Conference Call on 116

Hopperational details
Date & Venue	Saturday 10 August 2013 at The Hive
Result	Barnet 3 Chester 0
Competition	The Conference (Step 1)
Hopping	I am here to restore my “116” – this is Barnet’s new home after they made the hard decision to leave Underhill.  It is number 515 on my lifetime list.  This is the first competitive game at The Hive and the programme is a special edition.
Pre-match preparation
Dutch international Edgar Davids has remained as Head Coach of Barnet.  They were relegated from the League Two on the last day of 2012-13 and are today meeting a side who are entering the Conference for the first time in the upward direction.  Chester have been promoted on three successive occasions now since their reformation – I saw their clinching victory at Stockbridge Park in 2011-12.  Both teams, as is now the norm, have several new signings around a retained core.  Mr Davids is keen to point out in the programme that he is still happy to win games even if performances are not pretty.
This match in one sentence
Chester faded after a promising start and in the end Barnet’s victory was well deserved.
So what?
I refuse to make predictions this early in the season.  Oh, alright then – Barnet will make the playoffs at least and Chester will avoid relegation.
The drama unfolds
Chester had two very early chances as Barnet’s passing game started nervously – it took ten minutes before a slick home move gave a glimpse of the future.  Slowly but surely Barnet began to impose themselves on the game.  Four yellow cards (two for each side) were shown for tackles that were incompetent rather than malicious.  My scene-setter clip was taken around the half-hour mark.  Graham Stack was fairly busy in the Barnet goal during the first half. Chester continued to look dangerous from set-pieces, especially fast inswinger crosses delivered by Kevin McIntyre.  Parity at the interval was entirely fair on the balance of play.  0-0 at half-time Barnet opened the floodgates within a minute of the restart.  Luke Gambin finished neatly with his left foot even if there was an element of luck involved with the final pass of a swift move down the left.  1-0 after 46 mins Stack preserved the lead with a sharp close-range save around the hour mark.  Barnet fans near me were getting fed up with patient build-up play and ball retention, especially backward passes, but from one such move Mark Byrne turned on the shoulder of his marker and broke free down the right.  Jake Hyde couldn’t miss as the ball was delivered into the 6-yard box.  2-0 after 63 mins Chester’s fans threw smoke canisters on to the pitch and caused a short delay.  I have decided not to reward them with a photo of this petulant pointlessness.  Their side was soon three down – a great move through the middle and a neat dink to finish from Hyde again.  3-0 after 72 mins That was it, really … Barnet picked up two more yellows, Chester almost had a consolation goal, but McIntyre almost had (from where I was sat) a red card for grabbing at the referee’s arm.  Police had arrived in time to watch Chester fans streaming out, and it was another 40 minutes before I managed to get out of the car park.  To be fair, the vast majority of the visiting fans were brilliantly supportive of their team's effort, all afternoon.  Final score 3-0
Ground Pix
Match Pix
Something random
If you are coming to Barnet in the near future, I’d advise getting your tickets online and printing them at home.  That worked well.  Around 20 people missed the kickoff today as they were still queuing to buy or pick up tickets at the kiosk.  I thought the £5 special edition programme for this first competitive game at The Hive was fair enough, well-produced and a good read, but £5 for parking on top of my £21 ticket makes me happy that I will be back in steps 3,4 and 5 soon.
Huddle Stats
New this season on MHR – let’s find out whether the pre-match huddle makes a difference. We will only learn something if one team huddles and the other doesn’t.  Never mind, it will give science a start until CERN have found all their missing particles.  Today, there were no huddles. 2013-14 Summary so far: P W D L GF GA Pts Pts per Game Non-Huddlers 5 2 2 1 7 6 8 1.60 Huddlers 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0.00
Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats
Also new for this season. I vaguely remember Petr Cech having a theory that orange was the best colour for goalkeeping tops.  Let’s find out whether there is any substance to it.  We have an early lead for yellow tops.  Today, Barnet’s Graham Stack played in yellow and Chester’s John Danby was in traditional green. 2013-14 Summary so far: P W D L CS(5pts) GA(-1 each) Pts Pts per Game Yellow 3 2 1 0 2 3 7 2.33 Grey 1 0 0 1 0 1 -1 -1.00 Pink 1 0 1 0 0 3 -3 -3.00 Green 1 0 0 1 0 3 -3 -3.00
Hopping for Moorfields Update
Just waiting for a few sponsors to return from their summer holiday but I hope very soon to be sending a big cheque to Moorfields Eye Charity which, when some Gift Aid is applied, will be worth almost £900 to them.  It’s not too late to make a small contribution – remember the original idea of this is that LOTS of people would give small amounts – and this recent post tells you how to go about it.  Thanks in advance, and thanks too to all the sponsors who have already paid up. http://modushopperrandom.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/hopping-for-moorfields-call-for-payment.html
What Next?
Follow @GrahamYapp on Twitter for announcements!  Very tempted by the FA Cup tie at Worksop Parramore (work commitments allowing) on Friday.

In case you missed this last month because your season started today, here is a recent "football game nostalgia" post - do you remember "Soccerboss"?

http://modushopperrandom.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/soccerboss-living-dream.html

I hope you’ll enjoy the 2013-14 format for the MHR blog.  I have tried to freshen it up without losing its essential tongue-in-cheekiness, and to reflect the fact that I am now out of semi-retirement and back in the classroom full-time.  In particular, the video clips were receiving very few hits so I have scaled back on these apart from an essential scene-setter.  You may also have to put up with a rant on educational issues from time to time.  Thanks as ever for your support and interest.  This season I will complete my coverage down to all of step 3 at least, as well as paying plenty of attention again to the early rounds of the FA Cup and the FA Vase.