The situation for the minor leagues

 7=Tiverton have finished their program in 13th place. This is lucky for some. I was surprised to see some matches scheduled for tomorrow but it may help me work out what the Football Association is doing this season. The matches are:

Banbury United v. Taunton Town although this has been postponed.

Bedford Town v. Plymouth Parkway.

Cinderford Town v. Skelmersdale United.

Kempston Rovers v. Eccleshill United.

8=Willand Rovers have finished the season in 15th place.

Bedford Town and Plymouth Parkway are the two winners of divisions One South and One Central.

Banbury United and Taunton Town are the winners of divisions Premier Central and Premier South.

Cinderford Town finished third from bottom in division One South and must presumably beat the Skelmersdale team to avoid relegation.

Kempston Rovers finished third from bottom in division One Central and must presumable beat the Ecclehill United boys to avoid relegation.

9=Exmouth Town have finished in 2nd place in the Western League and this means PROMOTION.

10=Bovey Tracey are currently in 13th place in the league with one match to play. The match is at home to Holsworthy who are three places above in the league. A big win could see the team rise to 12th and defeat might mean dropping to 14th but I expect the position to remain the same.

11=Liverton United have finished 10th in the Devon League North and East. Roll on next season.

The situations FROM THE TOP

 0=Arsenal are on 60 points with 5 matches left. We could gain 15 points and knock Chelsea out of third place but that relies on them losing at least twice which is unlikely. On Sunday we are away at West Ham who have blown hot and cold this season. It all depends on how warm the bubbles are but with Tottenham in hot pursuit we need a win.

1=Brentford are on the "safe now" 40 points and travel to Manchester United who have just drawn 1-1 with Chelsea. Given that we beat Chelsea 4-1 away United should be easy meat but football does not work that way. I can still see a win, particularly as the match takes place on Monday night, as most neutrals will be supporting the Bees with United suffering every time they take to the field. A win could take us above Brighton and Leicester.

2=Bournemouth need to win all three remaining fixtures with Fulham losing all three if we are to be Champions in the Championship. Staying ahead of Nottingham Forest and Huddersfield is more important as they are only three points behind. The match on Saturday sees us take on Blackburn Rovers away. They are still fighting for a playoff place so the match will not be an easy one. Go Bournemouth!

3=Cheltenham Town are safely in 15th place with a chance to reach 13th and a chance to drop to 16th. The match against Cambridge United should be an even contest as they are one place and two points above. It would be great to finish with a win and jump above them in the last game of the season.

4=Exeter City in 2nd place are taking on Northampton Town who are in 3rd. We could relax now with promotion confirmed but there is still a chance of going up as Champions. Forest Green in first place have the easier match with a home game against Harrogate Town.

5=Weymouth have already been relegated from the National League and will appear in the National League South next season. My boys are at home to Solihull Moors tomorrow and with Solihull now in fourth place I expect a defeat is on the cards.

6=Bath City are in 16th place with two games to play. The match at home to Tonbridge Angels can help determine whether we finish in 14th or drop all the way to 20th. With only one team going down it looks like we are safe for another season.

I will put the other teams in another post.

Celebrations: Exeter and Exmouth town gain PROMOTION

 After the COVID years of promotion stagnation I am looking forward to this summer and the allocations that the Football Association are going to come up with. Who are they going to penalise for not bringing their ground up to specifications? Who are they going to penalise by moving them into a division that means a massive increase in travelling costs? It happens every season. Maybe they will come up with a new way to penalise professional clubs. I wait with baited breath.

Last night Exeter beat Barrow 2-1 to gain automatic promotion to League One. I was watching two other matches on my PC and iPad so I did not know until I watched the highlights this morning.

One of the matches I was watching was at Manchester City who beat Real Madrid 4-3 leaving us with the potential for a tense clash in the second leg. It was a great match to watch with other chances besides the goals. Seven goals is a crowd pleased and I am sure the television audience was entertained.

The other match I watched was the London Senior Cup Final between Hendon and Brentford B which finished 1-1 and went to penalties. With Brentford being one of my chosen clubs I was biased when I saw the Hendon team blast their first two penalties over the bar and out of the ground which meant replacing the ball for Brentford to score. At 2-0 to Brentford the next Hendon player passed the ball into the hands of the keeper (or the keeper saved it) so it only needed what happened. The next kick won the penalties 3-0 and technically the match 4-1.

Things seem to be going my way at the moment. I would like Burnley to survive but I gave up when they decided to lose to Norwich. Who DOES that? Since then a couple of wins have put them above Everton in the table. I am looking for either Everton or Leeds to drop keeping my short term Burnley boys in the Premier League. I will miss Sean Dyche who was part of the appeal but I still want the small town on the way up the Pennine hills to survive.

Exmouth Town managed to stay ahead of Mousehole and finishing second is, apparently, enough to gain promotion which will be to the Southern League Division One South.

All other things being equal, and I do have some separate ideas for next season, Exeter will replace the Cheltenham Town lads and Exmouth will replace Willand Rovers so I will need to pick two new teams for next season. This is one of my favourite times of year as the new groups of teams present themselves ready for the new contests to begin at various dates to be determined by the individual leagues themselves.

The Premier League will lose Norwich, Watford and either Everton or Leeds but not Burnley (I hope) and not Brentford who were only promoted via the playoffs. Brentford have impressed me this season although I had high hopes for them as their brand of football in the Championship was closer to the Premier League style than either of the other two.

HAPPY DAY!

Two of my teams have been promoted.

Arsenal can still finish fourth and qualify for the Champions League, Bournemouth can still be promoted. Weymouth I am pretty sure will be relegated but they may be reprieved because the league is short of numbers and Dover are already down.

The only other promotions are in the South Devon League which is outside the remit of this blog.

Time after time

 The time approaches.

I came through the tough times against a very strong Manchester United side.

We will never have a better chance to give them a good stuffing, so ............ I must expect defeat!

Torrington v. BOVEY TRACEY

 Bovey Tracey are taking on the team immediately above them in the table and both teams will finish mid table. See you all again next season.

Shepton Mallet v. EXMOUTH TOWN

 My favourite EXMOUTH TOWN are in second place and the table suggests that there is a chance of promotion which would be to the Southern League One South.

Tavistock and Exmouth are both on 76 points with Mousehole on 73 points.

THIS IS CRUNCH TIME. I must keep my eyes on three results.

Tavistock are at home to Ashton & Backwell

Mousehole are away to Keynsham Town

EXMOUTH are away to Shepton Mallet

Ashton & Backwell are second to bottom so should stand no chance against the leaders.

Keynsham are mid table and up against Mousehole who are third. This should get Mousehole to 76 points.

Shepton Mallet are 6th in the table so Exmouth have the toughest fixture.

GO HARD EXMOUTH!

Highworth Town v. WILLAND ROVERS

 Willand Rovers are mid table and Highworth Town are the same.

They are above us and at home so I expect defeat.

Swindon Supermarine v. TIVERTON TOWN

 I think there was a chance of promotion at one stage but now we are in a safe mid table place and we are taking on the team immediately above is in the table so this should be a good contest.

Mid table is guaranteed.

Billericay Town v. BATH CITY

 Billericay are bottom with Bath two places above in 19th.

I will not analyse this one as Welling United and Billericay town seem doomed with leaves Bath in the safe position of 19th. I expect a win today.

Notts County v. WEYMOUTH

 Notts County are in Seventh place so this will be a tough fixture for my boys Weymouth.

We are in 22nd place with only Dover Athletic below us so it looks like relegation but the powers that be may offer a lifeline as this division only has 23 teams in it and Dover are departing at the end of the season.

How high could we go though with a perfect end of season run?

POINTS:

42 = Barnet (18th)

41 = Eastleigh (19th)

37 = Aldershot Town (20th)

29 = Kings Lynn Town (21st)

24 = Weymouth (22nd)

Two wins might see us safe but I think it is now down to the whims of the Football Association.

EXETER v. Rochdale

 I took my eye off the ball with Exeter City and it was only when I went on a Dartmoor break with a friend that I checked the table and the Grecians were suddenly in second place in the table.

I asked my friend about this and he said that although we have been winning the performances have not been convincing. We scraped through a few fixtures and got the luck at the right time which accurately describes most successful football teams. Liverpool and Manchester City have bought their success but for most it requires a lot of luck.

With four games to go we can still win the league but let me work out how low we could go if we lost the lot.

POINTS

82 = Forest Green Rovers

77 = Exeter City

75 = Port Vale

73 = Northampton Town

73 = Bristol Rovers

70 = Sutton United (great position for a newly promoted team)

69 = Tranmere Rovers (they must be disappointed with that)

69 = Mansfield Town

I think that is it although technically Swindon Town could draw level with four wins.

All but in the playoffs then but we want an automatic promotion slot.

Exeter can then replace Cheltenham as my League One pick next season.

CHELTENHAM v. Bolton

 Cheltenham may well be my team least focussed on as they have been safe in mid table for a while now.

Fourteenth take on tenth today to determine mid table finishing slot. So where can we finish? Let me work it out with two game to go.

POINTS

57 = Cambridge United (12th)

56 = Charlton Athletic (13th)

55 = Cheltenham Town (14th)

55 = Accrington Stanley (15th)

53 = Burton Albion (16th)

50 = Shrewsbury Town (17th)

49 = Lincoln City (18th)

Bolton have to start favourites but we are at home.

BOURNEMOUTH v. Fulham

  First plays second in the Championship today.

The gap between the sides is nine points which seems impossible but it just takes Fulham to falter now they have been promoted and we could catch them.

POINTS:

86 = Fulham

77 = Bournemouth

76 = Huddersfield

71 = Luton Town

70 = Nottingham Forest

We are at least in the playoffs but it would be good to get that second automatic promotion slot.

ARSENAL v. Manchester United

 Well hello again. I feel a lot better after my cancer diagnosis, a bout of COVID and something akin to a cold that did not develop into flu but led to the classic "Brain Fog" that has seen me start many posts and then delete them as my concentration levels fell below what is required.

This weekend sees some important matches in the chase for honours or to start with league position that will lead to European competition,

Arsenal take on Manchester United in the competition for Arsene Wenger's "Fourth Place Trophy". The Kroenkes may now have realised when they look at the books how many millions we have lost by not being in the competition but I am not sure it will lead to us buying a quality striker. Maybe, however, we will not need to if Eddie "ED-DEE" Nketiah continues the progress that we saw in the match against Chelsea.

I am so proud of my boys coming back from three defeats against average opposition to beat the blues and BEAT THE BLUES. We knew Eddie is a great goalscorer but has probably been left out because he is not so good defensively. I think Aubameyang left because he was required to do so much defensive effort that his energy levels could not be concentrated on scoring.

We are now looking at Chelsea above us and several teams below for our finishing position:

POINTS

62 = Chelsea

57 = Arsenal & Tottenham

54 = Manchester United

52 = West Ham United

49 = Wolverhampton Wanderers

Clearly our deadliest rivals Tottenham are the main challenge.

BRENTFORD, my Premier League pick for the season can do us a favour as they are up against Tottenham at 17:30 this evening.

Brentford are clearly better than us as when they went to Chelsea they won 4-1 and we only won 4-2. This augurs well for a good performance against Spurs hopefully leading to a victory for the Bees at their new posh home ground.

It may be due to lower expectations but I have enjoyed watching Brentford more than Arsenal this season and have been supremely impressed with the defensive work from Rico Henry and his mates in the back four. Christian Norgaard has been the best defensive protection for the back four in the Premier League this season in my opinion, with the added quality of some goals this season.

I think the midfield has been below what is required but the addition of Christian Eriksen has more than made up in recent weeks. His distribution has been top quality.

Bryan Mbeumo has missed too many chances for the Premier League so remains a Championship player for me but Ivan Toney has stepped up and is not far off Premier quality. It all takes time and by next season I expect him to be Premier ready.

Go Brentford! We need you to beat the boys who used to be from White Hart Lane.

Both matches are on Sky Sports. Arsenal at 12:30 and Brentford at 17:30.

Level 1 : Premier League

 

Premier League Table

				Home						Away						Overall
	Team	P		W	D	L	F	A		W	D	L	F	A		W	D	L	F	A		GD	PTS
1	Manchester City	31		11	2	2	42	12		12	3	1	30	8		23	5	3	72	20		52	74
2	Liverpool	31		12	3	0	39	7		10	4	2	40	15		22	7	2	79	22		57	73
3	Chelsea	30		7	5	2	29	14		11	3	2	35	9		18	8	4	64	23		41	62
4	Tottenham Hotspur	32		10	1	5	31	18		8	2	6	25	20		18	3	11	56	38		18	57
5	Manchester United	32		9	4	4	28	21		6	5	4	24	23		15	9	8	52	44		8	54
6	Arsenal	31		10	2	4	25	14		7	1	7	20	23		17	3	11	45	37		8	54
7	West Ham United	33		9	4	4	30	22		6	3	7	22	21		15	7	11	52	43		9	52
8	Wolverhampton Wanderers	32		7	2	7	18	16		8	2	6	15	12		15	4	13	33	28		5	49
9	Leicester City	30		8	3	4	26	20		3	4	8	20	30		11	7	12	46	50		-4	40
10	Brighton & Hove Albion	32		3	6	7	10	20		6	7	3	19	17		9	13	10	29	37		-8	40
11	Brentford	33		6	2	8	18	19		5	4	8	23	30		11	6	16	41	49		-8	39
12	Southampton	32		6	7	4	21	20		3	5	7	17	32		9	12	11	38	52		-14	39
13	Crystal Palace	31		5	7	4	25	17		3	6	6	18	23		8	13	10	43	40		3	37
14	Newcastle United	32		6	6	4	23	26		3	4	9	13	29		9	10	13	36	55		-19	37
15	Aston Villa	31		5	3	7	24	25		6	0	10	18	21		11	3	17	42	46		-4	36
16	Leeds United	32		4	5	7	18	30		4	4	8	20	38		8	9	15	38	68		-30	33
17	Everton	30		7	1	7	20	19		1	3	11	13	33		8	4	18	33	52		-19	28
18	Burnley	31		3	6	6	13	20		1	7	8	13	25		4	13	14	26	45		-19	25
19	Watford	32		2	1	13	15	39		4	3	9	15	23		6	4	22	30	62		-32	22
20	Norwich City	32		3	3	10	12	31		2	3	11	10	35		5	6	21	22	66		-44	21

Level 2 : Championship

 

Championship Table

				Home						Away						Overall
	Team	P		W	D	L	F	A		W	D	L	F	A		W	D	L	F	A		GD	PTS
1	Fulham	41		12	4	4	46	19		13	4	4	49	18		25	8	8	95	37		58	83
2	Bournemouth	40		11	6	3	38	20		10	5	5	24	15		21	11	8	62	35		27	74
3	Huddersfield Town	42		11	6	4	31	22		8	7	6	25	23		19	13	10	56	45		11	70
4	Luton Town	42		11	6	4	35	21		8	5	8	25	26		19	11	12	60	47		13	68
5	Nottingham Forest	40		11	4	6	34	21		8	6	5	27	16		19	10	11	61	37		24	67
6	Sheffield United	42		11	5	5	33	15		7	6	8	21	28		18	11	13	54	43		11	65
7	Middlesbrough	41		12	2	6	29	18		6	7	8	23	24		18	9	14	52	42		10	63
8	Blackburn Rovers	42		12	5	4	36	22		5	7	9	17	22		17	12	13	53	44		9	63
9	Coventry City	42		10	5	6	31	21		7	6	8	27	32		17	11	14	58	53		5	62
10	Millwall	42		11	6	4	27	15		5	8	8	19	26		16	14	12	46	41		5	62
11	West Bromwich Albion	42		11	7	3	29	16		5	5	11	18	25		16	12	14	47	41		6	60
12	Queens Park Rangers	42		9	6	6	28	22		8	3	10	29	33		17	9	16	57	55		2	60
13	Preston North End	42		8	10	3	28	23		6	6	9	16	24		14	16	12	44	47		-3	58
14	Swansea City	41		9	6	5	26	22		7	4	10	23	32		16	10	15	49	54		-5	58
15	Stoke City	42		9	4	8	28	22		6	6	9	25	26		15	10	17	53	48		5	55
16	Blackpool	41		10	3	8	23	23		4	8	8	22	26		14	11	16	45	49		-4	53
17	Cardiff City	41		7	3	11	21	27		7	4	9	27	36		14	7	20	48	63		-15	49
18	Bristol City	42		7	7	7	27	28		6	2	13	26	45		13	9	20	53	73		-20	48
19	Hull City	42		6	3	12	18	27		7	5	9	18	19		13	8	21	36	46		-10	47
20	Birmingham City	42		7	5	9	24	29		4	7	10	21	35		11	12	19	45	64		-19	45
21	Reading	42		7	4	10	29	39		6	3	12	21	39		13	7	22	50	78		-28	40
22	Derby County	42		11	7	3	29	18		2	6	13	13	30		13	13	16	42	48		-6	31
23	Peterborough United	42		5	7	9	22	32		2	3	16	14	51		7	10	25	36	83		-47	31
24	Barnsley	41		5	7	8	17	22		1	5	15	14	38		6	12	23	31	60		-29	30