My First Willand Testament

e-Programme

Hopperational Details
Date & Venue	Saturday 10 October 2020 at Stan Robinson Stadium, Silver Street
Result	Willand Rovers 2 Frome Town 1
Competition	Southern League Division One South (Step 4)
Hopstats	Ground 715 on the lifetime list. I am here because, at a rating of 9 per 100,000, this is the lowest local CV19 case prevalence of seven unvisited Step 4 grounds hosting a match today. The other possibilities had been Melksham (13), Moneyfields (30), Pickering (34) Glossop North End (67), Brighouse Town (175) and Runcorn Linnets (247). The numbers were taken on Friday afternoon from https://www.schoolcovidmap.org.uk/ and are probably already out of date.
Context
Too early in the season to say very much, but both clubs are in the top half of the table on the same number of points from two wins and a draw, although Willand also have two defeats too. Both had away wins in midweek, so all signs point to a competitive encounter.
In One Sentence
Willand edged a close contest played at a good tempo.
So What?
Still very early in the season. Willand lie just outside the notional playoff places, and Frome are mid-table but with games in hand.
Match Report
The teams cancelled each other out in midfield until Willand took the lead with the first real chance of the game after 18 minutes. The ball was worked from the left to a central position, and from where I was standing at the other end it looked like a great shot from distance into the roof of the net. The scorer was Archie Reay. Jon Davies equalised just after the half-hour mark, and again it was arguably with his side’s first clear chance. A through ball down the centre held up nicely in the breeze, and he reached the ball first to round the keeper and keep his composure to finish. The goal seemed to give Frome fresh impetus and the rest of the first half was end-to-end and even. Up to that point Willand would have considered themselves slightly on top, certainly territorially if nothing else. Jon Davies gets round the 'keeper and equalises for Frome Half-time: Willand Rovers 1 Frome Town 1 The game continued to be played at a good pace, and the good surface also helped. As in the first half, much of the action took place in midfield, with both teams struggling to find the final killer pass. As the hour mark passed, I made a note that I could not predict the winner. The decisive goal came after 73 minutes, Alfie Moulden taking the chance from a position just right of centre, just outside the box. Willand held on to secure the points, even when the Frome goalkeeper joined the attack for the final corner. For the passing neutral, this was a decent contest with the result in doubt until the final whistle. As a bonus, the rain held off until I was well on the way back along the M4.
Match Pix
Willand in white shirts, Frome in red.
Ground Pix
The cottage in the corner beats the one at Fulham. Street parking, but easy enough to find for hoppers, who tend to arrive early.
Opinion
This felt as safe as it could reasonably be, and the club were complying with the guidance. Very clear signage, a one-way system, lots of notices and details handed over for test and trace. I observed much less overt ignoring of the social distancing rules compared with some of my recent northern hops. Maybe that’s why the numbers are as they are, ladies and gentlemen.
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 216 matches is here, on this separate page. Green beats Yellow as predicted today, but no clean sheet, and no change in the colours league table. Pre-match Prediction based on Keeper Top Colour: Prediction: Home Win Was the prediction correct? Yes % of correct predictions so far 49% (35 from 71) 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, and is leaning towards the latter.
What Next?
Follow @GrahamYapp on Twitter! I can’t get to an FA Cup tie on Tuesday and I’m inclined to use the same method to pick another Step 4 ground for an FA Trophy game next Saturday, if non-essential travelling is still permitted. In which case I am quite likely to be down south or west again, it would seem.