Five-One to the Albions

  

Hopperational Details
Dates & Venues	Saturday 6 January 2024 at The Vestacare Stadium Sunday 7 January 2024 at The Hawthorns
Results	Avro FC 0 Witton Albion 1 West Bromwich Albion 4 Aldershot Town 1
Competition	Sat: Northern Premier League D1 West (Step 4) Sun: FA Cup Round 3
Hopstats	Saturday finds me at ground 773 on the lifetime list, and here because Avro made an early Game On declaration giving me enough time to make the journey north. Mind you, I needn’t have worried – this is a 3G surface. Sunday is a rite-of-passage game for the Yapps. I take over the Grandad role (which means a pocket full of half-time sweets) and join my son and grandson for the latter’s first-ever game. Three generations staying true to the family roots.
Context
Avro are performing very well in their first Step 4 season but maybe of late have struggled to convert draws to wins. Witton Albion are mid-table. West Bromwich Albion are in the Championship play-off positions but are likely to field a side of squad players for the FA Cup game against National League Aldershot. Aldershot have seen off Lewes, Swindon Town and Stockport County in earlier rounds. The Swindon game was a remarkable 7-4 scoreline, with the Shots having been 7-0 up.
In One Sentence Each
Witton Albion edged a very close encounter with a first-half goal, but were pushed to the end. West Bromwich Albion had a comfortable win built on two early goals, Aldershot’s consolation coming at the very end of stoppage time.
So What?
Avro drop to 5th but remain in the play-off places. Witton are three points behind, in 9th. WBA will await the fourth-round draw and Aldershot will concentrate on the FA Trophy in the first instance with a trip to Bishop’s Stortford next weekend.
Match Report : Avro v Witton
The only goal of the game came after 14 minutes. It was a really good finish by Harry Brazel. The ball sat up nicely for a first time low shot into the left corner. These two evenly-matched and well-organised sides then largely cancelled each other out. Witton’s keeper Ollie Martin made one block with his foot and his opposite number James Coates prevented a second Witton goal with a spectacular flying save as the first half ended. The second half started with chances at either end, but gradually Avro’s urgency started to dominate. Witton looked very solid in defence until 69 minutes had passed when Martin made the first of two exceptional saves in quick succession. This was a diving stop with a strong left arm. Avro continued to get the ball into the area and there were a couple of games of pinball which could easily have produced the equaliser. With eight minutes to go the floodlights went out and I wondered whether I would end up having to make this long journey again. My personal groundhopping rules have not yet been tested with an abandonment! Fortunately, illumination was soon restored, the Avro pressure was renewed and the Witton defences did enough. This was a very hard-earned three points for the visitors.
Ground Pix
The Vestacare Stadium has a good deal of character about it, with various types of locations for watching the game. Watch the potholes in the car park if you are coming for an evening game in the dark, though!
Match Pix
Avro in the black and blue stripes.
Match Report : WBA v Aldershot
This game has been well-covered in the mainstream media so I will merely add that the main interest was in the promising performances of a number of young debutants and squad players. The result wasn’t really in doubt once the Baggies were three up after half an hour. Tom Fellows on the right flank had been doing most of the damage, albeit in lots of space that he was allowed by the defence. The first goal was a peach of a finish from Nathaniel Chalobah. The second was a gift for Jovan Malcolm, and the third was a powerful instinctive finish from an inadvertent loose ball by Daryl Dike. This was Dike’s return from serious injury and he did not reappear for the second half. The visiting fans, not unreasonably it has to be said, gleefully gave us a rendition of, “Is this a Library?”. Fellows had to wait until the 88th minute before getting his name on the scoresheet and there was still time for a consolation for Aldershot’s Ollie Bray which took a bit of gloss off the result. Much of the game was played at training ground pace, and Albion conceded a fair bit of possession in the second half, playing on the break. Caleb Taylor looked comfortable on the right side of the back three in his second appearance, and there were five WBA debutants all told. The only one who won’t want to see the highlights again is Layton Love, who skied a good chance when through on the break. Job done, though, and we were at pains to point out to my grandson that … It. Is. Not. Always. Like. This. At. The. Albion.
Ground Pix
Tony Brown, Albion legend of 60s & 70s Boiler Man, current Albion legend. Or laughing stock. Fair play to Aldershot who filled the Smethwick End with 5700 fans
Match Pix
Aldershot in red.
Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats Update
Usually accompanied by a pre-match prediction on Threads just before kickoff. Working towards being able to compute a respectable test of statistical significance, it looks like an Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) test will be appropriate. The full keeper top performance table from my last 289 matches is here, on this separate page, and I’ll organise the test when we reach 300 pieces of evidence. This weekend Pink lost to Yellow on Saturday and Grey beat Green on Sunday. Pre-match Prediction based on Keeper Top Colour: Predictions: Home Win & Home Win Was the prediction correct? No (Sat) & Yes (Sun) % of correct predictions so far 48% (69 from 144)
What Next?
Unsure because we are in the weather-dependent segment of the season. I have to be in the Midlands again next weekend and will look to pick off another one of my 21 target Step 4 grounds if I can. My next chance to tick off Plymouth Parkway to complete Step 3 is not until the following week.