You Want Catchup?

Hi, everyone, and thanks for clicking on the link. This is a catchup post for me as the new season gets under way. All but one of these games has been well covered in the groundhop blogosphere so I will be brief, and focus on my unique contribution to human knowledge which is the nonsense of keepertopcolourstats. Well, I say nonsense, but it’s going to need a Kruskal-Wallis One-Way Analysis of Variance in order to be sure. And if you know anyone with the time or computing power to complete one for us, please shout. I’m working towards one, but it’s beyond my current personal mathematical and statistical capabilities. The prediction success rate remains steady at 49% over the last 164 games watched. For any new readers, it all starts with Petr Cech (or some bright spark in Chelsea FC press office).

Groundhopping will be an occasional pursuit for me this season due to other family and work logistics, but here goes. I’ve managed one game in Norway whilst I was avoiding the Euros, and I was at five of the United Counties Hop games at the end of July. The six venues occupy places 780 to 785 on my lifetime list. Here's the catchup for your delectation.

Date & Venue	26 June 2024 at the Aker Stadion, Molde
Result	Molde Kvinner 0 Rosenborg Kvinner 4 (Half-time 0-1)
Competition	Norwegian Women’s National Cup Round 3
A Three-Sentence Match Report
Rosenborg, top tier and cup holders, were big favourites for this game and in the end they had a comfortable victory. Molde had battled gamely for half an hour but the second goal in the 50th minute effectively settled the contest. The two late goals felt harsh but the last one was a cracker.
One Ground Pic & One Match Pic
#Keepertopcolourstats
Red unexpectedly loses to Yellow. Yellow gets a clean sheet.

 

Date & Venue	26 July 2024 at Saffron Lane
Result	Aylestone Park 7 Coventry United 1 (Half-time 6-0)
Competition	UCL Premier League South (Step 5)
A Three-Sentence Match Report
The home side repeatedly got behind the visiting defensive line and were remarkably 6-0 up at half time. The sixth was a gift but the others had all been well-worked and deserved. The second-half was somewhat anticlimactic.
One Ground Pic & One Match Pic
#Keepertopcolourstats
Grey beats Yellow, as would be expected from the colours table. No clean sheets.

 

Date & Venue	27 July 2024 at WH Davis Stadium, Langwith Road
Result	Shirebrook Town 1 Newark & Sherwood United 1 (Half-time 0-0)
Competition	United Counties League Division One (Step 6)
A Three-Sentence Match Report
The visitors took the lead with a glancing header early in the second half. The equaliser came with a quarter of the game left. Both sides missed chances to win it, N&SU’s best chance being a missed penalty, but a draw was probably a fair result.
One Ground Pic & One Match Pic
To be fair, I could have easily chosen more than one from this classic and smart non-league stadium.
#Keepertopcolourstats
With Orange against Pink, I had predicted a Home win. Wrong!

 

Date & Venue	27 July 2024 at The SL2 Rail Stadium
Result	Retford 2 Gedling Miners’ Welfare 0 (Half-time 1-0)
Competition	United Counties League Division One (Step 6)
A Three-Sentence Match Report
The opening goal was a floated free-kick which deceived the keeper and the scorer had the decency to look surprised. In truth, not a great game compared with the earlier one, so I was grateful for the distraction of the passing trains on the East Coast Main Line. I don’t really need the third sent… oh, that’s it then.
One Ground Pic & One Match Pic
#Keepertopcolourstats
Green against Pink. Home win as expected and predicted, and a clean sheet too.

 

Date & Venue	27 July 2024 at JRL Brickwork Stadium
Result	Harrowby United 1 Eastwood 8 (Half-time 0-2)
Competition	United Counties Premier League North (Step 5)
A Three-Sentence Match Report
Eastwood’s second goal came from a very neat move, including a backheel, and must have changed a team talk by coming in first-half stoppage time. In the 90th minute the score was 1-4 including a hat-trick for Aaron O’Connor and we were sidling towards the exit. However, Eastwood added four more in stoppage time including a comedic seventh when a long clearance had come back off the crossbar leaving a tap-in.
One Ground Pic & One Match Pic
#Keepertopcolourstats
Green would normally be expected to beat Orange, but not today.

 

Date & Venue	28 July 2024 at Nationwide Windows Arena
Result	Rugby Borough 5 Leicester Nirvana 1 (Half-time 2-1)
Competition	United Counties League Premier South (Step 5)
A Three-Sentence Match Report
Rugby took the lead midway through the first half and at that stage it was somewhat against the run of play. Nirvana replied quickly after the Borough second and to be honest I was expecting them to go on to dominate the second half. Exactly the opposite happened as Rugby scored three more good goals against lacklustre defence from the visitors.
One Ground Pic & One Match Pic
#Keepertopcolourstats
Yellow against Purple which was predicted as an Away win. Prediction success rate remains at 49% (80 from 164 predictions) and the points table as a whole is based on my last 309 games watched.