Diss Pleasure as Diss Belief Earns Diss a Point

Hopperational details
Date & Venue	Saturday 29 December 2012 at Brewers Green Lane
Result	Diss Town 1 Gorleston 1
Competition	Eastern Counties Premier League (Step 5)
Hopping	A personal landmark! Number 500 on the lifetime list, chosen because this was the first fixture to confirm “game on” on my morning Twitter timeline that gave me enough time to travel.
Pre-match preparation
Diss have been in the lower reaches of the league table, and Gorleston have been in and around the top six all season.
This match in one sentence
Gorleston dominated the goalless first half and then scored first, but Diss fought back well to earn a good point.
So what?
The clubs are now 17th (Diss) and 5th (Gorleston) respectively.
The drama unfolds
The rain held off as we kicked off and the pitch was not bad considering the general conditions across the nation.  It was very overcast and the lights were on from the start. The match proceeded to a constant passing-on of updates from Norwich (v Man City) and Ipswich (v Wolves) along the line of spectators.  I was more interested in planning Diss-based puns for the blogpost title.  Diss-interested, you might say.  Actually, I have been very restrained. Gorleston had the better of the opening exchanges and Chris Sandford hit the bar with a swerving shot after five minutes.  Diss defender Aaron Taylor broke up a dangerous Gorleston move with an excellent tackle and from the resulting counterattack, Matthew Dixon’s goalbound effort was cleared off the line by a retreating defender.  The pattern of patient Gorleston possession with the occasional Diss surge carried on until I took my first clip just after half an hour. Diss are in tangerine. I took another clip almost immediately as the skies opened and deposited copious amounts of wet stuff onto the wetness beneath. We reached half-time without incident, and after two-and-a-half goalless games I began to wonder whether clubs would sponsor me to stay away for the rest of the season.  0-0 at half-time Such thoughts became irrelevant as Gorleston took the lead soon after the restart.  Fortunately, the rain had eased somewhat and Christy Finch seemed to have plenty of time to pick his spot for a left-foot finish.  0-1 after 50 minutes Diss did not cave in and the equaliser came about ten minutes later.  Claudio Langlios showed strength to crash through the centre – the goalkeeper forced him wide but the striker rounded him, kept his feet, and sent the ball low and hard across the goalmouth to give Dixon a tap-in.  1-1 after 61 minutes Diss almost got a second within a minute but a hasty hoofed clearance kept the match level.  The game was now pretty even and the conditions blustery but not too bad.  Here are a couple of clips from 75 and 80 mins into the game. As the players tired and the fresh-legged subs tried to make an impact, we had a scruffy final few minutes.  My final clip is timed at 89 mins. Diss’ Bruno Tavares had a chance but was called back for a foul, then a Gorleston centre-back had an unchallenged header from a far-post corner just before they also had a goal disallowed for offside.  In the end, a draw was not a bad result for either side.  Final score 1-1
The programme
Something random
Here are my other century and half-century landmarks:   50 – Crewe Alexandra 2 WBA 3 at Gresty Road (Division One, 16 August 1997) 100 – Southampton 2 WBA 2 at St Mary’s Stadium (Premier League, 6 November 2004) 150 – Eastleigh 2 Chelmsford City 1 at The Silverlake Stadium (Conference South, 7 February 2009) 200 – Port Talbot Town 5 Cwmbran Celtic 0 at The GenQuip Stadium (Welsh Cup R2, 2 October 2009) 250 – Potters Bar Town 0 Concord Rangers 2 at The South Mimms Travel Stadium (Isthmian League D1 North, 2 February 2010) 300 – Heswall 0 West Kirby 2 at Vauxhall Motors FC (Wirral Senior Cup Final, 30 April 2010) 350 – Haverhill Rovers 4 CRC 0 at The New Croft (Eastern Counties Premier League, 9 November 2010) 400 – Peterborough Northern Star 2 St Ives Town 0 at Raunds Town FC (United Counties League Cup Final, 7 May 2011) 450 – Staveley Miners Welfare 2 Oadby Town 0 at Inkersall Road (FA Vase Round 5, 15 February 2012)
Hopping for Moorfields Update
Two goals takes us up to 125 for the season at an average of just over 3.2 per game.  Please make a pledge if you haven’t already – the original idea was for lots and lots of people to give small amounts each.  The classic “penny-a-goal” pledge will cost you about £2.50 next June.  Contact me at headyapp (at) hotmail (dot) com or via Twitter.
What Next?
No idea! More studying of weather charts and fixture lists before the Yappmobile is called into action again – follow @GrahamYapp on Twitter if you want to be among the first to know!