525 and it's a Crackerjack!

Hopperational details
Date & Venue	Saturday 14 September 2013 at The Aspire Stadium
Result	Newcastle Town 2 Sutton Coldfield Town 2
Competition	FA Cup First Round Qualifying
Hopping	Number 525 on the lifetime list. I am here because of a precise combination of random events which uniquely decided which of 32 possible games I would visit.  Details and beautiful Platonic polyhedra at: http://modushopperrandom.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/football-and-power-of-money.html
Pre-match preparation
Both teams play in the Northern Premier League’s Division One South, which is Step 4.  Newcastle Town beat Shawbury United of the step 6 West Midlands Regional Premier League 2-1 in the last round.  Sutton Coldfield had the harder tie on paper, beating Bedworth United from their own league 1-0 at home.  In the league, both teams are mid-table, with the visitors a few places higher, but last Tuesday evening the two teams played each other at Sutton Coldfield and the home side won 3-0.
This match in one sentence
Newcastle Town led 2-0 after a dismal first-half display by Sutton Coldfield, but a comedy goal and a stoppage time equaliser handed a replay chance to the visiting side.
So what?
In the first instance, there is a replay, with extra time and penalties if necessary, on Tuesday evening.  By then, the teams will know who they would face in the Second Round Qualifying – the draw is on Monday.
The drama unfolds
The game kicked off in bright sunshine in front of a very sparse crowd – Stoke City were at home to Manchester City at the same time, and I guess this has an effect.  I was taking my scene-setting clip when the first goal went in – it will not make pleasant viewing for a certain centre-back and his manager threw an immediate wobbly from the dugout.  Newcastle Town are in blue and the scorer is Andy Nicholls.  1-0 after 7 mins Newcastle went close twice soon after – the first after a good run into the box by Matt Lowe and then from the resulting corner.  They seemed to have more time on the ball, more space and more options.  Sutton Coldfield’s main response strategy was shout-and-blame, and they were pretty ineffective in the first half. A vintage Lancaster bomber flew over the ground and the rest of the half rather faded away in the sunshine – Newcastle didn’t get their second goal, and Sutton Coldfield had a foretaste of what might be possible as the home keeper Dave Parton made a couple of early calls for the ball and then didn’t get there for it.  He was nearly embarrassed just before the break but the attacker couldn’t get a shot on target from a wide position.  1-0 at half-time The second half started with a trumpet rally from the away supporters, but Sutton Coldfield’s groundbreaking twin huddle strategy (see below) had no effect initially except that the Newcastle keeper called-and-missed for a third time.  The second goal of the game was again an unchallenged header from a corner, this time by Leon Ashman.  2-0 after 55 mins Sutton Coldfield made some changes and their first chance of note came on the hour.  They were still frustrated and one of their players (not sure who) got a yellow for some spectacular dissent.  By this time I was on my second lap of the ground and I was in a good place to capture a comedy goal.  Will not be pleasant viewing for the near-post defender. The goal has been credited to Mark Danks, direct from the corner (the first time I have seen one of those since a gale-assisted goal in the Faroe Islands in 2011.)  The corner had come from a good full-length save by Parton.  2-1 after 74 mins I moved round to the other side of the ground, near the Sutton Coldfield “Ultras”, for the final few minutes.  Warning – the final clip contains the F word as well as some great end-to-end excitement and a brilliant celebration as substitute Joel Kettle heads home with 93 minutes gone on my watch.  Great fun for the passing neutral.  Final score 2-2
Ground Pix
Match Pix
Something Random
This is the first ground I have ever visited in which the pitch sits in the centre of a banked cycle track.  Newcastle Town’s ground is in a beautiful setting and the town’s football, rugby union and cricket teams play on adjacent pitches set out in a straight line.  It is also the second successive FA Cup tie that a WW2 Lancaster bomber has flown overhead while I have been watching.  I expect this to be the only time in my life that I will watch an FA Cup game from the side of a cycle track after drinking beer from a hand pump while looking up at a vintage aircraft and listening to a man playing the trumpet occasionally.  Crazy times.  You just don’t get that experience in the Premier League. Rugby pitch in the foreground, cricket in progress beyond Pretty sure that is an Avro Lancaster - the tail is distinctive
Huddle Stats
No huddles for Newcastle Town – just an extra last-moment warm-up.  Sutton Coldfield break new ground with a twin huddle – one before each half. 2013-14 Summary so far: P W D L GF GA Pts Pts per Game Non-Huddlers 15 6 3 6 21 20 21 1.40 Huddlers 10 3 4 3 6 8 13 1.30 Twin Huddlers 1 0 1 0 2 2 1 1.00
Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats
I have modified the points scoring to give more weighting to the match result and corrected an early error made a few games ago (which no-one noticed!).  Today pink (Newcastle) plays orange (Sutton Coldfield) and Petr Cech’s favoured orange colour is at the bottom of the table.  What does he know? 2013-14 Summary so far: 3pts for a win, 1pt for a draw, -1pt for a goal conceded and +5pts for a clean sheet P W D L GA (-1 each) CS (5 each) Pts Pts per Game Grey 7 4 2 1 6 3 23 3.29 Yellow 3 1 1 1 4 1 5 1.67 Green 5 2 0 3 7 1 4 0.80 Pink 4 1 3 0 7 0 -1 -0.25 Blue 2 0 1 1 2 0 -1 -0.50 Radioactive Bile 3 1 0 2 6 0 -3 -1.00 Orange 2 0 1 1 4 0 -3 -1.50
What Next?
Follow @GrahamYapp on Twitter for announcements!  FA Vase weekend coming up and scores of games for me to choose from – somehow.