The  FA Womens National League.

Plymouth are near the bottom of the table while Exeter are nicely positioned behind the leaders.

Southern Premier Division

League Table

POS		P	W	D	L	GD	PTS
1	Oxford United	6	5	0	1	14	15
2	Watford	6	4	1	1	10	13
3	Milton Keynes Dons	6	4	0	2	13	12
4	Portsmouth	5	3	1	1	10	10
5	Crawley Wasps	5	3	0	2	4	9
6	Yeovil United	5	2	2	1	1	8
7	Cardiff City	3	2	0	1	5	6
8	Keynsham Town	5	2	0	3	2	6
9	Chichester & Selsey	4	2	0	2	1	6
10	Gillingham	6	2	0	4	-3	6
11	Plymouth Argyle	5	0	0	5	-28	0
12	Hounslow	6	0	0	6	-29	0

Division One South West

League Table

POS		P	W	D	L	GD	PTS
1	Southampton FC	4	4	0	0	17	12
2	Chesham United	4	3	0	1	9	9
3	Swindon Town	4	3	0	1	5	9
4	Exeter City	4	2	1	1	4	7
5	Buckland Athletic	4	2	0	2	-3	6
6	Larkhall Athletic	4	1	2	1	0	5
7	Maidenhead United	3	1	1	1	0	4
8	Southampton Women's	4	1	1	2	-1	4
9	Cheltenham Town	4	1	1	2	-1	4
10	Brislington	3	0	0	3	-13	0
11	Poole Town	4	0	0	4	-17	0

South West Regional Womens Football League.

Torquay United are bottom of the Premier Division while Plymouth Reserves are mid table. 

Premier Division

League Table

POS		P	W	D	L	GD	PTS
1	Marine Academy Plymouth Ladies 1st	3	3	0	0	17	9
2	Portishead Ladies First	2	2	0	0	8	6
3	Ilminster Town Ladies First	2	2	0	0	6	6
4	Bishops Lydeard Ladies First	2	1	1	0	1	4
5	Wootton Bassett Town Ladies First	4	1	1	2	-3	4
6	Callington Town Ladies FC First	2	1	0	1	0	3
7	Bideford Ladies AFC 1st	3	1	0	2	-3	3
8	Middlezoy Ladies First	3	0	0	3	-8	0
9	Torquay United Women 1st	3	0	0	3	-18	0

Western Division

League Table

POS		P	W	D	L	GD	PTS
1	AFC St Austell Ladies 1st	4	3	1	0	8	10
2	Feniton Womens FC 1st	5	3	1	1	2	10
3	Alphington Ladies 1st	4	2	1	1	8	7
4	Sherborne Town Ladies First	2	2	0	0	8	6
5	Plymouth Argyle LFC 2nd	5	2	0	3	-1	6
6	Plympton Ladies 1st	4	1	1	2	0	4
7	St Agnes AFC Ladies First	4	0	1	3	-12	1
8	Pen Mill Ladies First	4	0	1	3	-13	1

Devon Womens Football League Tables

Both of my selections at this level are top of the league.

Devon Womens Football League

Division 1

League Table

POS		P	W	D	L	GD	PTS
1	Exeter City Women 2nd	5	5	0	0	42	15
2	Seaton Town Ladies 1st	5	3	1	1	9	10
3	Plainmoor Ladies 1st	3	2	0	1	3	6
4	Axminster Town Ladies 1st	3	1	1	1	2	4
5	Bude Town Ladies First	3	1	1	1	1	4
6	Cullompton Rangers Women 1st	3	1	0	2	-3	3
7	Torquay United Women 2nd	2	0	1	1	-10	1
8	University of Exeter Ladies 2nd	2	0	0	2	-11	0
9	Bradninch Womens 1st	4	0	0	4	-33	0

Premier Division

League Table

POS		P	W	D	L	GD	PTS
1	Liverton United Ladies 1st	5	5	0	0	27	15
2	Halwill Ladies 1st	4	3	0	1	11	9
3	Signal Box Oak Villa Ladies 1sts	5	3	0	2	2	9
4	Budleigh Salterton Ladies 1st	4	2	0	2	-3	6
5	Shaldon Villa Ladies 1st	4	1	0	3	-9	3
6	Ottery St Mary Ladies 1st	4	1	0	3	-11	3
7	University of Exeter Ladies 1st	1	0	0	1	-5	0
8	Activate Ladies 1st	3	0	0	3	-12	0

Tuesday and Wednesday

 On Tuesday two of my Football League teams were in action.

Lincoln City 2 Plymouth Argyle 0

Exeter City 2 Crawley Town 1

One win and one defeat on the night.

On Wednesday the action was in levels two and ten.

Sheffield Wednesday 1 Brentford 2

Bovey Tracey 6 Honiton Town 3

Brentford beat a solid looking Sheffield Wednesday side. I watched it all on Sky TV.

Bovey Tracey must have sparked fear into other teams with their 18-1 record victory.

Tonight Arsenal start their European campaign.

Arsenal beat Tottenham in the North London Derby

 I am happy that my favourite girls got us the result we need every season against our local rivals.

Arsenal 6 Tottenham 1

Maybe we could have avoided the goal against but this team were built during the Wenger years.

In the Championship a creditable draw was earned away from home.

Sheffield United 0 Lewes 0

My spreadsheet shows entirely red for this next selection.

Plymouth Argyle 0 Milton Keynes Dons 8

A sound thrashing at home does not augur well for the rest of the season.

The next match was not on my original fixture schedule.

Exeter City 2 Swindon Town 1

It is good to see this team back to winning ways.

Torquay United's match against Callington Town was postponed.

Plymouth reserves seem to be running a red and green striped spreadsheet.

Feniton Women 3 Plymouth Reserves 0

Liverton United are competing in their first season of competition and are doing well.

Liverton 8 Ottery St Mary 0

Exeter Reserves are also having a good season and they certainly had a very good day.

Exeter Reserves 17 Bradninch 0

All I have to do now is dig out some match reports if any exist.

Hold the Front Page

 Mayday! Mayday!

Shock news on the horizon.

Local team wins a match against a team other than the whipping boys.

Bovey Tracey have beaten Holsworthy 2-1 away in the South West Peninsula League Premier Division East.

On top of this Ilfracombe Town were only able to beat Stoke Gabriel by 17 goals to 1 so Bovey Tracey retain the League Record by One Goal.

Dream Day for Bovey Tracey.

In other news the results are as follows:

Ilsington 3 Dartmouth 2nds 1

Plympton Athletic 2nds 0 Buckfastleigh Rangers 1

Two good wins for my teams in the South Devon League.

Liverton United 3 Budleigh Salterton 2

A pleasant win for my Devon League selection. This moves us away from the relegation zone.

Exmouth Town are still COVID excluded so their Western League fixture was postponed.

Larkhall Athletic 5 Barnstaple Town 0 so Barnstaple are now out of the F.A.Trophy until next season.

Tiverton Town 3 Farnborough 1 leaves Tiverton firmly at the top of the Southern League table.

Dartford 1 Bath City 0 leaves Bath City in a mid table position.

Weymouth 2 Kings Lynn Town 1 lifts Weymouth up the table with their first league win of the season.

Finally we reach the Football League and find ...

Walsall 0 Exeter 0

Plymouth 2 Northampton 1

Brentford 2 Coventry 0

And in the Premier League ...

Manchester City 1 Arsenal 0

I watched most of this match and Arsenal competed well barring a short spell in the second half when City looked dominant.

Wednesday Night

 Bovey Tracey continue to lose despite that league record 18-1 win.

I have some more information on that result and it seems that Stoke Gabriel are the common factor. The Stoke Gabriel team are bottom of the table having played 11 and lost 11. Their goal difference is unlikely to recover as they have scored 2 goals, one of them was against Bovey Tracey and conceded 137. This early in the season a goal difference of -135 is (I am afraid) unrecoverable.

I also check their other results. They lost 15-0 on Wednesday night. They lost 14-0 last Saturday. Their other goal was scored against Elburton Villa who only managed to win 9-1.

So Bovey Tracey were at home to Elbuton Villa with scores against Stoke Gabriel of 9-1 and 18-1.

Bovey contrived to lose their home game 4-3 to Elburton Villa.

I do want to go and watch as it is a lovely little ground with a friendly bar but maybe I will wait until the team get some footballers in.

My National League picks

 National League

Weymouth dominated the first half of the match and Barnet scored on the stroke of half time.

This means that after the initial 0-0 draw away at Altrincham there have been three 1-0 defeats. Whilst this means that the defence are not conceding more than one there seems to be a problem scoring.

F.A.Cup

Bath City travelled to Slough Town for this one.

Freddie hinds scored the only goal at the start of the second half to win this one.

Bath are now through to the Fourth Qualifying Round where the National League teams join in.

Tuesday night 13th October

 So what are my options for tonight?

I will be keeping an eye on my chosen teams so I will want to know how Bath City get on in the F.A.Cup Third Qualifying Round away at Slough Town. I will also want to know how Weymouth fare away at Barnet. Weymouth need to get a win or two in the National League or the season will be one of struggle until the end.

I have checked Exmouth Town and their match against Tavistock has been cancelled due to the ongoing COVID issue. It brings things home when it is YOUR club suffering expulsion from the F.A.Vase and having league matches postponed. COVID is not nice. It is like some centre halves that I used to know.

Bovey Tracey are at home to Elburton Villa tomorrow. I may go and peek through the fence at part of the game but with an expectation of defeat for my chosen team I will not stay for long.

Now tonight I can watch several matches if I choose to. Azerbaijan versus Cyprus and Latvia versus Malta are both on Sky Sports at 17:00. If I do get permission from the wife I will choose Malta on the basis that she loved our time there and it is where we got engaged. Another option is Germany U21 against the U21 side from Bosnia-Herzegovina on German Football You Tube. If I am not watching the other two matches I might go in and save German Football You Tube as a favourite for a later date.

If I am still going after the 19:30 and 19:45 matches I could watch Bolivia against Argentina on Premier Sports but I have not yet paid for that option and this match is not enough motivation.

The 7:30pm options include England U21 v. Turkey U21 match on BT Sport. That has an appeal as we can watch the future of the England football team in action. Germany against Switzerland is the Sky Sports option at this time and I must admit I would like to watch both of those teams. There may or may not be Arsenal interest in that match and I will be doing a team sheet check before the match.

I have rejected the Scottish, Welsh and Irish options which exist but you might like to choose those games which are on Premier Sports, S4C Online and WATCHLOI. Only the welsh match is subscription free.

Sky Sports Red Button is showing several matches but I have my package through another supplier and I do not believe they pass through the red button options. Look up those options yourself if you fancy watching the minnows.

It could be a good night but I have promised the Mrs that we can have Ice Cream and a film if she can find a film that she actually wants to watch.

Sunday 11th October = The Women

 Devon League Division One) Torquay United Women Reserves 0 Exeter City Women Reserves 10

A ten nil thrashing of local rivals away from home must have done the Exeter girls a power of good. With four wins on the board they must be expecting promotion to the Premier Division at the end of the season but they do have to keep this form going. Many teams have started a storm and then become becalmed. I will follow with interest but if this is what the reserves are doing many of the team will be playing for the first team within a season or two.

Devon League Premier Division) Budleigh Salterton 1 Liverton United Ladies 4

This continues the good start that the girls have had this season (their FIRST season). Four wins from four should see the girls promoted to the South West Regional League at the end of the season presuming that the form continues and there are no ground grading problems when it comes to going up.

South West Regional League Western Division) Plymouth v. Sherborne = Match postponed

South West Regional League Premier Division) Torquay Women 1 Portishead Ladies 4

I checked the league on full time and have worked out that although most leagues only publish league matches this league has published "Other Fixtures" so I can knock off the one win and the worst defeat from the league results. This means that the team are on ZERO points after two matches. This is not as bad as ZERO points after four matches. There is still time to find a star striker.

National League South West Division) Southampton FC 3 Exeter Ladies 0

Exeter suffered their first defeat of the season away at Southampton FC. This puts the team in fourth place in the league on 7 points.

National League Southern Premier Division) Portsmouth 7 Plymouth Argyle 0

The Plymouth girls continue a losing start to the season with their fourth defeat in a row. This time they travelled to Portsmouth in the battle of the dockyards and came away with a heavy loss.

Womens Championship) Lewes Ladies 1 Blackburn Rovers 0

Lewes seem to be making a habit of winning 1-0. I wonder if their coach has any Arsenal experience. 

Womens Super League) Brighton 0 Arsenal 5

I watched this match at the weekend and Brighton came out fighting. Several chances whizzed past the Arsenal goal or were placed too close to Manuela Zinsberger. Once my girls got going, though, there was only going to be one winner. The Arsenal girls had the best three midfielders out injured so the team on the day was:

1) Manuela Zinsberger

5) Jennifer Beattie

6) Leah Williamson

15) Katie McCabe

20) Leonie Maier

7) Danielle Van de Donk

13) Lia Walti

21) Malin Gut

9) Beth Mead

11) Vivianne Miedema

19) Caitlin Foord

Substitutes used:

3) Lotte Wubben-Moy

22) Viktoria Schnaderbeck

30) Ruby Mace

Danielle Van de Donk scored her first goal of the season. May there be many more. Jennifer Beattie scored from a header at a corner knocking the ball back over the Brighton keeper. Lotte Wubben-Moy scored her first goal with a tap in at the far post but nobody knows what the full back was doing so close to the opposing goal. Nice one though! Of course the other two goals came from record goalscorer Viv Miedema, the last one coming in injury time.

I can now look forward to this week's fixtures and the coming weekend.

Saturday 10th October = The Men

 With Arsenal and Brentford out of action due to the international matches taking place I can concentrate on the lower leagues and let you know what I am finding.

League One) Plymouth Argyle 2 Burton Albion 0

Argyle versus Albion got me to thinking about the derivation of words. So I look up the word Argyle and I am surprised to find that it means a pattern composed of diamonds of various colours on a plain background. This seems to be a reasonable description of tartan. I felt that there was a Scottish feel to the word. The word Albion is defined as a literary term for Britain or England so we had an England versus Scotland match and it seems that Scotland won.

As far as the football was concerned Luke Jephcott returned from injury to score the opening goal after 25 minutes. Byron Moore scored the second early in the second half.

The Team on the day:

1)  Mike Cooper

2) Kelland Watts

4) Will Aimson

6) Niall Canavan (Captain)

7) Frank Nouble

10) Danny Mayor

15) Conor Grant

17) Byron Moore

18) Tyrese Fornah

31) Luke Jephcott

32) George Cooper

Substitutes used:

8) Joe Edwards

11) Dom Telford

14) Ben Reeves

The home team report ends "Burton toiled until the end but Argyle were simply too strong in all departments".

League Two) Southend United 2 Exeter City 2

Southend took the lead in the first half but Exeter equalised leaving the score 1-1 at half time.

Southend took the lead in the second half but Exeter equalised so the score was 2-2 at full time.

Joel Randall scored the equaliser in the first half.

Alex Fisher came on after 82 minutes and equalised in the last minute of injury time.

The team on the day:

1) Lewis Ward

6) Rory McArdle

8) Jake Taylor

10) Archie Collins

11) Randell Williams

12) Ryan Bowman

14) Joel Randall

15) Tom Parkes

17) Matt Jay

20) Lewis Page

30) Joshua Key

Substitutes used:

2) Jake Caprice

9) Ben Seymour

18) Alex Fisher

The home report ends "Fisher picked the ball up 20 yards from goal and curled a(n) unstoppable shot into the top corner of the net with his weaker foot".

National League) Weymouth 0 Sutton United 1

The team on the day:

21) Jack Bycroft (goalkeeper)

2) Brennan Camp

4) Josh Wakefield

7) Alefe Santos

15) Josh Leslie-Smith

16) Andreas Robinson 

17) Calvin Brookes

20) Cody Cooke

23) Cameron Murray

24) TomWhelan

26) Ollie Harfield

Substitutes used:

8) Jake McCarthy

19) Jack Hoey

The home report started "Jack Bycroft shone for the Terras" and goes on "left Cody Cooke isolated up front" then continues "It took 80 minutes for the away side to finally break the defensive resilience of the Terras". There then follows the emotional phrase "The frustrations boiled over into added time as players from both sides clashed on the near side of the pitch". Well, as I was not there, the "near side" of the pitch means nothing to me. "The final score was 1-0 to Sutton." Well, actually I had picked that up from the score at the top.

National League South) Bath City 2 Billericay 0

Cannot find the full team anywhere so I have simply found out that:

Tommy Conway scored both of the goals.

Bath City are now 9th in the table.

Southern League Premier Division South) Dorchester 1 Tiverton 0

Tiverton Town are still top of the table despite this defeat.

Southern League Division One South) Slimbridge 4 Barnstaple 1

Tornado Bello scored the Barnstaple goal.

Western League Premier Division) Match postponed due to the COVID issue

SWPE) F.A.Vase match) Longwell Green 2 Bovey Tracey 1

Bovey Tracey are out of the F.A.Vase for another year.

Devon Premier) St Martins 3 Liverton United 0

Liverton United are now 12th in the table.

That completes the Men in the Pyramid. I will worry about leagues below the pyramid.

International Weeked

When Saturday comes all thoughts turn to FOOTBALL. This weekend we are restricted to Internationals and Lower League games.

My Womens Teams are involved in the following matches:

Arsenal = Brighton AWAY

Lewes = Blackburn HOME

Plymouth = Portsmouth AWAY

Exeter = Southampton FC AWAY (They played Southampton Women (different) last week)

Torquay = Portishead HOME

Plymouth Reserves = Sherborne Town HOME

Liverton United = Budleigh Salterton AWAY

Exeter Reserves = Torquay United Reserves AWAY

I look forward to checking the results tomorrow night as Sundays are now Ladies Day.

My Mens Teams have the following matches:

Arsenal = Resting while the Internationals take place

Brentford = Resting while the Danish Internationals take place

Plymouth = Burton Albion HOME

Exeter = Southend United AWAY

Weymouth = Sutton United HOME

Bath City = Billericay Town HOME

Tiverton = Dorchester Town AWAY

Barnstaple = Slimbridge AWAY

Exmouth = Shepton Mallet HOME (Match postponed due to the COVID issue)

Bovey Tracey = Longwell Green AWAY in the F.A.VASE Second Qualifying Round

Liverton = St Martins AWAY

Buckfastleigh = Salcombe Town AWAY

Ashburton = Harbertonford AWAY

Ilsington = No Match Listed

Liverton Reserves = Galmpton United Reserves HOME

When I started this BLOG the plan was to watch some of these matches live but I want to keep blogging year after year so I am staying COVID safe in my castle. I may venture out next season.

Wednesday Night

 I thought that with the cancellation of the Exmouth Town fixture I had nothing to follow until the weekend.

I found that there were two matches that I knew nothing about. The F.A.Womens League Cup was taking place last night and two of my teams were participating.

They will participate no more as both teams lost. More importantly the F.A.Player apparently does not cover League Cup matches, only WSL matches.

I had to follow on Flashscore to see the goals go in.

Chelsea Women 4 Arsenal Ladies 1

Lewes Ladies 1 Crystal Palace Women 2

O.K. then ... on with the ironing.

The Midweek matches

 So I check the matches for this week and find .....

The match between Exmouth Town and Plymouth Parkway has been postponed due to COVID. This may be a blessing in disguise as Parkway are running away with the league and we might get them when they are slightly weaker later in the season.

The other matches all took place last night.

Two matches were part of the EFL Trophy competition.

Cheltenham Town 2 Plymouth Argyle 0

Swindon Town 3 Exeter City 4

One win and one defeat is reasonable.

Two matches took place in the National League.

Weymouth 0 Woking 1

Oxford City 2 Bath City 0

Two defeats for my selected teams is completely unacceptable. I will have to have words.

Two more matches took place in the Southern League.

Yate Town 0 Tiverton Town 3

Bristol Manor Farm 2 Barnstaple Town 2

I can live with four points from two matches so well done my Southern League teams.

I have no expectations for my South West Peninsula League East selection.

Millbrook 3 Bovey Tracey 1

Sure enough that 18-1 win was an aberation. I must try and get hold of a match report. None found yet.

My schedule suggests that I can now relax until Saturday.

Mens Results from the weekend

We will follow the format of the last post and work from the lowly teams to the higher levels, partly because I like that format and partly because most of my teams played on Saturday but my top two teams played on Sunday.

Teign Village 3 Liverton United Reserves 2 = The team are mid table with four points from four matches.

Ilsington Villa 6 Newton Abbot Spurs 3rds 1 =  Top of the table with 12 points from five matches.

Ashburton 3 Kingsteignton Athletic 2nds 1 = Top of the table with 13 points from five matches.

Torbay Police v. Buckfastleigh Rangers, Match postponed, I did say that it was very wet at the weekend.

That concludes the results for the non actual pyramid teams although I like to keep an eye on them.

Liverton United 1 Clyst Valley 1 = Two points from four games leaves us near the bottom of the table.

Bovey Tracey v. Plymouth Marjon, I confirmed that this match was postponed due to the wet weather.

Bradford Town 1 Exmouth Town 6 = Fourth in the league. Plymouth Parkway are seven points ahead.

Plymouth Parkway may be 7 points ahead but they have played two games more. A good contest ahead.

Barnstaple Town 2 Basingstoke Town 2 = Barnstaple are now fourth from bottom on two points.

Tiverton Town were playing in the F.A.Cup Second Qualifying Round.

Tiverton 3 Taunton Town 5 = That is the end of the F.A.Cup run for another season.

There is always NEXT year.

Bath City were another club playing in the F.A.Cup and this before their league season has started.

Bath 3 Winchester City 2 = Bath march on in the F.A.Cup and will meet Slough Town in the next round.

Weymouth opened their account in the National League by playing away at Altrincham.

Altrincham 0 Weymouth 0

The National League has finally begun and Weymouth are mid table with that draw.

That brings us to the Football League

Exeter City 2 Cambridge United 0 = Exeter are now 6th in the table with seven points.

Hull City 1 Plymouth Argyle 0 = Plymouth have 5 points after four matches and sit mid table.

The final two matches took place on Sunday.

Preston North End 4 Brentford 2 = Brentford are 15th in the table with 4 points from four matches.

The annoying fact about this match is that Brentford were 2-0 up and then threw it away.

Arsenal 2 Sheffield United 1 = Arsenal are fourth behind Leicester, Aston Villa and Everton.

Everton must be doing something right with both the mens and womens teams at the top of their respective tables. Aston Villa did the league a favour putting doubts into the minds of the Liverpool players and Leicester lost to West Ham only because David Moyes was unavailable.

Now .... some matches have taken place since the weekend (I told you it was non stop) so I need to go and check those results. I love it but it does keep me busy.

Ladies Results from the weekend

 I am glad it is not just me but I had a chat with someone else who said that things are happening so quickly that it is tiring to keep up. Gone are the 6 day rests and with television football on at 3pm on a Saturday as well as most days of the week I am encouraged to binge on football. My Mrs is none too happy and this weekend we had a family function which kept me away from my computer and the TV.

Now, I will present a results only service from my selected pyramids and enhance the information later if I get the chance which I do not think likely.

From the bottom, and I am going from the women's bottom, the results for MY teams are:

Exeter Reserves 9 Seaton Town 2 = Exeter are now top of the table with 3 wins from 3.

Liverton United 4 Activate Ladies 0 = Liverton are also top of the Premier division with 3 from 3.

St Agnes Ladies 0 Plymouth Argyle Reserves 4 = Two wins and two defeats put Plymouth mid table.

Torquay 0 Portishead Ladies 12 = Last week's 1-11 defeat was bettered. Torquay are bottom of the league.

Exeter 1 Southampton Womens 1 = First two points dropped. Third in the league now with seven points.

Exeter City beat Buckland Athletic away 6-1 in midweek so it is a good start to the season.

Plymouth Argyle 1 Chichester & Selsey 3 = Three defeats put Plymouth goal difference off the bottom.

London City Lionesses 0 Lewes Ladies 1 = Two 1-0 wins from three puts Lewes into fourth place.

Arsenal 3 Bristol City 1 = Arsenal are top of the league on goal difference. Everton are close behind.

The league is on track following the 2-1 defeat to Manchester City in the 2019-20 F.A.Cup semi-final. I look forward to the final which is now between Manchester City and Everton. Should be good.

Everton Ladies are performing well

 It is Saturday lunchtime and I have two open windows on my computer. BT Sport is showing the Chelsea v. Crystal Palace match and the F.A.Player is showing the ladies of Aston Villa taking on Everton. The mens match is currently nil nil but the ladies are scoring freely on one side as Everton are currently leading 6-0 with two quick goals soon after half time.

Aston Villa v. Everton

I think it is probably time now to check whether the team allocations listed by the various leagues up and down the country actually turned into those teams playing in that league. There are always differences each year and I know when I first started this process that some teams never appeared in leagues that accepted them during the summer.

One day I may check past seasons but there is always so much to keep up with each season that my first priority has to be keeping the current season as up to date as possible, although it is necessarily a week or two behind with the lower leagues.

This season we know we have lost Macclesfield Town from the National League although I understand that the situation is subject to legal challenge. Last year we lost Bury and I am certain that COVID will lead to the loss of several more clubs before the season is over.

Right .. I am off to check my spreadsheets and I will report back with any information found.

My Teams This Weekend

 My spreadsheet tells me that there is a full set of matches for the first time this season.

The National League starts up which helps the situation but the Ladies Leagues have also started so shall I go from the top? I shall but we will start with the ladies.

W1 - Womens Super League = Arsenal v. Bristol City

W2 - Womens Championship = London City Lionesses v. Lewes

W3 - National League Premier South = Plymouth v. Chichester & Selsey

W4 - National League South West = Exeter v. Southampton Womens

W5- South West Regional Premier = Torquay v. Portishead

W6 - South West Regional Western = St Agnes v. Plymouth Reserves

W7 - Devon County League Premier = LIVERTON v. Activate

W8 - Devon County League One = Exeter Reserves v. Seaton Town

That concludes the fixture list for my chosen ladies teams.

THE MEN

1) Premier League = Arsenal v. Sheffield United

2) Championship = Brentford v. Preston North End

3) League One = Hull City v. Plymouth Argyle

4) League Two = Exeter City v. Cambridge United

The National League starts tomorrow and I will be following Weymouth with great interest.

5) National League = Altrincham v. Weymouth

6) F.A.Cup 2nd Qualifying Round = Bath City v. Winchester City

7) F.A.Cup 2nd Qualifying Round = Tiverton Town v. Taunton Town

8) Southern League One South = Barnstaple Town v. Basingstoke Town

9) Western League Premier = Bradford Town v. Exmouth Town

10) South West Peninsula East = Bovey Tracey v. Plymouth Marjon

11) Devon League = Liverton United v. Clyst Valley

That completes the official pyramid fixtures

12) Torbay Police v. Buckfastleigh Rangers

13) Ashburton Association v. Kingsteignton Athletic 2nds

14) Watcombe Wanderers 2nds v. Ilsington Villa

15) Teign Village v. Liverton United 2nds

I hope to get a full set of results but the weather here is very wet and there may well be some washouts before the weekend is over.

The rest of a busy week

 I shall start with the ladies and apart from Arsenal losing to Manchester City in the semi-final of last season's F.A.Cup there was one other match which featured Exeter Ladies.

Buckland Athletic 1 Exeter Ladies 6

Barnstaple Town continued a mixed set of results with their third defeat in a row. This time the team were at home to Cinderford Town on Tuesday and managed to lose the match 3-2.

Wednesday night saw three victories for my teams:

Tiverton Town 3 Weston-super-Mare 1

Exmouth Town 4 Bridport 1

Stoke Gabriel 1 Bovey Tracey 18 (A league record)

Thursday night saw both the men and women of Arsenal in action and I have already reported on that.

Before those matches took place Brentford were in action taking on Fulham in the Carabao Cup. A win would mean that Brentford had got further in the EFL Cup than they have ever been.

The Action

Once you have reviewed the action I can tell you that Brentford have indeed gone further than they have ever been in the cup and the reward for their progress is a home match against Newcastle United who very nearly went out to Newport County.

Liverpool v. Arsenal v. Manchester City

 The two teams met twice this week. Once in the league and once in the Carabao Cup. The league match went the way of Liverpool and you can see the highlights here:

Liverpool Win

The truth is that Liverpool were totally dominant and Arsenal did well to hold on but eventually lost shape chasing the equaliser and ended losing the match 3-1.

We knew the second match would be different but the result was always in doubt.

Both Liverpool and Arsenal played some fringe players along with the experienced ones in the Carabao Cup and Arsenal maintained their shape failing to concede any goals thanks to an inspired display by Bernd Leno keeping a clean sheet. The match finished 0-0.

 Arsenal Win

The match then went to penalties and a variety of styles were witnessed with Joe Willock putting the final penalty neatly under Adrian's body.

These matches kept me well occupied this week and the second match was hardest to follow as I wanted to watch the ladies who were in action at the same time. Come on Arsenal, sort that out!

I was happy to see the men win on penalties but was not so happy to see Kim Little being taken off with a hamstring injury in the ladies match. She is a mainstay of the Arsenal team and we need to find someone new to cover for her as she ages and injuries become more common.

The highlights

Manchester City beat Arsenal 2-1 in the semi-final so they go through to the final of the F.A.Cup 2019-20 and Arsenal can now concentrate on the league.

The draw which took place after the men's game saw Arsenal drawn at home to Manchester City.

At the very least given the problems of previous seasons we are now competing with the best.

Shock! Horror! Probe!

 A lot has gone on this week and I will be blogging about that before too long but I have to register that I am currently stunned by what I just found out.

There is one team on my spreadsheet collection that is coloured RED in entirety. This means that they have lost every single match so far this season from friendlies through to the league. Bovey Tracey have lost 6-0 to Brixham and 8-0 to Ilfracombe Town.

On Wednesday evening Bovey Tracey travelled to Stoke Gabriel and this morning I decided to check on the result thinking that as Stoke Gabriel are firmly at the foot of the table maybe Bovey could grab their first point of the campaign by earning a draw.

Now we need a full probe to examine what was going on as I was certain that I was looking at a misprint on the South West Peninsula League website:

Stoke Gabriel 1 Bovey Tracey 18.

Apparently this is a league record so something strange has happened. My thoughts have turned to ....

1) New striker brought in from the Premier League

2) New manager that has an inspirational speech for every match

3) Stoke Gabriel have an entire team with COVID so they played the reserves

4) The Stoke Gabriel keeper was sent off in the first minute of the match

I think I will have to investigate further and try to find out what happened. This is a complete shock!