For some reason I started looking back at the start of this blog and found several things that interest me. How are my selections from that year doing today? What about some other clubs?
I started this blog back in 2013 with a selection set of Arsenal (no change there although there was a chance this year), Yeovil who were in the Championship at the time, Brentford were in League One, Exeter are now an established stalwart of League Two. Those were the Premier and Football League selections.
I had forgotten that my Football Conference selection (now National League) was Tamworth. I had hoped to visit my cousin and get a match or two watching the lambs but they dropped down into the North division which is not part of "MY" pyramid. I keep watching to see if they will come back but it has not happened yet.
My long standing Conference South team was Weston-super-Mare but I dropped them when they were relegated to the Southern League.
I began my Southern League selections with Bideford in the Premier and Tiverton in the South & West. There have been many changes since that season and Tiverton are now in the Premier League South (it helps having two Premier Leagues in the Southern League).
My Western League selections were Buckland Athletic in the Premier Division. I did get to watch them once when they played in the F.A.Cup extra preliminary round, the one before the preliminary round which is the one before the first qualifying round. Who decided on these designations? I understand that the public have to understand that Round 1 includes the Football League teams but maybe we should educate the public that there are many teams outside of that bubble. I chose Barnstaple Town who were in the Western League Division One at the time. I now understand why they are struggling in the Southern League Division One South. They need to make their current division their own. Strengthen the squad where it is needed. I know that money is always a problem. The main reason I do not visit more football grounds is that I want to ensure we have food on the table next month.
When I discovered the South West Peninsula League at Level 10 and realised that the Western League Division One was also Level 10 I broke my pyramid into two halves. The top half ended with the Western League and the bottom half began with the South West Peninsula League. For my memories I will state that my selections were Elmore Eagles in the Premier Division of the South West Peninsula League and I went very early to watch them play. I got talking to one of the officials at the ground and found that they were paying £25 a man plus expenses. That gave me some financial grounding in what is expected at Level 10 in the South West.
At South West Peninsula League Division One East I chose Exwick Villa and once paid £9 to get three of us into the ground. The other two bought the beers and it worked out approximately even. The football seemed to be of a poor standard but I went back the following week and got in free because it was the second team playing. The football was much better. That is one of the fascinating aspects of football. You can watch an exciting match at a lower level and a very poor match at a higher level. I was disappointed that Fulham won the Championship playoff by stopping Brentford from playing their great style. That is football though, and I was happy when second best Arsenal beat Liverpool and Manchester City. In 9 out of 10 matches Liverpool and Manchester City would have won but we held on and got the victory. Sad to say but we learned from Mourinho and that loss against Spurs.
The Devon & Exeter League saw me select Tiverton Town 2nds (Premier), Elmore Eagles 2nds (One), Exwick Villa 2nds (Two), those were the easy ones but then I had to choose Tedburn St Mary (Three), Lord's XI (Four), Countess Wear Dynamoes (Five), Exwick Village (Six), Tedburn St Mary 2nds (Seven) and Elmore Eagles 3rds (Eight). I very nearly got to watch the Elmore third team as they were playing at the ground over the road from the pub where we were lunching but my wife wanted to get home and family comes first.
I found mention of the Kent County League and Sussex County League at Level 9. The Football Association asked them to rename themselves in the cause of standardisation. The F.A. want the County Level to be Level 11 so the Kent County became the Southern Counties East League and the Sussex County became the Southern Combination. I also noticed the Kent Invicta League which has now become the Southern Counties East League Division One. The only constant in football is change. I watched a pre season friendly at a local ground last night and there was a drinks break at 22 minutes so I guess we have moved as a nation more towards America by having four quarters in our national game.
Finally, VAR. Is it there purely to disallow good goals if the forward is leaning too far forward when they make a dash for the ball? Olympiakos were very unlucky against Wolves last night. We will start seeing coaches saying "Lean back when you dash forward" soon. I thought the rule for VAR was supposed to be a "Clear and Obvious error". If it is a matter of millimetres LET THE GOAL STAND.
That is enough rant for this morning. It looks like a lovely day. The pre season has started for the lower levels of football and I am intending on going to a double header on Saturday. This is immediately after the English Football League season ended on Wembley on August 4th. I normally have an off season but not this year. Too heavily focussed on Brentford's promotion push I only noticed that my local team had their first game of the season on Saturday 1st August, a fact that I first noticed on 5th August.
Blogging is very therapeutic. I recommend it even if nobody reads it. I have enjoyed looking back at my thoughts from seven years ago.
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