Saturday 24 August 2019

Saturday Morning 24th August

My daughter has had her surrogate daughter over this week so my time has been taken up trying to get the hosepipe fixed to the tap, finding the cats so that she can stroke them and then the visit to Exeter to travel on the ferry at the quay together with a delightful lunch at the Puerto Lounge.

So what have my selected teams been doing in the meantime. We are watching much less TV since moving and trust me this is a good thing. Wall to wall Brexit is very bad for the human condition. Brexit is bad for the economy, but following Europe down the wrong path is arguably worse.

Southend United took on Peterborough United and lost 2-0. That means four defeats out of four in the league at the start of the season. The club are clearly concentrating on the Carabao Cup which saw their only win, 2-1 against Stevenage.

Exeter travelled to Oldham Athletic and managed a 0-0 draw which cannot be seen as a poor result away from home. Following the 1-1 draw at home to Swindon last week and two early victories the league form is reasonable with no defeats so far. The only loss was 4-1 to Coventry City in the Carabao Cup.

Barnstaple took on Bristol Manor Farm at home and managed to lose 2-1. This matches the form I saw when I watched them lose 1-0 in the F.A.Cup. The shock for me is that 4-3 win away from home at Basingstoke Town. I expect the team to blow hot and cold and colder this season.

These first three matches took place on Tuesday and there were four matches that took place on Wednesday this week.

Brentford travelled to Leeds United who are hurting from their failure to be promoted last season.The result was a 1-0 defeat. I have not yet searched for a You Tube precis of the match.

Exmouth Town, who I expect to watch several times this season as the experience has always been a good one with friendly helpful staff, suffered their first defeat of the season in the Western League Premier Division. Plymouth Parkway scored the only goal of the game on their home ground. This league is new to Exmouth following promotion last season so I do not expect miracles but the team I have watched already this season look like a solid outfit.

Elmore earned a 2-2 draw at home to Ivybridge Town and until I visit the team I shall say not more about the result and the chances of Elmore to advance up the leagues.

I did visit my local team Liverton United. It is a long walk so I drove into the ground and saw what I perceive as a club in decline. The ground has clearly seen better days and needs an injection of capital if the club are to progress. This may not be the right time as I stayed until half time and watched the defence abandon their keeper while Teignmouth banged in three goals. Checking the internet I see that the defeat was by 5 goal to 1 so the second half was a better if losing performance.

What I will say is that the Liverton team seemed to be enjoying their football and I can take that. The Teignmouth side turned out in Tottenham kit, white tops and black shorts, so I thought it would be easy to hate the opposition but to be fair they were the better team and I think the result was accurate.

I very nearly went to see a local league team, Lympstone, last night, but I stayed home to update my spreadsheets which got behind while I moved house. Lympstone produced the only win on my Excel data this week by beating Winchester 1-0. Good on you Lympstone. I need a bit of good news.

Today I intend to return to Liverton as they are playing my old local team Exwick Villa. I currently refuse to fund Rupert Murdoch's attempt to make Britain American so I may not get to see Arsenal this evening. Sky Sports have a business model which does not maximise profits but their intention is to break all other service providers so I am doing my little bit to destroy the evil empire.

Match of the day will be essential viewing as long as I withhold money from Sky Sports.







No comments:

Post a Comment