Time for Beds

Hopperational details
Date & Venue	Wednesday 12 April 2017 at Shefford Sports & Social Club
Result	Shefford Town & Campton 0 Flitwick Town 3
Competition	Bedfordshire Senior League Premier Division (Step 7)
Hopping	Number 603 on the lifetime list. Here because of proximity and the fact that the result matters for the divisional outcome.
Pre-match preparation
Flitwick Town went to the top of their league at the weekend, and although there could be twists and turns to come, they are now in control of the title destination.  Shefford Town & Campton are respectably mid-table and are not likely to roll over meekly.  Game on.
This match in one sentence
In much the same pattern as my game at Sun Sports last night, Flitwick did their damage in the first half and added a slightly flattering third goal late on.
So what?
Flitwick may yet have to win all three of their remaining games to be sure.  AFC Kempston are in second place, with a six-point deficit but also two games in hand.  Shefford Town & Campton were defeated but not disgraced and should hold on for a mid-table finish.
The drama unfolds
I spent the first 15 minutes trying to work out who was who. A 2016 photo on the Shefford Twitter account has a team in blue-and-white, and the corner flags were blue-and-white.  However, some shouts between the players made me suspicious, especially as the blues were in the ascendancy early on and showing all the urgency of potential champions.  The other team lined up in a fluorescent greenish kit, surprisingly close to that worn by the opposing goalkeeper (see below).  As I was pondering, a fluorescent player made a good headed clearance from under the bar, only for Blue #5 to head in easily from the resulting corner kick.  1-0 or 0-1 to be confirmed The corner that led to the opening goal, couldn't resist a playful but respectful nod to well-known NL photographer Simon Langston ;) I deduced from some of the unparliamentary language that followed that Shefford were indeed in the dayglo and therefore very grumpy with each other.  So 0-1 it is.  Before too long, a second followed as Blue #9 finished a wave of attacks.  The first half finished without anything else of significance to report.  0-2 at half-time No chance for the keeper.  0-2. There was much effing do this and effing do that in the Shefford half-time huddle and they duly did.  In the deepening gloom (no floodlights here and a kickoff that had been closer to 6.30pm than 6.15pm) they worked hard to get back into the game.  If a cross-shot had gone in rather than hit the bar after 62 minutes, who knows what might have happened.  Another flicked looping chance went wide just after.  I’d already noted the similarity to last night’s game when the home keeper had to save a one-on-one, but the third goal finally arrived from the penalty spot after a pull.  Blue #10 will get the credit (I think).  I think the game finished a minute early but by then it was pretty dark anyway and no-one complained.  0-3 after 84 mins and at FT
Ground Pix
Match Pix
Shefford Town & Campton in dayglo green!
Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats
Tonight, a first win for Radioactive Bile, over Orange.  Here is the table after 100 tracked games.  I must look into a statistical significance test to see whether this is a valuable addition to human knowledge and worth an honorary doctorate from someone ;) See, that's not traditional goalkeeper green and it's not yellow either. 3pts for a win, 1pt for a draw, -1pt for a goal conceded (GC) and +5pts for a clean sheet (CS).  Shirts ordered by points per game (PPG).  Fractional games arose when sides subbed a keeper part-way through for a non-matching replacement or had one in a top that was really half-and-half. 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 Green 47.0 26.0 5.0 16.0 75.0 14.0 78.0 1.66 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 34.5 16.0 7.0 11.5 58.5 8.0 36.5 1.06 Orange 19.5 6.0 4.0 9.5 28.5 5.0 18.5 0.95 Purple 10.0 5.0 2.0 3.0 22.0 2.0 5.0 0.50 Yellow 21.0 6.0 5.0 10.0 40.0 4.0 3.0 0.14 Radioactive Bile 10.0 3.0 0.0 7.0 23.0 1.0 -9.0 -0.90 Pink 11.0 2.0 4.0 5.0 25.0 1.0 -10.0 -0.91 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!  I will definitely be at the Northern Counties East hop games on Friday and Saturday, but Thursday night is like Schrödinger's Cat, in an as yet undetermined state.