Meridian's Lines are Broken Three Times

Hopperational details
Date & Venue	Friday 18 April 2014 at Charlton Park Lane
Result	Meridian VP 0  Hollands & Blair 3
Competition	Kent Invicta League (Step 6)
Hopping	Ground #533 on the lifetime list is my first-ever in this particular league, chosen partly for practical reasons and partly because of its significance.
Pre-match preparation
Hollands & Blair are divisional leaders and will be wanting a win as the next step in securing the title.
This match in one sentence
In the end, a comfortable win for Hollands & Blair.
So what?
The visitors remain on course for the title.  They have four fixtures left against mid-trable sides, and although Lydd could catch them, it looks unlikely.  Meridian are 13th (of 15) and could yet be overtaken by the club beneath.
The drama unfolds
It turned out that @cynderness was in town and looking for a game, so twitterations were made and she was found lurking with a pint of local bitter in Charlton, as per.  We arrived at the clubhouse to find there was no food available (except Black Country pork scratchings which to be fair don’t appear on the vegetarian standard lists).  With the help of the friendly bar staff, Cyn secured a groundhopping first and started a new and welcome trend.  It can thus now be confirmed that Pizza Hut (other cheese melters are available) will deliver to the halfway line at a step 6 game.  This changes everything. Hollands and Blair, meanwhile, were taking the lead just as the delivery was made with a quarter of an hour gone.  Steve Dampier was the scorer.  0-1 with side orders of garlic bread and chips after 15 mins Here’s the scene setter clip, which ends with H&B missing a good chance of a second.  Meridian are in the pale blue. Sam Welch headed the second and for the rest of the half H&B looked comfortable and in control.  0-2 after 26 mins We had an unusual episode for a Meridian freekick where the ref re-paced the 10 yards back for the defensive wall after loud protests from the touchline.  The protesters were right, to be fair.  The freekick came to nothing.  0-2 at halftime In the second half, H&B wasted several good chances.  There was a long stoppage for treatment to the Meridian goalkeeper Paul Daley.  Sensibly, H&B put him under immediate pressure again.  Welch was harshly booked for the collision but Daley could not continue and one of the outfield players took the grey shirt.  He assured those of us nearby that he’d done so before. Here’s another clip. The new man between the sticks almost kept a personal clean sheet.  James McDonald headed just wide, he maybe should have scored.  It was not until stoppage time that Louis Valencia set up a close-range header for substitute Stuart West.  Job Done.  Final score 0-3
Ground Pix
Match Pix
Huddle Stats
No huddles today. 2013-14 Summary so far: P W D L F A Pts PPG Huddlers 13 5 4 4 13 9 19 1.46 Non-Huddlers 28 12 3 13 43 47 39 1.39 Twin Huddlers 1 0 1 0 2 2 1 1.00
Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats
Hollands & Blair provided the first Purple keeper of the new season.  Grey holds on to second place despite the loss for the home shirt.  3pts per game is more significant from 11 games than from 2, as achieved by Red. 2013-14 Summary so far: 3pts for a win, 1pt for a draw, -1pt for a goal conceded and +5pts for a clean sheet P W D L GA (-1 each) CS (5 each) Pts Pts per Game Purple 1 1 0 0 0 1 8 8.00 Grey 11 6 2 3 12 5 33 3.00 Red 2 1 0 1 2 1 6 3.00 Green 9 5 0 4 11 2 14 1.56 Yellow 4 1 1 2 8 1 1 0.25 Orange 3 1 1 1 6 0 -2 -0.67 Radioactive Bile 3 1 0 2 6 0 -3 -1.00 Pink 6 1 3 2 14 0 -8 -1.33 Blue 3 0 1 2 6 0 -5 -1.67
What Next?
Watch @GrahamYapp on Twitter for details!