that it is not on Google Maps, and houses are now being built on the old site with the new stadium being next to the train line.  Looks like someone has been doing some intelligent property development.  I can’t add this to my list of grounds for simultaneous trainspotting though as they are all hidden from view.  If you like identifying trains from their sounds (the equivalent of the birdsong experts, I guess) then this is the place for you.  Didcot Town unsurprisingly remains the best ground so far for trains though.

Modus Hopper Random Talking Point

This match sets a new personal record for the number of goals seen in a competitive game.  Before today, my records stood as follows: Bedford T 4  St Albans 5 in 2003-4 with a sensational last-gasp winner in a play-off match before the non-league tiers were restructured Belstone (Sunday) 4  Bury Park Saracens 5 in a bad-tempered encounter in the FA Sunday Cup in 2009-10 Bugbrooke St Michael’s 7  Olney Town 2 in 2009-10 In a WBA game, 4-4 v Watford including a Bob Taylor hat-trick in 1995-96