Bewdley Trumped by Westfields in the Cup

Hopperational details
Date & Venue	Saturday 5 August 2017 at Allpay Park, Hereford.
Result	Westfields 3 Bewdley Town 1
Competition	FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round
Hopstats	Ground Number 612 on my lifetime list, and I am here because a tweet from President Trump contained the word West, which therefore uniquely determined that Westfields, which also contains West, would be my pseudorandom choice today from 102 unvisited grounds. The details are in the blogpost that immediately precedes this.  Reaction on Twitter suggests that around a dozen people were mildly amused by this match-choice methodology.  The President will in due course look back at this as one of his better “decisions”, I feel sure.
Advice for the Hopperatic Society	Plan your car parking and look at a map before you travel.  This ground is tucked away in open parkland.  There is some limited parking, but I parked in the city centre and had an easy 15 minute stroll. Go past the Edgar Street stadium and then turn left.
Context
First competitive game of the season for both teams.  Step 5 Midland League plays Step 6 West Midlands Regional so the home side will start as favourites, especially as they have the experience of a splendid giantkilling run to the First Round Proper last season.
In one sentence
In the end, a straightforward Westfield win once a second goal had gone in early in the second half.
So what?
Westfields will travel to AFC Wulfrunians in two weeks in the Preliminary Round.
Match Report
Westfields gradually gained the first-half ascendancy but were made to work hard.  Alex Hainault saw a long-range effort tipped over spectacularly.  They eventually took the lead just before the interval with a low shot across the keeper by defender Matt Sysum.  Hainault added the second a few minutes after the restart with another low shot when freed by a neat backheel from Richard Graves.  It looked as if that would be that, and it certainly was with fifteen minutes left.  Substitute Carlos Moreira hammered home the rebound from his own shot after he had received the ball on the edge of the box from a corner.  Three well-worked and well-taken goals without reply until Pountney’s persistence paid off and he scored a stoppage-time consolation goal for the visitors. Westfields 3 (Sysum 41, Hainault 51, Moreira 75) Bewdley 1 (Pountney 90+1)
The “If Only…” Moment
If only Bewdley striker Lewis Pountney could have found the net rather than firing over, after his excellent movement had created the first real chance of the game with 11 minutes gone.
Ground Pix
Those big steel tanks belong to Heineken and I suspect they contain a billion fermenting apples.  Hereford is big in the world of cider production.
Match Pix
On This Day in Hopping History
5 August 2014 saw Spelthorne Sports win their first game at Step 5 with a 2-1 Combined Counties victory over Bedford Sports featuring a gazillion Chironomid midges. http://modushopperrandom.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/spelthorne-step-up.html
Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats
Today, orange beats green but neither has a clean sheet, and green still remains just ahead of  orange in mid-table.  For new readers, this is all because Petr Cech has or had an opinion that orange was best.  I will think about a statistical significance test at the end of the season. Results so far: 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 .1s and .5s are caused respectively by a non-matching sub keeper and a really annoying 50:50 top. P W D L GC CS Pts PPG Red 8.0 4.0 0.0 4.0 8.0 3.0 19.0 2.38 Blue 28.1 11.0 5.0 12.1 44.0 10.0 44.0 1.57 Maroon 4.0 2.0 1.0 1.0 6.0 1.0 6.0 1.50 Grey 39.5 19.0 8.0 12.5 64.5 11.0 55.5 1.41 Green 55.0 26.0 7.0 22.0 95.0 15.0 65.0 1.18 Orange 22.5 8.0 4.0 10.5 34.5 5.0 18.5 0.82 Purple 10.0 5.0 2.0 3.0 22.0 2.0 5.0 0.50 Yellow 24.0 7.0 6.0 11.0 46.0 5.0 6.0 0.25 Radioactive Bile 12.0 5.0 0.0 7.0 26.0 1.0 -6.0 -0.50 Pink 12.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 26.0 1.0 -8.0 -0.67 Black 5.0 1.0 3.0 1.0 14.0 0.0 -8.0 -1.60 White 1.9 0.0 0.0 1.9 4.0 0.0 -4.0 -2.11
What Next?
Watch @GrahamYapp on Twitter for details!  My priority grounds for this season will be AFC Fylde (to restore my 116 down to Step 1), Poole Town and Spennymoor Town (to restore my 160 down to Step 2) and then, at Step 3, Ashton United, Lancaster City, Merthyr Town, Shaw Lane, Tiverton Town, Warrington Town and Whitby Town to complete the 232 down to Step 3 for the first time.  I also hope, travel practicalities permitting, to go back to my blogroots and have as many random or randomish decisions as possible.  In the real world, I have now partly retired, at least for now (!), so I hope for more regular and reliable Saturday hopping time this season.

Livid in Tividale

Hopperational details
Date & Venue	Friday 17 August 2012 at The Beeches
Result	Tividale 3 Westfields 4
Competition	Midland Football Alliance (Step 5)
Hopping	I am here for ground #467 on the lifetime list as a bonus geographical stepping stone on the way to Workington on Saturday.
Pre-match preparation
Tividale have 5 points from 3 games so far and drew their only other home league match with a late equaliser.  Westfields have 3 from 2 – a 3-2 home win and a 2-5 away defeat.  However, both teams had good FA Cup wins at the weekend and should be confident.
This match in one sentence
Westfields were good value for their 2-1 half-time lead but Tividale in turn deserved their late equaliser, before the visitors had the better of three very late goals.
So what?
Westfields may be the team to follow for fans of high-scoring matches - that's 25 (13 for and 12 against) in four games.  They are sixth in the fledgling league table with Tividale a place beneath.
The drama unfolds
I am still experiencing momentary disorientation after last week's labyrinthitis and the evening almost started badly with adding milk to my pie rather than my coffee, but some deep-rooted survival mechanism clicked into place in my brain stem and equilibrium was restored just in time.  I did not have long to wait before the first goal of the evening.  Westfield are in white. From this 4th-minute corner, the defensive header was missed and a moment later, Westfield's #5 and captain, Scott Jackson, hit the back of the net with his.  0-1 Tividale almost scored with their first attack but Jon Pugh made the first of several decent saves and blocks.  The first equaliser came very soon after, and Ashley Edwards celebrated with a double cartwheel.  1-1 Tim Beech, in the Tividale goal, was called upon to make a save with a Hollywood dive and catch as Westfields gained ascendancy.  Aiden Thomas was leading the line well and it needed a timely intervention from fullback Tyrone Falconer to deny him a good chance.  The visitors regained the lead after 26 minutes.  Will Loughman burst through from the right-back position, played a neat one-two and smacked the chipped return past Beech, who got a hand to it.  1-2 Beech was rather lucky not to gift Westfields another one almost immediately as he dithered at the edge of the area.  Here's a first-half clip, from 35 minutes into the game, showing another half-chance for Westfields and a yellow card for a tackle. Thomas played a magnificent through ball but the flag went up for offside, but Westfield could not extend their lead.  At this stage they seemed to have more invention, more options and more composure as the home side were reduced to "route one" for much of the time.  1-2 at half-time Sadly, it was too cloudy to watch the International Space Station pass over at half-time, and I stayed a reasonable distance from the Tividale changing rooms so as not to hear any rude words.  Tividale indeed came out stronger and were very unfortunate not to equalise very soon.  Pugh tipped a shot onto the base of the post and Kyle Brady was able to send a looping header goalwards from the rebound - Pugh just managed to get another touch and push it onto the same post. Westfields lost Jackson and Tividale continued to press, forcing another full length save from Pugh, albeit at a nice height for him.  Adam Hill also shot just over, before this happened. Kyle Brady is the man doing most of the celebrating although my clip is inconclusive.  2-2 This would have been a fair result, but both teams tried for the win, the next chance falling to Westfields' Richard Kear who sidefooted over.  My final clip is from 85 minutes, just before the final goal glut! After considerable Tividale pressure, Pugh made yet another save to his left but this time the ball fell to Adam Hill just on the edge of the area.  He took a moment to steady himself and finished really well.  3-2 Within a minute, the last one of the ninety on my watch, Westfield were level.  I cannot as yet identify the scorer (I was at the other end) but I have a 50% chance that it was Craig Jones, and I am still not really sure how the ball broke for him to have a straightforward finish.  3-3 Another unidentified scorer, but 50% chance it was Aiden Thomas, headed in a cross from the right, three minutes into stoppage time, and this time there would be no comeback.  Final score 3-4 Very entertaining for the passing neutral, good for my "Hopping for Moorfields" goal tally, and mighty frustrating for the locals.  As I left the ground, the home manager's words of wisdom about "the business end of the game" were ringing around the ground.  Thanks to @tividale_fc and the Westfields website for help in identifying scorers.
The programme
Something random
This particular Westfields is in Hereford, and one day I must pay a visit, especially if they keep up this goals-per-game average!
Hopping for Moorfields Update
This seven-goal thriller adds around a tenner to the value of the pledge pot, but there is still time to join in.  Please send any pledges through Twitter @GrahamYapp or by email to headyapp(at)hotmail.com.  11 goals in two games so far, but I still reckon that it will average out at about 240 goals in 60 or so games by the end of the season.  This means you can pledge a penny-a-goal for less than the cost of a premier league programme or Robin van-Persie's left bootlace.  (Do boots still have bootlaces?)  No Dutchmen met, no farm animals observed.  See earlier blogposts for some more explanation of why this matters.
What Next?
Workington v Stalybridge Celtic on Saturday afternoon, as determined by the Burnley Express.  Trust me.