Liverton 5 Exmouth Reserves 2

Liverton produced their best performance of the season to come from 0-1 down to beat their young opponents.

Two well taken goals from Man of the Match Dejan Maric laid the platform for the win. Maric worked tirelessly in his striking role.

Further goals from Sam Hebbes, Nick Edmunds and Neil Last with his customary 25 yard free kick sealed the win.

Well done lads.

Great display.

Saturday 7th March : Fixtures

For the first time in a long time all my fixtures are taking place on Saturday.

1) Arsenal v. West Ham United
2) Brentford v. Sheffield Wednesday
3) Southend v. Bristol Rovers
4) Walsall v. Exeter
5) Sutton United v. Torquay
6) Bath City v. Weymouth
7) Tiverton v. Weston-super-Mare
8) Barnstaple v. Sholing
9) Exmouth v. Chipping Sodbury Town
10) Elmore v. Torrington
11) Liverton v. Exmouth Town Reserves

12) Beer Albion v. Cronies
13) Lympstone v. Bow Amateur Athletic Club
14) Sandford v. Elmore 2nds
15) North Tawton v. Westexe
16) Cranbrook v. Kentisbeare 2nds
17) Farway United v. Broadclyst
18) Topsham Town 2nds v. Elmore 3rds
19) Priory v. Lympstone 2nds
20) Westexe 2nds v, Witheridge 3rds

All we need now is a day without torrential rain.

Rambling On - Combined Counties League

So I found out something very interesting today.

I first started keeping track of all the football leagues in England back in 2011-12 when I was working for a company that had no concept of man management and insisted that I work on a project where there was no work to be done.

To be fair I was given the option of going back to my old job but if you were paid to sit around waiting for some work to show up what would you do? My choices were to sit and stare into space or do something. I chose to research the Football Pyramid and starting with the Premier League and then the Football League. I established that below the National League there were a whole host of other leagues and back then teams could apply to move from one to another.

Having completed the Level 1 to 5 single division diagram I learned that there were two divisions at Level 6 although those non league officianados insisted on calling it Step 2. Below that there were three regional leagues, the Northern Premier League, the Southern League which covered a huge area, and the Isthmian League centred around East London.

Each of the regional leagues had feeder divisions at Level 8 and at one point I thought "that will do" but I am a perfectionist so I wanted to continue the pyramid to its ultimate conclusion. Little did I know that there are far more leagues than I ever expected and I have now started collecting Scottish, Welsh and Irish leagues after completing most if not all of the county leagues. The F.A. have now decided the County Leagues should sit at Level 11 (Step 7) and have been decimating long standing leagues to achieve that aim.

When I reached Level 9 (Step 5) I decided to work in alphabetical order and the Combined Counties League was first out of the hat. This league had and still has a Premier Division and a Division One.
What intrigued me most this morning was that back in 2011-12 when I started the team sitting at the top of the Combined Counties League Division One was Guernsey. I visited their ground when I was on holiday a few years back.

This season 2019-20 the team at the top of the Combined Counties League Division One is Jersey Bulls following in the Guernsey footsteps. The "Combined" name means that the league is very flexible in terms of who it allows in and it has allowed the channel islands teams to compete albeit that they have to pay for the travel costs of their opponents when they visit the islands.

This level 10 division includes teams such as Fleet Spurs, Bagshot, Cove and Westside as well as the more interestingly named Chessington & Hook United, Eversley & California (there IS a California in Britain), British Airways (I wonder if this is a works team) and FC Deportivo Galicia (maybe with some foreign nationals in the team). According to my table four teams will be promoted to the Premier Division so alongside Jersey Bulls the teams in position at the moment are Farnham Town, Tooting Bec (I am sure there is a station there) and Walton & Hersham. Question: How many sides have merged over the years to become X&Y or A&B?

The Premier Division is currently led by Ascot United followed by Spelthorne Sports. The division includes Sutton Common Rovers, Guildford City and Hanwell Villa who currently sit bottom of the division. It also contains one of my favourite names for a team and that is Badshot Lea. I have a fantasy of watching the team or its opposition playing a forward called Leigh or Lee who would shoot high and wide whereupon we could all shout "Bad Shot Lee". ... Fantasy over.

That concludes the ramble about the Combined Counties League. My knowledge is limited but at least the Channel Islands are now BOTH represented in the professional leagues. This is the first season for Jersey Bulls and they are storming the league so I expect them to go far. The Guernsey side are currently in the Isthmian League South East Division so that must be the minimum target for Jersey as they are the larger of the two islands.

Ramble around the Leagues

We will start in the South West where I live and breathe. My favourite leagues are the ones that start at Level 10 (Step 6). The football pyramid extends to Level 7 but the Football Association are now pushing for Level 7 to be County Level leagues so anything above that has to be pushed, pulled and pulverised until it fits the dream that the F.A. have.

The South West Peninsula League has always held a fascination for me as I watched teams promoted from the subsidiary division which are free to the Premier Division where they are required to charge money and count the crowd. I always felt that this league allowed a transition from amateur football to the professional game but the F.A. have put paid to that. They want the professional game under their jurisdiction, and the amateur game can make their own rules.

So ... This Season ... There is no league as such. There are now two parallel divisions, one east and one west. I shall watch closely at the end of the season to see where the champions end up as previous to this season the winners of the South West Peninsula and the winners of the Western League Division One were both eligible for promotion to the Western League Premier Division. Now there will be three teams vying to go up so expect there must be three teams coming down in different directions. Relegation and Promotion are rarely one to one at this level.

The two teams at the top of the East Division are Ilfracombe Town in North Devon and Brixham in South Devon. The non league matters league table suggests that both teams will be promoted but I cannot see that unless the F.A. have more changes in mind that they have not announced yet, or are not yet general knowledge. At the bottom and heading for the Devon League are Sidmouth Town, more know for Folk Music than for football.

At the top of the West Division are Helston Athletic from west cornwall and AFC St Austell from east cornwall. At the bottom are Godolphin Atlantic from Newquay heading in the same direction as their airport now that FLYBE have been abandoned by the government despite being acknowledged as an important connector for business personnel around Britain.

There are two more league that start at Level 10 (Step6). One is the East Midlands Counties League that acts as a feeder to the Northern Counties East League. Sherwood Colliery are at the top (was Robin Hood a miner?) and they are closely followed by Eastwood Community. I like it when community football makes the big time. They are followed by Dunkirk (not the French city but the team on the banks of the River Trent in Nottingham), and Heanor Town close to the Eastwood where Robin Hood was rumoured to have lived. At the bottom are Teversal and Borrowash Victoria, two nice name but clubs that I know nothing about.

The last of the Level 10 (Step 6) Leagues is my new favourite. They became my favourite when I read a report that the Football Association want to exclude them from the structure of the pyramid. Short sighted F.A. officials clearly cannot get the league to fit easily into their 1-2-4-8-16-32 format so they do not come up with creative ideas, they simply say "you're OUT!". This must not be allowed to happen and I am sure there are enough people in the midlands who can kick up the necessary stink to force the F.A. to change their minds.

The West Midlands (Regional) League has three divisions and forms a league so the F.A. will want to cut the lower two divisions free but may instead just cut the league free. Division Two is being led by AFC Bentley, closely followed by Church Stretton Town. The league includes teams called Ludlow (lovely place) and Newport Town (a third Newport after Wales and the Isle of Wight). Other teams are from Worcester, Walsall and Bridgnorth.

The West Midlands (Regional) League Division One are led by Droitwich Spa who are eight points clear and I expect to see them in the Premier Division provided that the F.A. have not destroyed the league in time for next season. There are a few familiar names in this division like Old Wulfrunians and Wellington Amateurs as well as Tipton Town and Sikh Hunters.

The professional division is led by Shifnal Town with Bewdley Town and Dudley Town close behind. Wolverhampton Casuals and Wolverhampton Sporting Community are in this division and I remember those name as they take a lot of typing. The two teams likely to go down are Cradley Town and Dudley Sports.

That concludes my ramble about the Step 6 Leagues.

Matches not postponed

Most of the matches on my spreadsheet were postponed this week but the ones that were not are:

Cardiff City 2 Brentford 2. A creditable draw away from home.

This result puts Brentford firmly in the play-off places. Eleven points off automatic promotion and three points above Bristol City who are just outside the zone.

Oxford United 2 Southend United 1. Another defeat in a long line.

Southend are four points above Bolton but I expect Bolton to rise above us in the next few weeks. More importantly we are seventeen points from safety. We WILL be relegated.

Exeter 1 Crawley Town 1. Drawing at home is not promotion form.

Exeter 1 Crewe Alexandra 1. Drawing at home is not promotion form.

Exeter are now top of the play-off places and Colchester are ten points behind us, just outside the zone. Above us on goal difference sitting on 65 points are Plymouth Argyle, our local rivals. Above them are Crewe Alexandra on 66 points so we missed a chance last night. Swindon Town remain top of League Two on 69 points.

Torquay 2 Chorley 0. A good home win but expected against the team who are at the foot of the table.

Torquay are firmly in the middle of the table, only six points from a possible play-off place and eight points above the relegation zone.

Weymouth 5 Maidstone United 1. You have already read the match report in my previous post.

Dorchester Town 2 Weymouth 4. Weymouth are now WINNERS of the Dorset Senior Cup.

I can only assume that Bournemouth put out a weakened side at some point in the competition.

Weymouth are in the play-off places on 59 points, seven points behind league leaders Wealdstone. Hampton & Richmond, just outside the play-off places are on 46 points.

In the Devon & Exeter League Premier Division Cronies beat Colyton 2-1 away. They seem to play even when the rest of the league are not playing and I thought it must be their pitch but this time they were away from home.

On Monday Arsenal qualified in the F.A.Cup by beating Portsmouth 2-0.

The other two Tuesday matches apart from Crewe and Dorchester were both bad defeats.

Beaconsfield Town 4 Tiverton Town 0.

Tiverton are in the play-off places on 55 points. Truro City in the automatic promotion place are on 66 points and Taunton Town just outside the play-offs are on 51points.

Shepton Mallett 4 Exmouth Town 0.

Exmouth Town at one point had about five games in hand over those above them but a few defeats and matches played have changed all that. We sit on 53 points in 5th place, with Tavistock on 53 above us on goal difference, Hallen on 56 points, Bradford Town on 58 points and Plymouth Parkway on 58 points.

I am now currently watching midweek F.A.Cup matches. This must be because TV money is much greater for one match per night than for showing them all on a Saturday night. What is the worst that money can do to the game? That will be what happens next!

Weymouth 5 Maidstone United 1

From the non-league paper:

Weymouth finally gave their fans a relaxing afternoon with an emphatic home win against a Stones' side who looked worse for wear from their long trip.

This was the first time the Terras had won at the Bob Lucas Stadium by more than a solitary goal since a 3-0 win over Braintree in late October and they could even afford the luxury of missing two penalties out of the three they were awarded.

Calvin Brooks began the rout inside the first three minutes when he ended a twisting run with a bullet shot that beat Chris Lewington inside his near post.

Halfway through the half Josh McQuoid slipped in Ben Thomson who stroked home the second moments before Abdulai Baggie failed from the spot.

It was, however, 3-0 just before the break after the unfortunate Ryan Johnson found his own net.

The Terras were virtually home and dry within nine minutes of the restart when Tom Whelan thumped home from the spot. Whelan should have scored again 15 minutes later but was left with egg on his face when he missed Weymouth's third penalty of the match.

The Stones did grab a consolation in the 75th minute. Sam Corne headed past Ward at the second attempt but the Terras rounded off the scoring late, substitute Hack Hoey hammering home a loose ball to complete the rout.