A Bad Week

Three days and three defeats for my teams this week.

On Tuesday night in the National League Torquay travelled to Eastleigh. Eastleigh secured the game going into a 3-0 lead but Torquay fought back to 3-2 with goals from Ruairi Keating and Jake Andrews.

On Wednesday night Brentford travelled to Blackburn Rovers in the Football League Championship and went behind in the 11th minute. That opening goal was the only goal of the game so Brentford lost 1-0.

Last night (Thursday) Arsenal took on Eintracht Frankfurt, a team that they had beaten 3-0 on their own ground. Arsenal did seem to take them lightly and despite going 1-0 up through Aubameyang then conceded two goals to lose the match 2-1.

Three days and three defeats. I hope this weekend proves more fruitful for my selections.

Arsenal travel to Norwich in the Premier League on Sunday.

The other matches all take place on Saturday.

Brentford are at home to Luton Town in the Championship.

Southend are not playing as they were supposed to win their F.A.Cup match but did not.

Exeter take on Hartlepool United in the F.A.Cup on Sunday.

Torquay are at home to Stockport County in the National League.

Weymouth are at home to Hungerford Town in the Vanarama South (National League South).

Tiverton are at home to Gosport Borough in the Southern League Premier Division South.

Barnstaple are away to Highworth Town in the Southern League Division One South.

Exmouth are at home to Shepton Mallet in the Western League Premier Division.

Elmore are at home to league leaders Millbrook in the South West Peninsula League Premier East.

Liverton are at home to Exmouth Town Reserves in the Devon League North & East Division.

That last match and the local league matches are at the mercy of the weather which has not been kind for the last few weeks. 

Saturday 23rd November

I like rain.

It is good for the garden.

I do not like rain that goes on and on for days and days.

There has been no sunshine and my wife suffers from SAD syndrome. This is not a good thing.

Local league football = Postponed.

Even the matches that were being replayed after being postponed have been postponed.

The F.A. should start allowing more 3G pitches. The F.A. like grass. They are relegating forward thinking teams that have invested in a 3G pitch.

The F.A. also advised teams to take out minimal insurance and that has left Ossett United with a huge bill that means they may have to sell their ground to survive. The F.A. live in the 18th Century along with the fossils that run the F.A.

So, with no football for several weeks at local league level there will be a fixture pile up after christmas assuming that the rain actually stops.

In the Premier Division of the Devon & Exeter League Cronies beat Hatherleigh Town 3-0.

Carrying on up through levels 11, 10, 9 & 8 there were four more postponements.

Tiverton Town travelled to Hendon and came away with a 2-1 win. Winning ways have returned.

Torquay seem to have developed losing ways. They managed a 1-0 defeat away to Chorley.

Exeter City also travelled away but at Crawley Town they earned a 1-0 win.

Southend United have not responded to Sol Campbell who may not last too long. At have to Oxford United Southend managed to concede four goals while scoring none. A 4-0 home defeat.

Brentford beat Reading 1-0 in the Championship.

Arsenal took on Southampton at home and went 1-0 down. Alexander Lacazette equalised. Southampton then scored a second and held on until the 96th minute when Alexander Lacazette equalised. We will have to call him the equaliser.

Saturday 16th November 2019

So, with it being international week the Premier League and Championship have no fixtures taking place. Looking at my list of results many other planned matches did not take place either.

Burton Albion v. Southend United in League One was postponed due to international call-ups. I tried to find out who was called up, although not hard enough as I could find no information online.

In League Two Exeter City fought out a goalless draw with Cheltenham Town. The goalscorers were ....

Torquay United took on Sutton United at home in the National League. Sutton ran out 2-1 winners.

In the National League South the match between Hemel Hempstead Town and Weymouth was called off due to International Call-ups. This definitely needs more investigation. Are England C in action?

In the Southern League Tiverton took on the Metropolitan Police and won the match 2-1.

In the Southern League One South Barnstaple lost again, this time 3-1 away to Sholing. Barnstaple are now bottom of the league and are well worth their place as the strongest team (holding all the others up).

Exmouth travelled to Cadbury Heath in the Western League and won 5-1. This puts Exmouth on 24 points which is ten points behind Bradford Town at the top. Bradford have played 13 matches though and Exmouth have only played 10. If Exmouth win the three games in hand that will put them one point behind the leaders. There is plenty of time once the distractions of the F.A.Cup and F.A.Vase and the Les Phillips Cup have been played out.

In the Walter C Parson Cup Elmore took on Camelford and beat them 4-1 so march on to the next round of that particular cup.

In the Devon League North & East there was a change of fixture as Liverton travelled to Budleigh Salterton and lost by 5 goals to 1. Liverton are now clearly heading for a lower level of football next season.

From Level 12 onwards there were many fixture switches as postponements in the last few weeks have meant that cup matches need to be rearranged. Cronies postponed an East Devon Senior Cup match to play a Devon Premier Cup match. The result was a 2-0 win over Beer Albion.

The best win on the spreadsheet was an 8-2 victory by Broadclyst over Starcross Generals.

Too many matches are being postponed because of the rain. We need more 3G pitches but the F.A. are still governed by sad old men living in the past.

Leasing Dot Com Trophy

There were two matches last week for my teams in the Leasing.com Trophy.

Southend United took on AFC Wimbledon at home.

Exeter City took on West Ham United U21s at home.

Both of the home teams took the lead.

Both of the oppositions then equalised.

Both of the home teams then ran out 3-1 winners.

This was not enough for Southend to progress.

Exeter City have been drawn against Oxford United.

That concludes the Leasing Dot Com report.

Saturday Results

Well, starting with Sunday ... Southend United managed to lose 1-0 to Dover Athletic. An upset. The sad thing is that Sol Campbell did not appear to be that upset on the touchline. I wonder if he has given up on the squad already.

On Saturday Arsenal lost 2-0 away at Leicester. I will not be too critical as Leicester are above us in the table so it was expected. Mind you, Arsenal fans are beginning to expect defeat as a matter of course these days. The defence do not seem to care whether they concede or not. It has to be down to the coaching that the defence looks more like a sieve than a brick wall.

Good news for my Championship side as Brentford travelled to Wigan and ran out 3-0 winners. Maybe the team are starting to perform as it has been a slow start to the season.

Exeter travelled to Cambridge United and drew 1-1 in the F.A.Cup. I might go to the replay here in Exeter but it will largely depend on the weather and it is starting to get very cold these days.

Torquay travelled to Maidstone United and lost 1-0 in the F.A.Cup so that is the cup run over for this year.

In the Vanarama South Weymouth took on Hampton & Richmond Borough and ran out 2-1 winners.

Tiverton were due to play Blackfield & Langley but the match was postponed due to the weather.

Barnstaple actually played their match against Frome Town but that may not be a good thing as they lost 2-0.

All the other matches and many of the local league matches were postponed as the pitches were not fit for football.

The next couple of matches are in the Leasing Dot Com Trophy. I shall report shortly.

Super Sunday

So I wake up and it feels like the flu is waning at long long last.

I go shopping and get everything that I went for including that bulb the shape of which I have never seen before. Things are looking up.

My sporting Sunday is planned with Southend United on BT Sport at 12:00 noon playing Dover Athletic. Sol Campbell v. Andy Hessenthaler has my tastebuds tingling. Sol was a hero when he joined Arsenal from Spurs and took the stick that was necessary back then. He has chosen to manage Southend United, a club formerly managed by Gary Wassock. I shall watch with interest.

At 3:00pm I have to admit to one of my vices. I shall be watching Exeter Chiefs against Bristol in the Gallagher Premiership. Rugby Union was a sport I used to have the soccer AM attitude towards. Why do those egg chasers do it? Then I watched Exeter and they had an inspirational Irishmen by the name of Gareth Steenson who could kick the ball over the posts from all angles but also I watched him pick up men bigger than himself and put them on their behinds. I became hooked (a rugby term).

Tonight our village hall is holding their monthly film club and I want to support the initiative so I shall be out for entertainment with the wife. These things tend to be "use them or lose them" so to keep future options open I need to join in about 50% of the time.

Tomorrow I hope the flu will be gone (I feel a little groggy today) and I will then get my spreadsheets out and check all the F.A.Cup results along with the results of my teams at all levels.

Back to the second half of Dover v. Southend.

Vitoria 1 Arsenal 1

This was an infinitely forgettable match so I will not bore you with any details.

Mustafi scored with a header in the 80th minute, then after the 90 minutes were up Arsenal conceded a goal from a corner, something we do regularly these days. There is no pride in our defence. Individuals just look at each other and shrug their shoulders. We will not win the Europa League unless there is a massive improvement in attitude.

It was very different watching the match at 4pm on a Wednesday but it meant I could head to bed and try to recover from this flu around 6pm. I woke at 7am and things are starting to clear now although it is never pleasant expunging gunge from the body.

Flu Jab

I had my flu jab two weeks ago and guess what ... I got flu. This particular variety is not your three day flu and if my wife is anything to go by (she had the jab at the same time and succumbed quicker) then it is not even two week flu. This one has a constant sore throat, headaches on and off and the most annoying part is a whooping cough that just will not clear. I cannot recommend the flu jab this year, but if the real flu is worse than what I have got now then thousands are going to die this winter.

I have just prepared my spreadsheets again but as I am between sheets let me just tidy up last weekend. Many of the local league matches were postponed because of waterlogged pitches and this persistent rain shows no sign of going away. I remember looking at a weather map a week ago showing a band of rain stretching from South America to Britain and heading in our direction. We may have much more rain to come.

At the weekend Arsenal continued their poor run of results. A 1-1 draw at home to Wolves is not what we should be getting from this squad but we know there are internal problems that still need resolution. Goals from Aubameyang and Jimenez plus an outstanding save from Bernd Leno kept this game tight and we will have to hope that Arsenal pick up in the second half of the season.

So when my leading team underperform I always look to my other teams to raise the mood a bit. What with flu and the following results I have little reason to be cheerful.

Brentford 0 Huddersfield 1

Sunderland 1 Southend 0

Bradford 2 Exeter 0

The one team that did not let me down was Torquay. It sounds like a great game.

Halifax 2 Torquay 4

The next few matches were postponed until we get down to Barnstaple.

They did not make me feel any better.

Thatcham Town 5 Barnstaple Town 1

Would I find any favourable results in the amateur matches?

Nope ... Complete washout!


A bonus match that I had missed was Southend travelling to Portsmouth last night.

Portsmouth 4 Southend 1

So, a miserable week so far in so many ways. I think Arsenal need a result at Vitoria in the Europa Cup, a match played a day early and because of the clash with Champions League starting at 3:50pm.

Check time.

It is now 3:45pm.

Time to leave you and watch the boys.

November starts

I thought I had all 20 of my teams playing tomorrow but there is doubt about number 20. Let me double check them all.

1) Arsenal v. Wolverhampton.

2) Brentford v. Huddersfield

3) Sunderland v. Southend

4) Bradford v. Exeter

5) Halifax v. Torquay

6) Billericay v. Weymouth

7) Tiverton v. Chesham

8) Thatcham v. Barnstaple

9) Bradford Town v. Exmouth Town

10) Elmore v. Newton Abbot Spurs

11) University of Exeter v. Liverton

And then outside the Football Association Official Pyramid :-

12) Cronies v. Okehampton Argyle

13) Thorverton v. Lympstone

14) Sandford v. Elmore 2nds

15) Westexe Park Rangers v. Upottery 2nds

16) Cranbrook v. Colyton 2nds

17) Broadclyst v. Witheridge 2nds

18) Elmore 3rds v. Chagford 2nds

19) Lympstone 2nds v. Culm United 2nds

20) Westexe Park Rangers ... yes, a fixture has been arranged to fill the gap

20) Bradninch 2nds v. Westexe Park Rangers 2nds

Twenty matches to watch. Does anyone have a time machine?