Draw of the UCL

Hopperational Details
Date & Venue	Saturday 5 September 2020 at Sergeants Lawn
Result	Rothwell Corinthians 1 Northampton ON Chenecks 1
Competition	United Counties League Premier Division (Step 5)
Hopstats	Ground #709 on the lifetime list, and I am here randomishly because of a convoluted series of events all over Europe last night, as explained in the previous blogpost and on my Twitter timeline. Essentially, two late goals in a match in Bratislava meant that this game was selected from a starting list of fifty-five. Regular readers have come to expect this kind of attention-seeking.
Context
Nothing really to be said as it is the first league game of the season for both teams.
In One Sentence
An enjoyable game in which Chenecks showed some defensive resilience but in the final analysis Corinthians were too wasteful and will need to convert a higher proportion of chances into goals.
So What?
Much too soon to say anything sensible. A point each.
Pre-match Entertainment
After an early morning call for grandaddery, looking after my two youngest grandchildren for an hour (K-Nex and Barbie’s Dreamplane in action respectively, since you ask), I arrived in Rothwell just after 1.00pm. A live band was doing great things in the town centre, and I enjoyed a sunny stroll. It’s architecturally very interesting and relatively unspoiled, one of those places in which almost no building is still fulfilling its original purpose, except maybe the church. My only other visit was on a dark filthy night to the now-folded Rothwell Town, pulling on to their car park just as their match was being called off, so it was good to see Rothwell in daylight. Seargeants Lawn has little or no car parking, so I left the Yappmobile in the town centre and completed the ten-minute walk past the cricket club up Desborough Road.
Match Report
Sergeants Lawn has a good surface and a wing-to-wing slope. It’s adjacent to the town’s cricket club. Corinthians took an early lead when a long throw-in from the right wing ended up in the back of the net. I was at the other end I suspect that a defender made contact with it and it will go down as an own goal. The long throw was used many times during the game and it often caused a moment or two of chaos and uncertainty, but no other home goals as things turned out. The hosts hit the post soon afterwards and they would have been frustrated at this point not to be further in the lead, especially when Chenecks equalised with their first real foray into the opposing box. A good right-wing cross was palmed away rather than caught, and fell nicely for a striker to finish. The game was now suddenly more even. Corinthians forced a full-length save from the Chenecks keeper and another home cross from the right went teasingly unmet on its way across the goalmouth. Half-time: Rothwell Corinthians 1 Northampton ON Chenecks 1 Corinthians should have had the lead in the first minute after the restart. An initial shot was saved before the rebound was blasted high and wide. Chenecks then hit the post themselves after a great left-to-right crossfield ball from the fullback position. Nevertheless, the home team were well on top at this point and it took a succession of blocks and clearances to deny their corners and long-throws. The game became less fluent after a few meaty challenges had by now led to lots of shouting and a string of yellow cards. Corinthians wasted a direct free-kick in a good position with just three minutes left and that was it really. The game had petered out somewhat in the warm sunshine. Corinthians will feel they have dropped two points but Chenecks deserve credit for their resilience and counter-attacks. The home supporters who were querying the length of the second half were simply wrong – they had not noticed that both first and second halves had started a few minutes early. For the record, according to my watch around three minutes were added as stoppage time.
Pix
Rothwell Corinthians in red and black.
Opinion
I arrived at the ground to find a well-organised reception with hand-sanitiser available, and my details for test-and-trace were collected. I stayed outdoors but I noted a one-way system set up for the clubhouse. It was nice to see a fairly-priced programme and the whole visit cost me less than a Wembley Stadium burger. Club volunteers have taken the chance during lockdown to give the ground some attention and it made a good impression. Everyone behaved sensibly in regard to social distancing and it felt a safe enough environment. Credit to the club for being ready. Good day for the passing neutral.
Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats Update
Usually accompanied by a pre-match prediction on Twitter just before kickoff. Working towards being able to compute a respectable statistical significance test by the end of the season. The full keeper top performance table from my last 210 matches is here, on this separate page. It has to be said that the initially impressive prediction rate has largely fallen back to 50:50 and is no better at the moment than the toss of a coin. Today, Green played Orange and there was no clean sheet. Pre-match Prediction based on Keeper Top Colour: Prediction: Home Win Was the prediction correct? No % of correct predictions so far 51% (33 from 65) 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 undeniable half-and-half tops or lower league 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 (and supported by anonymous scientists of some description) that orange is the best colour for a goalkeeper because it changes the behaviour of other players around the box. It is supposedly because of an innate primeval human reaction to the colour and the colour “spreads” more in the vision of a striker at the key moment of decision. Genius or garbage? The evidence is gathering here.
What Next?
Follow @GrahamYapp on Twitter! The provisional plan next weekend, subject to work, weather, pandemics and grandadding, is to take in an FA Cup tie, details to be decided and possibly random. Then on the 19th to head north to Atherton Collieries to tick off one of my two remaining Step 3 grounds. (The other one is Radcliffe but they are away from home on that day.) My other priorities, subject to ticket availability, will be the new grounds for Brentford, Boston United, Gloucester City and York City and sixteen others to complete everywhere down to and including Step 4. There are a few others under construction but it is less clear whether they will be ready during 2020-21.