In the Land of Grey and Pink Goalkeepers

Hopperational details
Date & Venue	Saturday 24 August 2013 at Winch’s Field
Result	Herne Bay 1 Faversham Town 1
Competition	Isthmian League Division One South (Step 4)
Hopping	Number 520, I am here for pragmatic reasons to do with being in East London in the morning and the weather forecast!  In the event, I drove back through Kent and Essex in torrential rain.
Pre-match preparation
A win, two draws and a defeat for Herne Bay so far this season, two wins and two defeats for Faversham.  Mid-table respectability thus far for both sides.
This match in one sentence
On a wet and greasy surface, Faversham’s goal may well be the quickest one I have ever seen, but they failed to get a second to secure the win and the equaliser came with fifteen minutes to go.
So what?
More mid-table respectability.
The drama unfolds
I estimate that the first goal came in around 40 seconds.  Faversham found a large hole in the Herne Bay defence, and although goalkeeper Jack Delo came out to make a block, the ball rebounded to Brendon Cass who had an easy task to score.  0-1 after 1 minute After 18 minutes, a Faversham header was ruled out for offside, and from the freekick Herne Bay constructed a neat move down the right and Nathan Eastwood’s shot was deflected on to the post.  My scene-setter clip is taken midway through the first half – Herne Bay are in blue-and-white. Both sides had towels on the touchline for their long-throw merchants, but it all got rather predictable.  Faversham really should have scored from one of them, though, just before the break, as a flick-on reached the far post but two attackers got in each other’s way.  1-1 at half-time There were early chances for both sides in the second half, but the game settled into a pattern of Herne Bay getting plenty of the ball in non-threatening areas.  Faversham’s defensive positioning was pretty effective, and Herne Bay were forced time and again into playing obvious or safe passes.  Someone must have bought the coach a copy of “Roy Hodgson’s Big Book of Territorial Occupation”.  In the meantime, Faversham themselves were vaguely threatening but never getting a good final pass. As the neutrals slumbered, Herne Bay substitute Kane Phillip stopped showing dissent for a moment and burst through midfield.  He played a pass to Jordan Casey who reached the byline and then with the aid (I think) of a rebound, was rewarded for perseverance with a goal.  1-1 after 75 minutes Faversham had two quick chances, both involving their lively sub attacker, Kieron Oliver, and then Dave Botterill sent a curling cross-shot onto the bar.  Maybe a moral victory for Faversham, but the league table will give these teams one more point each.  Final score 1-1
Ground Pix
A ridiculous number of Match Pix all taken from the same place because no way was I going to get soaked
Something Random
The club were distributing a letter today offering supporters "the unique opportunity of taking ownership of their club" ... this is the setting up of Herne Bay Football Club Community Interest Company with full adult membership offered for £100 for 2013-14.
Huddle Stats
Both sides huddled, so we don’t learn anything.  Faversham got their huddle in first, but Herne Bay got their equalising huddle a minute later. The Faversham huddle is in full swing as the Herne Bay huddle crystallises in the background 2013-14 Summary so far: P W D L GF GA Pts Pts per Game Non-Huddlers 9 4 2 3 12 10 14 1.75 Huddlers 7 2 2 3 5 7 8 1.14
Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats
Today’s we had grey (Faversham) and pink (Herne Bay).  Kudos to anyone who understands the obscure but geographically fair musical reference in the title of this post.  You are either as old as me, or brought up well by someone as old as me. 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 3 1 1 1 1 2 3 1.00 Green 4 2 0 3 1 7 -2 -0.50 Orange 1 0 0 0 0 1 -1 -1.00 Radioactive Bile 1 0 0 2 0 2 -2 -2.00 Pink 3 0 2 1 0 6 -6 -2.00
Hopping for Moorfields Update
Cheques totalling £819.30 have arrived in the Moorfields Hospital in-tray and have been acknowledged by phone.  When an element of Gift Aid is added to part of this, the final total for the charity will be just over £1024 (this is slightly more than my original unofficial calculation).  This will go to help fund leading-edge research into a variety of eye conditions.  Well done, everyone, and thank you again.  I will publish the acknowledgement in due course.
What Next?
Follow @GrahamYapp on Twitter for announcements!  I could well be up for a Bank Holiday double starting in the Combined Counties or Sussex League on Monday.  Will wait for news of the effect of today’s downpours before making final decisions.