Gameweek 5 update

With our move to Southampton beckoning, we thought we’d start the week going across the border for some League Cup action. Newport was the destination as they faced West Ham. Newport have played many Premier League teams at Rodney Parade lately and have more than matched some of them so we thought we could be in for some goals at either end.

After a number of missed chances by Newport, most notably from Padraig Amond, Jack Wilshere opened the scoring for the Hammers. We both already had a ‘W’ with Andreas Weimann scoring against Leeds on the first weekend of the season, which was disappointing.

West Ham were mostly dominant in the second half and Pablo Fornals pretty much sealed the win and despite being a Tottenham fan, just a small part of Luke would’ve been somewhat happy as he picked up his ‘F’ for the season. Harry got his earlier on in the season with Roberto Firmino so Luke has shortened the deficit.

With Luke being busy on the Friday night, Harry headed to Cardiff v Fulham without him, so he had the chance to make up for earlier in the week. There were only two goals in the game and they both came in the last five minutes of the first half. Firstly, Josh Murphy slotted home for Cardiff but with Sadio Mane’s goal against Southampton earlier in the month there was no new letter.

The Fulham equaliser was shortly after and it came from their talisman Aleksandar Mitrovic who looked dangerous all night. Another ‘M’ meant another frustrating non new letter. There weren’t any more clear cut chances in the rest of the game, but the best fell to Sean Morrison who headed wide.

So at the end of this week, Luke cuts the gap even though he watched one less match and that match also being attended by Harry. Next week will be interesting as Harry has a very interesting Opta match to attend.

Gameweek 4 Update

Going into this week, there was a huge chance for Harry to extend his lead as Luke would be spending the latter part of the week at the Reading festival, whilst Harry would be attending two Southampton youth matches.

The week started early for us with a trip to The Johnny Rocks Stadium for Carlisle’s visit to Cheltenham. Despite living within an hour of the ground, neither of us had ever watched a game there, so we were looking forward to it.

The game itself was decent, especially the first half. Gavin Reilly opened the scoring for the hosts giving both of us our first ‘R’ of the season. We wouldn’t have to wait much longer for Cheltenham an our second.

Former Premier League striker Luke Varney calmly slotted home later on in the half as we picked up our first and probably last ‘V’ of the campaign. The rest of the game remained goaless as we traveled back to Bristol very happy.

As mentioned above, Luke spent the following days at Reading which gave Harry a great opportunity to grab a couple more. He spent the Saturday at Southampton u18s v Chelsea u18s. It was a tight match that ended 1-0 to the visitors with Lewis Bates grabbing a brilliant winner. Harry and Luke for the matter, both already have ‘B’s with Patrick Bamford’s goal against Bristol City.

The week didn’t end there. Harry had another game working for Opta but this time the Southampton u23s as they faced a strong Liverpool u23s side. This match had quite a few more goals as Liverpool came out 4-2 winners at Staplewood Training Ground.

Promising young striker Rhian Brewster opened the scoring early on but that lead was wiped out within minutes by Will Smallbone. They regained the lead ten minutes later through Curtis Jones and extended their lead just after half time through Pedro Chirivella. Dan N’lundulu halved the deficit but Louie Longstaff completed the win after good work by Harvey Elliot.

From this, Harry gained two new alphabet scorers letter. ‘J’ for Curtis Jones and ‘L’ for Louie Longstaff. This gives Harry a lead of four now heading into to next month. We will both be heading to university in a matter of weeks so matches may dry up for a month, but next week will be jam packed once again so stay tuned.

Luke- Alphabet Scorers

ScorerGame
A
BPatrick BAMFORDBristol City v LEEDS UNITED
CBen CHILWELLSouthampton v LEICESTER CITY
DCourtney DUFFUSYEOVIL TOWN v Eastleigh
E
FPablo FORNALSNewport v WEST HAM
GSerge GNABRYSpurs v BAYERN MUNICH
HPablo HERNANDEZBristol City v LEEDS UNITED
I
J
KHarry KANESPURS v Aston Villa
LRobert LEWANDOWSKISpurs v BAYERN MUNICH
MJohn MCGINNSpurs v ASTON VILLA
NTanguy N’DOMBELESPURS v Aston Villa
O
PAyoze PEREZSouthampton v LEICESTER CITY
Q
RGavin REILLYCHELTENHAM TOWN v Carlisle United
SRoss STEARNBATH CITY v Braintree Town
TYouri TIELEMANSSouthampton v LEICESTER CITY
U
VLuke VARNEYCHELTENHAM TOWN v Carlisle United
WAndreas WEIMANNBRISTOL CITY v Leeds United
X
Y
Z

Number of goals: 16

Harry- Alphabet Scorers

ScorerGame
A
BPatrick BAMFORDBristol City v LEEDS UNITED
CBen CLOSEPORTSMOUTH v Tranmere Rovers
DCourtney DUFFUSYEOVIL TOWN v Eastleigh
E
FRoberto FIRMINOSouthampton v LIVERPOOL
GSerge GNABRYTottenham Hotspur v BAYERN MUNICH
HPablo HERNANDEZBristol City v LEEDS UNITED
IDanny INGSSOUTHAMPTON v Liverpool
JCurtis JONESSouthampton u23 v LIVERPOOL U23
KSandro KULENOVICDINAMO ZAGREB U23 v Villarreal U23
LLouie LONGSTAFFSouthampton u23 v LIVERPOOL U23
MSadio MANESouthampton v LIVERPOOL
NTom NAYLORPORTSMOUTH v Tranmere Rovers
OJordan OBITAREADING v Millwall
PAyoze PEREZSouthampton v LEICESTER CITY
Q
RGavin REILLYCHELTENHAM TOWN v Carlisle United
SRoss STEARNBATH CITY v Braintree Town
TYouri TIELEMANSSouthampton v LEICESTER CITY
U
VLuke VARNEY CHELTENHAM TOWN v Carlisle United
WAndreas WEIMANNBRISTOL CITY v Leeds United
X
YJerry YATESCrawley v SWINDON TOWN
Z

Number of goals: 18

Gameweek 3 Update

It was a quieter week this week after a quick start to the season. With Luke taking a break and playing football rather than watching it, this week allowed Harry to possibly gain a lead in the alphabet scorers race. St Mary’s was the destination for his first match and he got his fair share of action. A first half stoppage time goal from Sadio Mane gave Harry his first ‘M’ of the season.

The next new letter wasn’t far away at all with Roberto Firmino adding a second of the day for Liverpool and a second new letter of the day for Harry. A hat-trick of new letter was achieved when Adrian gifted Danny Ings a goal against his former club.

This wouldn’t be the end for Harry’s weekend as he headed down to Southampton once again but this time for their u23 team face up against Derby. The rules of the competition allow some over age players to feature and Derby took advantage of that by playing Chris Martin, Graeme Shinnie and Duane Holmes.

Derby won the match 1-0 with a goal from exciting youngster Jayden Mitchell-Lawson. A good goal for him but not so for Harry as he already had the letter ‘M’ with the above mentioned Mane goal two days prior.

So this means after the third week, Harry gains a lead of two over Luke. Despite the season being just a couple weeks in, the lead has changed twice already so it looks like it should be an exciting season both on and off the pitch.

Next week begins quickly with both of us heading to Cheltenham v Carlisle on the Tuesday. The likes of Luke Varney we’ll have a special eye on.

Gameweek 2 Update

After a jam-packed weekend of action on our first week ground hopping we carried on our venture through the leagues with a match between Yeovil and Eastleigh. Yeovil had been the destination for Harry’s for hundreds of times over the past 13-14 years and most of it was successful until the last 6 seasons.

However a well fought 1-0 victory other the fellow play off contenders came as a great relief. More relief came when we realised Courtney Duffus was the man to slot home, as he became a new man for our alphabet scorers. It was the only goal in the game as we move on to the weekend.

It would be the first time we’d have spent the weekend apart since we started, and we both got our fair share of entertainment. First up, Harry visited Fratton Park for Portsmouth’s visit of Tranmere. If you had read the article about the trip down South then you’d know that Pompey midfielder Ben Close scored a wonder goal with Tom Naylor also notching, in scruffier fashion.

Luke headed off to the capital to watch his favourite team, Tottenham. It was a big day for him as it would be the first time visiting the magnificent ground since its rebuilding and boy did he have reason to celebrate.

After an early shock goal from John McGinn rocked the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, new record signing Tanguy N’dombele equalised for Spurs with only around 15 minutes to go. However, Spurs synonymously don’t go down without a fight and a player who won’t give up until the final whistle is Harry Kane.

Arguably the best striker in the league or even the world, struck twice late on to give Tottenham and Luke that winning feeling once again after their Champions League Final defeat at the end of last season.

This means Luke squeezes one letter ahead of Harry as he picked up three new letters to Harry’s two. It may change next week as Harry’s heads to the South coast once again to watch Southampton face Liverpool and Luke is playing football so will not be able to add to his tally.

Gameweek 1 Update

In our first weekend groundhopping we started off with a bang, attending two games in two days. With it being the first games of our season our alphabet scorers were bound to start off to a flyer.

Bath v Braintree finished 2-0 to the host with both goals being scored by a player beginning with ‘S’. Ross Stearn and Tom Smith with the goals but neither Luke or I actually managed to see Smith’s strike as we were still in the bar at half time, but nevertheless we got our ‘S’ for the season and went into the Bristol City game with high hopes.

If you read our blog from that game, or watched the game yourself then you’d know the two teams didn’t let us down. There were four goals in total, with Andreas Weimann bagging the consolation for Bristol City, whilst Pablo Hernandez and Patrick Bamford got us our ‘B’ and ‘H’ letters. Jack Harrison later scored for Leeds but that wasn’t much use to us.

So where does this leave the leader-board. Well obviously we both went to the same games to we have the same amount completed at the moment. This should change next week as we will be going to a separate match on Saturday so look out for that.

What is Alphabet scorers?

Whilst the idea of watching football at as many stadiums as possible is enough to wet our appetite for football content, here at For The Love of The Game we are adding even more excitement to this coming football season through the introduction of a new feature we are calling “Alphabet Scorers.”

So… what is it?

This coming season, we will having one eye firmly on the football with another eye on the heroes making the net bulge, with the challenge to see a goal scored from a player with a surname beginning with each letter of the alphabet.

For Example:

Jack Grealish scores for Aston Villa = letter “G” checked off the list of 26.

We will be updating this table throughout the season, with the first person to achieve all letters / most letters throughout the course of the season wins.