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| This might explain at least some of the headaches of the home directors |
Hopperational details
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Date &
Venue
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Saturday 3
March 2012 at The Abrahams Stadium
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Result
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Wingate & Finchley 2 Margate 2
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Competition
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Isthmian
Premier League (Step 3)
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Hopping
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This fixture
does not add to the lifetime list (see #203) but it was in the right place on
my journey back having taken @yappattack to a checkup at Moorfields Hospital
in the morning. My original Twitter
friend and Man of Margate @JeremyJacobs was also in attendance.
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This match in one sentence
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After a
bizarre start which had two goals in two minutes, Margate eventually needed a
late penalty to rescue a point in windy conditions.
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So what?
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Mid-table
security looks likely for both these sides but Margate will be the happier having
avoided what would have been a seventh league defeat in a row.
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Something
random
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How are
Wingate & Finchley surviving at this level with a crowd of 105? Half of them were supporting Margate,
including a bow-tie wearing band.
Nice! Pic courtesy of Jeremy Jacobs.
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The drama unfolds
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The match kicked off at ten-to-eight according to the stadium clock on the far side. The first
harmless-looking ball over the top landed in the Wingate & Finchley
penalty area after about 20 seconds.
Somehow, Tom Bradbrook had plenty of time to bring it down and fire in
a daisycutter of a shot that crept in at the back post from the cutest of
acute angles. No idea how it went in, and in fact two other sources have it as a header, but not a great moment for home keeper Bobby Smith. 0-1
From the
first attack after the restart, a long ball down the middle dropped from the
sky towards the penalty spot. Leon
Smith (for whom the word burly was invented) jumped with Margate keeper Simon
Overland, who was trying to punch clear.
Smith made contact with the ball and his header looped into the net,
Overland made contact with Smith who stayed down for a horizontal moment of
celebration. Only two minutes gone, at
most. 1-1
Neither
team could maintain this goals-per-attack ratio and the game settled into a
pattern, with Margate arguably having the advantage of the windy
conditions. Here’s a scene-setter clip
taken about 20 minutes in from the back of the main stand. The home side are in blue.
Wingate
& Finchley took the lead after 33 minutes. A curling ball from the right got into the
6-yard box and Gazmend Dauti arrived from midfield just before Overland to
poke it home. They held on to the lead
comfortably until the interval. 2-1 at half-time
Margate
made a double substitution at half-time and Tom Murphy and Matt Bodkin were
to link up frequently with much greater pace and urgency. Several times one or other reached the
byline but a final ball either missed the target or evaded the
attackers. Here’s a second-half clip.
Lean Smith
continued to impress as a target-man with good strength, immaculate close
control and layoffs and intelligent movement.
Twice he found himself one-on-one with Overland. On both occasions the keeper came out on
top.
In stoppage
time, Margate’s increasingly desperate attacks got them a penaty for
handball. Here’s Dan Stubbs sending
Smith the wrong way from the spot. 2-2
There was
still time for an “if only” moment for each side. From Margate’s next attack, Smith made an
excellent block but the rebound was skied by Richard Avery when it should have been easier to
score. Here’s the home side’s last set
piece, which has Overland scurrying to his right as the stadium clock maintained its ten-to-eightness. Final score 2-2
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Man-of-the-Match
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I usually
ask myself which player decided the destination of the points – so this week
it goes to Margate goalkeeper Simon Overland.
Leon Smith was the best outfield player on the pitch by some distance,
but although Overland lost out to Smith in a 50:50 for the goal, it was the
keeper’s two one-on-one saves that kept Margate in the game and paved the way
for their point. Honourable mention to
the visiting subs Tom Murphy and Matt Bodkin.
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A snippet from the programme
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“In our youth, the Italian word
Panini meant more to us than Rossi or Tardelli. Walking around playgrounds or standing
outside Spar with our pile of unwanted stickers of Coventry’s Mick Coop –
resplendent in his chocolate brown kit – in a vague hope of finding that
elusive shiny Liverpool badge and the second half of the Swansea City team
sticker to complete our album.”
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What I learned today (well, this month)
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A
non-expert summary of what I now know about eyes.
Number 2 son Chris aka @yappattack is convalescing after a retinal
detachment and treatment at Moorfields.
Broadly speaking, there are three modes of treatment for retinal tears
and detachments. Firstly, laser
treatment can sometimes be used to stop a very small tear from spreading to
other parts of the retina. Secondly, a
scleral buckle is a strip of silicone stitched to the back of the eyeball to
change the shape of the eye and close the gap to the detached retina. This is often used in conjunction with
lasers or cryoscopy (very low temperatures) to create fresh scar tissue to
keep the retina in place. Thirdly, a
bubble of inert gas (sulphur hexafluoride) or silicone oil is injected into
the eye to push the retina into place from the inside. Sometimes this will need the patient to
maintain a certain head position for several days so the pushing is in the
right direction. The method that is
chosen will depend mainly on the nature of the tear or detachment. Chris’ scleral buckle from last week has
proved insufficient so he now has an eyeful of silicone too for a few months. All pretty amazing stuff technologically
and this is why more of our young people should be taking up the sciences.
If ever you
have the sense of losing part of your field of vision – such as a black
curtain coming across or down (Chris described his starting with a “bubble”
effect) – then get to Moorfields as soon as possible if you live anywhere
near London, or to your local A&E.
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What Next?
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I am only
planning one day at a time at the moment but I see there is a mid-Wales hop
next week and a Central Midlands hop the week after that.
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