Slick City Open Up Newmarket's Defences Twice

Hopperational Details
Date & Venue	Saturday 1 March 2025 at FWD-IP Community Stadium
Result	Cambridge City 2 Newmarket Town 0
Competition	Isthmian League D1 North (Step 4)
Hopstats	Ground 795 on my lifetime list. Here for pragmatic reasons – I needed a relatively short journey after having been overnight at a conference in Hertfordshire. Since the last blogpost I also managed a midweek trip to Wembley to watch England Women 1 Spain Women 0 in the Nations League, and what a splendid evening’s entertainment that was.
Context
Upper mid-table plays lower mid-table. May just about qualify as a “local derby”. The home side are known at this level as “Jamie Cureton’s Cambridge City” in the same way that we have recently had “Frank Lampard’s Coventry City” and “Wayne Rooney’s P45”.
Match Report
City’s new ground is still a work-in-progress but it’s a good one for this level. The pre-match food was among the best I’ve ever had at Step 4 but as these pics show this is a place where the words carbohydrate and low are unlikely to appear in the same sentence. My choice was a Twix Blondie.   On the pitch, these two teams of “big lads” faced up to each other on a good surface. Cambridge took control with two first half goals. They had already won several corners and forced one good save from the visiting keeper before Samrai Gebrai rolled the ball into the net after Newmarket had lost possession in their own half. Jack Thompson added the second from close range after a very neat build-up. Newmarket did their best to get back in the game and should have scored at least once, but promising approach play often broke down at the last. Cambridge held firm at the back and in the end took the points comfortably enough.
So What?
City could still conceivably make a play-off spot if a team above them falters, and Town looked good enough not to be drawn into a serious relegation scrap.
Pre-match Entertainment
What happens at staff conference stays at staff conference. However, at Wembley a couple of days earlier, I found myself in the level 2 tier where the food outlets include M&S and there are artistic representations of lions.
Pix
Cambridge City in White.
Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats Update
The background to this, and the latest keeper top colour league table, is here on this dedicated page. Today, Red (as expected) beats Blue and keeps a clean sheet. This is enough to restore Red to the top of the table. Pre-match Prediction based on Keeper Top Colour: Prediction: Home Win Was the prediction correct? Yes (87 from 175) % of correct predictions so far 49%
What Next?
Despite the best efforts of the nation’s transport infrastructure to prevent it, I will try to get to Saracens RUFC in north London at the weekend to see the Oxford v Cambridge rugby union games (women and men).

 

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.