Needing More High Drama at Highmoor

Position at kickoff

Huddling together for warmth at a goalkick

Taken accidentally but an arty bonus!

Hopperational details
Date & Venue	Monday 19 November 2012 at Palmer Park
Result	Highmoor Ibis 0 Binfield 3
Competition	Hellenic Premier League (Step 5)
Hopping	Ground 494 on the lifetime list.  A Monday off work so I was able to take on a midweek hop with a comfortable journey to the eastern outskirts of Reading.  Plenty of ‘hoppers in attendance for this one.
Pre-match preparation
Not much comment in the local press.  League table and the lack of a home win so far this season suggest that Binfield will expect to take the points.
This match in one sentence
Binfield took the points but two late goals gave the scoreline a more one-sided slant.
So what?
Binfield are now third in the table and Highmoor fourteenth.  However, the latter have played more games than some of the teams below them and they will be looking over their proverbial shoulder.
The drama unfolds
The refreshments were being served in the athletics club hut which, on my arrival, had the depressed atmosphere of a dentist’s waiting room with Mars Bars, and my appearance seemed to make no difference.  However, soon the Monday hopping fraternity were swopping tales of derring-do and then a home official came and read out the teams to us.  We sat quietly with our notebooks of various shapes and sizes, speaking only to query the spelling of Theophanides.  I took up a place at the back of the very comfortable main stand, standing next to a “No Standing” sign.  I am such a rebel sometimes. The early part of the game was, shall we say, undistinguished.  The tempo of the game in these athletic stadia venues is always staccato.  (Can you have a staccato tempo?  Musicians please advise.)  Periods of intense activity are punctuated by waits while the ball is retrieved from the long jump pit or the 3000m hurdle water jump, and it always seems to me to be very unsatisfactory.  I watched the trains go by on the adjacent main line, and made an early note that I would not report that there was a female referee, as it is irrelevant.  Oh. Here is a clip from about 20 minutes in, and Binfield are employing the long throw tactic.  There’s a half-chance at each end and that is as interesting as anything we had seen so far.  Highmoor are in blue. The aforementioned Adam Theophanides, in the home central defence, almost gave us a comedy own goal but his keeper, Daniel Smith, reacted sharply to grab his header.  The second clip has a Highmoor corner and a Binfield break, and comes from the half-hour mark. I have kept clip 3 in this week of Zlatan Ibrahimovic only because it features an as-yet-unidentified Binfield player attempting a bicycle kick.  The game faded to the interval, still a goalless stalemate.  0-0 at half-time Binfield started the second half well.  A cross delivered from the right came off the bar and fell safe.  Then Smith did well to block a shot, though it was straight at him.  Binfield started to look the more threatening.  They broke the deadlock in the 62nd minute.  Seb Bowerman caused problems on the left wing and Highmoor allowed him to do the same again a minute later.  This time his cross eluded the defence and several Binfield attackers were queueing up to finish.  James Suarez got the final touch.  0-1 I recorded, and deleted as being too tedious, several more clips after this.  It took till the 83rd minute before Binfield made the game safe.  The ball broke kindly for Carl Davies as he burst through the defensive line but he got round Smith and had an easy finish.  0-2 Here is a late clip to prove I was still awake. The third goal came in stoppage time from Garry Sergeant.  Job done.  Binfield will be happy with a three-goal away win I think.  Final score 0-3
The programme
Something random
News is in via @thecoldend that Rye United (see previous post) have lodged a formal appeal to the FA concerning the tie at Amersham.  Today’s draw has produced South Park of the Combined Counties League as the next opponents once the appeal is resolved one way or the other. My visit to Binfield was before the days of this blog (a 3-1 win in 2008-2009), but I saw Ibis earlier this season, in September at Marlow – you can pick up the post from the tag cloud on the right.  You will see that there too I reported that late goals had given their opponents a bigger win than the balance of play suggested.
Hopping for Moorfields Update
111 goals in 31 games, and a three-goal game.
What Next?
A Pot Noodle on the way home to be brutally honest.  I might try and get to an FA Vase replay on Tuesday evening if I can finish work promptly.

Marlow Score Four More

Hopperational details
Date & Venue	Tuesday 11 September
Result	Marlow 4 Highmoor Ibis 1
Competition	Hellenic League Premier Division (Step 5)
Hopping	Ground 479 on the lifetime list – here because of midweek travel constraints!  A real groundhopping gem, it has to be said.
Pre-match preparation
Not a lot!  Late decision.  Leave the M40 at junction 4, and that’s about it.  Quick look at the programme shows that Marlow have a 100% home league record before tonight with 21 goals in 4 games!
This match in one sentence
Two very late goals gave an unfair slant to the evening, as this win was much less convincing than the scoreline suggests.
So what?
Marlow are 6th (three points behind the leaders) with a superb home league record, and Ibis are 15th.
The drama unfolds
Marlow’s number 11 in the last match, Phil John, suffered a nasty leg break in an incident that held up that game for 35 minutes.  Whether as a mark of respect or for practical laundering reasons I don’t know, but Ian Davies was wearing 17 rather than 11, and he opened the scoring after 5 minutes.  Jerome Coultress tripped Marcus Mealing, and Davies scored from the penalty spot.  1-0 Here is a scene-setter clip from midway through the first half.  Marlow in all blue. It must be a nightmare for many Hellenic linesmen, but Marlow play an offside trap, and quite effective it is too.  Ibis attackers were certainly getting frustrated with it.  At the other end, Mealing was getting plenty of the ball, often drifting out to the left as Marlow controlled the game.  It was no surprise that they got a second goal after 24 minutes, through Ben Gladwin’s shot from the edge of the box, and I can only assume keeper Mitchell Parker was unsighted or there was a deflection.  He got nowhere near it.  Marlow saw out the rest of the first half easily enough.  2-0 at half-time Highmoor Ibis started the second half better and here is a clip from just before the hour mark – I have moved to the upper strata of the main stand.  It’s not often you get the chance to be this high at a step 5 game! Just after this, Ibis pulled a goal back, as they had been threatening.  We had already had one close call for offside.  A curling direct freekick from Jamal Forde-Small found the net.  Good strike.  2-1 Another close offside call followed.  I can’t say it was wrong, but it was another close one.  Ibis were looking strong, and with better finishing or a bit more composure around the box they would surely have got level.  They would have deserved it at this point in the game – Forde-Small was prominent in their attacking play.  Ibis finally broke the offside trap with 15 minutes to go and it needed a superb goalline clearance from Alex Salmon to protect the Marlow lead.  They really should have scored.  Forde-Small was narrowly wide with a shot after the trap had been sprung again, when perhaps the pass would have been a better option.  Devontae Romeo dribbled from left midfield into the box and shot just over. Then, in the last few minutes, Marlow substitutes started to find space up front.  There was almost a comedy goal where Ibis sub Simon Eade, rushing back, headed past his own keeper Parker, rushing out, but he recovered to clear for the corner.  Then Parker was stranded after a loose throw out, and Gladwin sent in a neat lob which dropped on the top of the crossbar. I switched the camera on just in time to capture the Marlow insult-to-injury goal, announced as 88 minutes on the clock.  Davies crosses from the right for sub Jamie Piercy.  3-1 In stoppage time, Davies got his second with an odd goal, rolled in along the line and in off the post from a tight angle.  Two goals and an assist for him on the night, but overall a scoreline that seemed harsh on Ibis.  Marlow took their chances but Ibis didn’t.  Final score 4-1
The programme
Something random
A montage of pictures in the clubhouse from the 1991 FA Cup tie between West Bromwich Albion and Marlow.  West Brom won this one 6-0, but Marlow showed more cup pedigree the next season with a visit (and a noble 5-1 defeat) to Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane. There is a large match poster in the clubhouse.  They had two more 90s cup runs of note.  In those days the club played in the Isthmian Premier League, which we would now call step 3 of the “non-league” game.
Hopping for Moorfields Update
Five more goals taking the running total to 56 from 12 matches.
What Next?
Glad to see announcements from club and players that Truro City will be in existence – my last unvisited step 2 ground, so I am hoping to see them against Bromley on Saturday.