Police Nick the Win at Blackfield and Langley

Hopperational Details
Date & Venue	Saturday 17 August 2019 at Gang Warily
Result	Blackfield & Langley 3 Metropolitan Police 4
Competition	Southern Premier League South
Hopstats	Ground 701 on the lifetime list. I had originally planned a simple coin-toss to decide between here and Radcliffe today, but the latter’s 10am pitch inspection was too late for me to travel realistically. The M25/M3/M27 combo did its best to thwart me with a longer-than-expected journey but I was safely installed, with programme, in the main stand at kick-off time.
Context
Blackfield & Langley had a second successive promotion at the end of last season, and have started well with two wins from two games. Met Police missed out on promotion to Step 2 at the super-playoff stage last season and have one point from their first two games.
In one sentence
The late winner will hurt the home team, who failed to manage the last phase of the game having built a 3-1 lead.
So what?
Still too early in the season to make any sensible comment. Therefore, unlike MotD and Sky and their ilk, I will not take up any more of your valuable time with speculative punditry.
Match Report
Let me start by saying that this is a very friendly, welcoming club. It has climbed the leagues in recent years and has the space to develop further if they can establish themselves at this level. It has good facilities and a very decent playing surface.  The stacks and vents in the background are from the Fawley Oil Refinery. The home side took the lead on 11 mins through Hisham Kasimu. He ran powerfully and directly from the right flank, eased past the keeper and found the net. The equaliser came from the penalty spot just before the half-hour mark. I was at the other end so can’t comment on the decision that there had been a push. Jack Mazzone was the taker. Blackfield & Langley restored their lead after 36 mins with a goal from Joshua Harfield.  The first-half had been played at a good tempo, with direct running and a few bruising tackles. It was only five minutes into the second half before we had a two-goal margin. A very neat placed header did the job, and unfortunately it has gone into the annals as an own goal by Jeremy Arthur. I suspect most people thought that the result was now more or less decided.  Met Police had other ideas. On the hour, a floated free-kick drew the home keeper out of position and the visitors pulled a goal back with a looping header by sub Hani Berchiche back into the far corner. With fifteen minutes to go, a loudly disputed freekick was hoisted into the area and this time Oliver Robinson was in the right place to head home and level the match. By this time there was a certain amount of dissent and frustration being shown and had there been sin bins at this level we would have needed revolving doors. I exchanged tweets with the home team to the effect that this was great stuff for the passing neutral and the visitors might yet get a fourth.  So it proved only seconds later as the game entered stoppage time.  It was an excellent low left-foot shot from just outside the box from another sub, Bilal Sayoud, and a worthy winning goal. Acknowledgement: League Website for checking the goalscorers
Other Pix
Blackfield & Langley are in green.  "Take our picture!", they said. Well, would be rude not to! Hello Malcolm in the background getting better photos as usual!
Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats
Today, Orange loses to Yellow and there are no clean sheets.  No change in rank order but the prediction success rate continues to regress back towards 50%.  The table is based on the last 202 games watched. Pre-match Prediction based on Keeper Top Colour: Prediction: Home Win Was the prediction correct? No % of correct predictions so far 53% (30 from 57) 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 half-and-half tops or 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 that orange is the best colour for a goalkeeper because it changes the behaviour of other players around the box. P W D L GC CS Pts PPG Red 11.5 6.5 1.0 4.0 11.0 4.5 32.0 2.783 Grey 53.5 25.0 12.0 16.5 84.5 16.0 82.5 1.542 Blue 49.1 22.0 8.0 19.1 78.0 14.0 66.0 1.344 Green 110.0 55.0 12.0 43.0 191.0 25.0 111.0 1.009 Fire Cracker 3.0 1.0 0.0 2.0 6.0 1.0 2.0 0.667 Purple 22.0 8.0 5.0 9.0 45.0 6.0 14.0 0.636 Maroon 5.0 2.0 1.0 2.0 9.0 1.0 3.0 0.600 Orange 60.5 21.0 13.0 26.5 106.5 11.0 24.5 0.405 Radioactive Bile 24.0 9.0 1.0 14.0 51.0 4.0 -3.0 -0.125 Black 6.5 2.5 3.0 1.0 15.0 0.5 -2.0 -0.308 Yellow 39.0 10.0 9.0 20.0 88.0 7.0 -14.0 -0.359 Pink 18.0 5.0 5.0 8.0 37.0 1.0 -12.0 -0.667 White 1.9 0.0 0.0 1.9 4.0 0.0 -4.0 -2.105
What Next?
Follow @GrahamYapp on Twitter! Atherton Collieries, Horsham and Radcliffe are my remaining Step 3 grounds and of course I am waiting for a chance to get in at Tottenham Hotspur’s new stadium. Then I will turn my attention to 19 remaining Step 4 venues.

Hoppers Eat, Roar, Meet with Stamford Lions

Hopperational Details
Date & Venue	Friday 26 July 2019 at The Borderville Sports Centre
Result	Stamford Lions 1 Peterborough Polonia 1
Competition	Peterborough & District Football League Premier Division (Step 7)
Hopstats	Ground #700 on my lifetime list! Also my first game of the new season (I don’t do club friendlies…). The ground sits adjacent to AFC Stamford’s relatively new stadium.
Context
Very little to go on – first competitive game of the new season for both teams. The Lions finished 4th last season whereas the visitors finished in last place and the corresponding fixture finished 6-0.
In one sentence
The Lions did not score the second goal to match their first half superiority and they paid the price with a second-half equaliser.
So what?
Far too early to make any sensible comment.
Brief Match Report
One of the lesser known joys of groundhopping is hearing male northern stadium announcers reading out the names of players with African heritage. Faced with an Eastern European catalogue of consonants, a member of the visiting club staff was invited to perform the PA honours for their side. The home team took the lead after 17 minutes with a tap-in by Kieran Duffy-Weekes. The assist goes to Jake Showler. Having created some space near the byline, he had the composure to wait and time the pass perfectly so that the scorer could not miss. My notes say that Lions were marginally better at keeping the ball in midfield, but despite territorial supremacy they failed to add a second goal before the interval. The equaliser came from the penalty spot on 65 minutes. It was a clear trip by fullback Edwin Pentney on Edyinas Puzara. Lukas Bielskis sent the keeper the wrong way. After that, both teams went for the win and had half chances to do so. There were a number of yellow cards for trips and fouls, and Karolis Vladicka collected two of them, so Polonia played the last few minutes with ten men. Probably a fair result overall, and it seems clear that Polonia will not be such pushovers in the division this season.
Pix
Lions in yellow and blue. The "dugouts" are a delight.
Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats
A pre-match prediction based only on keeper top colours as a preliminary test of the data.  Proper statistical significance test to follow in due course. Today, Blue v Orange and the points are shared. Pre-match Prediction based on Keeper Top Colour: Prediction: Home Win Was the prediction correct? No % of correct predictions so far 30 from 56 (54%) No change in the league table positions. Full table published here once a month or so. Look back to my Cinderford post for the end of last season if you are desparate!
What Next?
Follow @GrahamYapp on Twitter! Once the season settles down my priorities will be Tottenham Hotspur (somehow, tba) then Atherton Collieries, Blackfield & Langley and Radcliffe to restore my “everywhere down to Step 3” status.  After that, I have 20 more grounds to do to complete Step 4 and I am hoping be possible to get them all done in the coming season. In the meantime, the rest of this weekend will be spent at the British Firefighter Challenge in Watford (my elder son Matt is a competitor) and I have family commitments on the first two Saturdays of August. Maybe a cheeky midweek hop will be fitted in. Watch this space.