Moneyfields Three-Two Tight to Mention

Hopperational Details
Date & Venue	Saturday 31 October 2020 at Moneyfields Sports Ground
Result	Moneyfields 3 Kidlington 2
Competition	FA Trophy 3rd Qualifying Round
Hopstats	Ground 718 on the lifetime list, and I am here pragmatically because very few of my seasonal target grounds are in the lowest tier of Covid-19 designations.
Context
Both teams entered the competition in the last round, and both arrive at this fixture via 2-1 home wins. Moneyfields beat Basingstoke Town and Kidlington defeated Didcot Town. These sides are both in Step 4 Southern League divisions, but geographically separated with the hosts in Division One South and the visitors from Division One Central.
In One Sentence
Moneyfields came from behind to win with two very late goals after a red card for a key Kidlington defender.
So What?
Time for the usual sentence to go here, the one about Moneyfields in the hat for the next round and Kidlington concentrating on the league.
Pre-match Entertainment
After a horrendous drive down south in monsoon conditions, a pint down the road at The Jolly Taxpayer, putting the world to rights with a couple of strangers I met off the internet. You know who you are, and it was great to catch up with you!
Match Report
Thankfully the weather conditions improved as forecast and this turned out to be a compelling, competitive game with a dramatic twist at the end. It started out oddly enough with one of the assistant referees slipping on the muddy touchline and getting a match-ending injury. It didn’t look good. The call went over the PA for a replacement, and one was found fairly quickly. I think my FA Class 3 badge has lapsed now so I didn’t even think about it. I’m also sixty-two, with the mobility of a supertanker and a sensitivity to abuse concerning my sexuality and parentage, so not a good match for modern lino duty. Both teams had tried to stay warm during the ten-minute delay but Moneyfields were caught cold from the restart. Callum Harvey hooked in acrobatically at the far post to give Kidlington the lead. We saw a couple of great saves from the Kidlington keeper Christian Lawrence but on the second occasion Kieran Roberts was able to fire in an equaliser to send the sides in level at half-time. Good contest at this point, not much either way and defences on top though both sides looking to dictate. Half-time: Moneyfields 1 Kidlington 1 The end-to-end action continued as Lawrence saved well from a one-on-one (with a hint of offside) just before Kidlington took the lead through Jacob Davidge, with just over twenty minutes to go. Moneyfields had to respond quickly and so nearly equalised with a slick move down the right, but the attacking player sliding in at the far post could not make enough contact as the ball skidded across the box. Then came the turning point of the game. A red card was given to Kidlington’s Tom Franklin and it was a tad too long before he started the walk. The gentleman scribbling furiously on the clipboard nearby at this point may well have been a referee’s assessor. I can’t confirm whether it was straight red or second yellow, but it changed the game. The absence of Franklin’s aerial defensive qualities was arguably a factor in the denouement. Kidlington held firm until there were only two minutes left on the clock. Lawrence half-stopped a shot but Roberts was in the right spot to poke in the equaliser. With a penalty shootout now looking likely (as I had mischievously suggested at 3pm on Twitter from the keepertopcolourstats) there was to be one final plot twist. A stoppage time corner for Moneyfields was initially repelled but the second cross found its way to the far post where Steve Hutchings headed in. A really good game, and in good company, to end this phase of football-watching for the season. Great effort from both sides in tricky conditions and a club that is well worth a visit for any groundhoppers.
Pix
All taken from one vantage point this week. Moneyfields in yellow shirts, Kidlington in some kind of luminous green. The pitch invaders had no effect on the play. Keep your football-is-not-for-gulls jokes to yourself please ;) Black-headed gull in winter plumage in the holding midfield position (Reliable source: Martyn Y)
CV19 Comment
Lots of sensible procedures in place – track and trace details collected, one way systems in the bar, table service, helpful tweets before the game with download details for the relevant apps. Two conclusions to be made once again, as they have been at every match I’ve been to this year. The clubs have done everything asked of them but a significant number of people, especially the under-30s, are largely paying no attention. Secondly, for me personally this is a safer activity than going to work at school, but only because this district is in the lowest tier of CV prevalence. The same behaviour in a Tier 3 district would almost certainly have been a spreading event, and the reaction to scientists Whitty and Vallance on social media as I write (on Saturday evening) shows over and over again that the general public aren’t accepting what they are being shown through the numbers. Sadly, I won’t be around to see what historians make of all this. I doubt whether it will be complimentary.
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 219 matches is here, on this separate page. Custodian with floodlight, rooftops and diesel multiple-unit (2020) This week Black beats Orange, but no clean sheets and no change in the league table positions. Again slightly surprised to see a top that clashes with the referee's kit. Pre-match Prediction based on Keeper Top Colour: Prediction: Away Win (on Penalties) Was the prediction correct? No % of correct predictions so far 49% (36 from 74) 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?
As you will understand, not much. The spreadsheet shows fourteen grounds on my “everywhere down to and including Step 4” priority list, but there is no sensible way to plan, and for some grounds such as Brentford I would be way down the ticket priority list when attendance is allowed again. Thank you for reading the blog this season. I will pick up the threads again as soon as Covid-19 arrangements allow. In the meantime, stamp collecting beckons.