Results 26th - 30th August

 Recent results:

Brentford dominated the match until the end when Leeds equalised.

Wrexham also dominated against Birmingham City but Birmingham had more of the second half.

The other matches are anyone's guess.

EFL Cup 25th August

 

Brentford put in a dominant performance to remove Birmingham from the Carabao Cup.

Plymouth came from 2 goals down to level the tie at 2-2, but then let in two more goals.

Teignmouth lost.

Results from 18th to 22nd August

 

The Premier League opened on Friday night with a convincing win by Arsenal over Coventry City. Brentford continued that convincing display by despatching Tottenham also by 3 goals to 0. The result of the weekend was Elmore's victory over Topsham Town 7-0.

Cardiff 1 Wrexham 1

 I watched a quality match on Monday night. Kieffer Moore scored an early goal with a screamer just inside the near post at the top corner.

That led to Wrexham controlling the match giving Cardiff little or no chance to equalise. At one point near the end of the game the screen showed the expected goals was 0.12 for Cardiff and 0.74 for Wrexham. A dominant performance.

The problem came in the 97th minute with 6 minutes showing on time added on. Dobby missed his tackle on the edge of the box giving Cardiff the chance to take a free kick to STEAL a draw. This is exactly what they did.

This was a special draw but the signs are good for the season ahead.

Weekend 15th & 16th August

 I watched Exeter on Sky Sports plus and Grimsby were worth the win although Jayden Wareham had two or three good chances to score.

So with one defeat on my list I checked on Plymouth in league one and they were also defeated.

Next thing I saw that Worthing had also lost and this was turning into a bad weekend.

Bovey Tracey and Teignmouth convinced me that this week was a total disaster and when I checked Exmouth that was worse. I worried but I found out that it was two Melksham players colliding into each other and going to hospital that caused the abandonment.

All that was forgotten on Sunday.

Roberto Calafiori received a clinical pass from Myles Lewis-Skelly to put Arsenal 1-0 up after 30 seconds. That confidence boost seemed to inspire the team and we went on to dominate the match. Kai Havertz headed us into a 2-0 lead following a brilliant header across goal by Christos Tzolis. At the start of the second half Martin Odegaard sat Gianluigi Donnarumma down before passing the ball into an empty net for the third of three good goals. That is a great end to the pre-season and we can add the Charity Shield to the Costa Brava Cup as two trophies before the season starts for real.

Midweek matches 11th & 12th August

 Here are the results for my selections:

Arsenal warmed up for the Charity Shield with a draw against Como managed by Cesc Fabregas.

Devon Derby = 0-0 after 90 minutes

 Plymouth should have had far too much for an Exeter team just learning how to play together. The Exeter boys held Plymouth for the full 90 minutes but then it all went wrong. Alex Hartridge (an ex-Exeter man) scored from a header in the 92nd minute and Plymouth added a second goal in the 94th minute.

As they said in commentary a lot of this first round was played in the manner of a pre-season friendly but this is the deadly rivalry between the two top teams in Devon and one young lad playing for Exeter managed to get himself sent off. He will do well as time goes on.

Weekend Results 7th-9th August

 A mixed bag of results at the weekend:

I attended the F.A.Cup match which did not inspire me to return particularly in the first half. It was a war of attrition. Exmouth started the second half with a quick goal and they followed that with a penalty and a nice passing move for the third which demonstrated their level aboveness.

I have no idea what is going on with Arsenal but the website directed me to You Tube so that is where I watched the match with Dortmund. We lost the match but we won the practice penalty shootout.

There is one match left. Tonight we can watch the Devon Derby on Sky Sports as Plymouth take on Exeter in the Carabao Cup.

Football : An early history

 For those who had no idea and maybe those who had some idea.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHXco1MnsPE

I learned a few things.

The season gets going with the start of the F.A.Cup = 8th August

 All my selections are playing this weekend.

I hope to get to the F.A.Cup match between Bovey Tracey and Exmouth Town. I expect a larger crowd than normal as the match has that tag of being an "F.A.Cup Match". 

Brentford open their fixtures with a match against Rennes.

The Plymouth v. Exeter Devon Derby has to wait until Monday.

Wrexham take on Middlesbrough in the Carabao Cup.

Plenty to get my teeth into.

We have had a lot of preamble but now things start to get serious.

Midweek 4th & 5th August

 The midweek results:

Two wins followed by two losses.

August 1st and 2nd

 August begins and we are starting to see some real matches.

In the Carabao Cup Preliminary Round Crawley beat York by 2 goals to nil on Monday night. In the Saturday fixture Tranmere drew 2-2 with Rochdale and that led to the worst set of penalties I have ever seen as Rochdale won 2-1. 

The teams that I am following produced these results:

 I paid for the Arsenal coverage on Arsenal.com so I can watch all of the pre-season games.

The second half of the match against Girona saw a raft of youth team members coming on to represent the first team. I look forward to seeing who impressed Mikel Arteta enough to make a first team appearance in a more serious match. We are now holders of the Costa Brava Cup. So in our first match we win our first trophy. It is rather similar to the Emirates Cup but it is run by Girona.

Two of my teams in a friendly match

 One win and one loss.

The home team won this one.

Final Friendly before August begins

 Torquay United took on Exeter City at the end of July.

Devon Derby

Devon League = Elmore (Eagles)

 No friendlies easily found on the internet so straight into the season.

Two games a week every week at the start of the season.

Elmore is where I started my Football Pyramid adventure looking at Level 10 at the time. They are Level 11 now.

Teignmouth = South West Peninsula League East

I could not find any pre-season fixtures or results although they should have some.

 

The F.A.Vase starts on 15th August against Ivybridge Town.

The League starts one week earlier on August 8th.

The pictures of the ground look lovely so I hope to get to a few matches this season.