Impasse in Ipswich

 

Hopperational Details
Date & Venue	Saturday 24 August at the GBS Stadium, Humber Doucy Lane
Result	Ipswich Wanderers 0 Heybridge Swifts 0
Competition	Isthmian League Division One North (Step 4)
Hopstats	Ground 788 on the lifetime list, here pragmatically rather than randomly today because of the weather prospects. The steady rain eased during the first half and there was plenty of covered space for a smallish crowd. Ipswich Town were being dismantled at Manchester City at the same time, which could have been a factor.
Context
Second league game of the season for both sides.
Match Report
My match report theme this season will be the idea that every game has a hinge point or turning point, and if it occurs later rather than earlier in the game, the more enjoyable the experience for the passing neutral such as myself. In this game it happened just after the hour. Heybridge were awarded a penalty for handball. Wanderers’ debutant keeper Warren Burford saved it. Within a minute at the other end they had a penalty appeal of their own turned down as their attacker couldn’t get a shot away in a tangle of feet. Then they headed narrowly over from the resulting corner. I’d already had my suspicions that this was going to be a scoreless afternoon, and now I felt certain with about half an hour to go. This game, which had started in steady rain, was never boring. Defences were on top for both sides but had to work hard. These are two strong and well-organised sides, trying to play the modern way whenever possible. It’s now an era where players wearing number five are expected to control and pass for a significant portion of the game. The teams largely cancelled each other out during the poor weather of the first half with no significant chance at either end. Heybridge will rue the missed penalty, Ipswich will point to a strong final fifteen minutes in which they stretched the Heybridge defence several times in succession. However, they could also have lost a player with a straight red near the end of the first half for a cynical trip to end a Heybridge break. Overall, the draw was probably a fair result.
So What?
I am not a fan of league tables this early in the season, but Ipswich Wanderers have four points and Heybridge Swifts have two. Much too soon to be saying anything more.
Pix
Groundhoppers beware that some satnavs will take you to the wrong place. “We get it all the time!”, said the gatekeeper at Ipswich Town’s nearby academy after I drove in through their half-open gate. The ground had a good clubhouse and plenty of covered areas, and is clearly now under further development given the club’s rise to Step 4 level. However, surely the attendances will need to be larger for this to be sustainable. In these pix, the home side is in blue.
Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats Update
The background to this, and the latest keeper top colour league table, is here on this dedicated page. Today, Green (three simultaneous shades, no less) and Grey both keep clean sheets. Pre-match Prediction based on Keeper Top Colour: Prediction: Away Win Was the prediction correct? No % of correct predictions so far 49% (81 from 167)
What Next?
Not going to jinx it in case the traffic on my least favourite section of motorway ruins things, but I have provisionally planned a Sunday-Monday Bank Holiday double, with a few alternatives if I cannot get to the furthest destination on time. These days I am posting on Threads rather than the toxic wasteland of Twitter.

 

 

Seasiders Coast to Victory After Swift Penalty Miss

Hopperational Details
Date & Venue	Saturday 2 February 2019 at The Goldstar Stadium
Result	Felixstowe & Walton United 3 Heybridge Swifts 0
Competition	Isthmian League Division One North (Step 4)
Hopstats	Ground 677 on the lifetime list and I am here pragmatically because the club were the first of my eleven possibilities to declare an unambiguous “Game On” decision in time for me to travel.  This ground completes the division for me.
Context
13th plays 4th but both clubs won last time out.  Heybridge won the reverse fixture 4-2 back in October and have signed a new forward this week.
In one sentence
A handsome home win hinged on a penalty save at 2-0 and was delivered through a determined rearguard action in the second half.
So what?
Aveley’s win at Canvey Island takes them above Heybridge, who drop to 4th. Felixstowe climb one place to 12th.
Match Report
Felixstowe took the lead in the 3rd minute through Jordan Matthews.  His glancing but unchallenged header from a left-wing cross gave keeper Chris Haigh no chance.  After that the teams largely nullified each other in midfield and defence.  There were plenty of players willing to go to ground in a tackle and there could be little time spent on the ball.  This meant largely predictable balls into the channels and very little of substance for the keepers to do other than make clearances.  Heybridge were competing well and an equaliser at this point would not have been a surprise. Instead, they went two down just before the half-hour.  This time, the scoring header was firm and downwards from another left-wing set piece, and it sneaked past the defender on the line at the far post, who was there to stop exactly that.  The scorer was Josh Kerridge. A couple of heroic blocks preserved the lead, and then there was a bit of pushing-and-shoving as the half-time whistle went.  Normally, Swifts’ manager Julian Dicks would have no need of a hairdryer, but I suspect he was not happy.  As might therefore be expected, Swifts came out flying for the second half, and the home side were defending deeply and not keeping the ball at all.  Swifts brought on Emmanuel Osei-Owusu up front for his debut.  The ref awarded them a penalty for a raised hand with 55 minutes showing on the clock.  Home keeper Jack Spurling showed his delight to the away faithful after saving Kreshnic Krasniqi’s shot, low to his right.  That was the hinge-point of the match right there.  As a physics teacher, I don’t throw the word momentum around in my match reports but you’ll get the drift. Heybridge continued to press and I wrote down, “A goal is coming!” in my notebook.  Indeed there was, and it was at the other end and against the run of play.  It looked as if there was some defensive miscommunication or ricochet that led to the ball being rolled into an unguarded net.  The scorer was Rhys Henry. With 25 minutes or so to go, the game was not over, but Heybridge lacked a cutting edge in their attempts to score.  Osei-Owusu was always looking to make himself available on the flanks, but although Spurling was called upon to make several saves, they were straightforward enough.  The Heybridge supporters stopped baiting him and sang, good-humouredly enough, about their own team’s limitations, their lack of enthusiasm for Maldon, and their desire to go home.  As a passing neutral, I can’t say that this felt like a 3-0 game, but I do think that the Seasiders deserved the win.
Pix
Felixstowe in red-and-white.  Tidy ground, good facilities. Palm trees in the gardens of adjacent houses showing that it must be warmer sometimes. We are Friends in the Game (I think)
Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats
New this season – a pre-match prediction based only on keeper top colours as a preliminary test of the data.  Proper statistical significance test to follow in due course.  Still being ignored by both Opta and the BBC. Minor controversy today – the home keeper’s blue warm-up top led me to make a Home win prediction.  However, I did not notice until midway through the first half (I was at the other end) that he had ditched it.  So it is a rare black-and-red half-and-half today that takes the win with a clean sheet against Radioactive Bile. Pre-match Prediction based on Keeper Top Colour: Prediction: Home Win Was the prediction correct? Yes % of correct predictions so far 64% (21 from 33) 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 half-and-half tops or 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 that orange is the best colour for a goalkeeper because it changes the behaviour of other players around the box. P W D L GC CS Pts PPG Red 10.5 5.5 1.0 4.0 11.0 3.5 24.0 2.286 Blue 44.1 19.0 7.0 18.1 68.0 14.0 66.0 1.497 Grey 49.5 23.0 11.0 15.5 80.5 14.0 69.5 1.404 Green 94.0 50.0 11.0 33.0 154.0 23.0 122.0 1.298 Fire Cracker 3.0 1.0 0.0 2.0 6.0 1.0 2.0 0.667 Maroon 5.0 2.0 1.0 2.0 9.0 1.0 3.0 0.600 Purple 21.0 8.0 4.0 9.0 45.0 5.0 8.0 0.381 Orange 45.5 15.0 8.0 22.5 84.5 7.0 3.5 0.077 Radioactive Bile 22.0 9.0 0.0 13.0 48.0 3.0 -6.0 -0.273 Black 6.5 2.5 3.0 1.0 15.0 0.5 -2.0 -0.308 Yellow 35.0 9.0 7.0 19.0 77.0 5.0 -18.0 -0.514 Pink 18.0 5.0 5.0 8.0 37.0 1.0 -12.0 -0.667 White 1.9 0.0 0.0 1.9 4.0 0.0 -4.0 -2.105
What Next?
Follow @GrahamYapp on Twitter!  28 Step 4 grounds (mostly northern) still to be done but we are heading for postponement season.  At this time of year, pitch inspections can be too late for me to travel.  Also, if any kindly Tottenham Hotspur STH wants to adopt me for the day or an evening when your new place opens up, give me a shout!