Bromley's bow, Argyle röll over, Pompey almost pull it off
12 August 2024 | Weekend Notes brings you the biggest stories, stats and insights from the EFL weekend.
● 5IVELIGHTS ● BIG STORIES ● CHEAT SHEET ● THE VIEW FROM ● FANTASY FOOTBALL ● WATCHING BRIEF ●
New season, new-look newsletter… Billy Sharp still scoring goals.
Welcome to Weekend Notes, where we distil more of the EFL weekend into less.
I’m Sam, and I’ll be tapping away on most of the Monday morning missives this season. Joining me on this intrepid adventure are George Elek, Ali Maxwell, Huw Davies and Matt Watts.
Cards on the table: I’m a Sheffield United fan. You didn’t need to know that, and you don’t need to worry about bias. I mention it only because I love football again. That may sound trite, but please understand that until Friday night my team hadn’t won a game since February. As fans, we’ve all been there in some shape or form. You forget what it’s like not only to win but to compete, and because this is not the top 20, these leagues are competitive.
So I love football again. The unpredictability is not manufactured. It’s real. No VAR. No entitlement. The EFL is sport as sport should be, and the competition starts now.
🎦 5ivelights
In no particular order, a collection of our favourite goals or clips from across the 72.
Will Wright defines “marauding centre back”.
Pattison. Smack-it-son.
No soap, all opera, Barry-not-from-Eastenders scores a beauty.
No hospitality when you stay in the Marriott, Wrexham.
“He’s bending it in top left” — Giorgi Chakvetadze via Uri Geller.
🚨 Big Stories
A selection of decisive moments from across the EFL.
🙇 Bromley League Bow — It was real life as metaphor when 32-year-old Michael Cheek bowed down to chest his and Bromley’s first ever Football League goal over the line. A wonderful moment, but not a mawkish one, as Bromley flexed their muscular approach: nobody made more tackles in League Two on opening day and they reduced Harrogate to just two shots on target. Game One. Away from home. Two goals. None conceded. They aren’t here to make up the numbers.
⌛ Pompey almost pull it off — Brenden Aaronson entered the pitch to a chorus of boos from his own supporters, then equalised in the fifth minute of time added on, preventing Portsmouth from pulling off a huge opening-day shock. He then missed a 1-on-1 that would’ve won it for Leeds in the dying moments. Welcome back, Brenden.
📦 Unpacking Burton 2-3 Lincoln — The Brewers’ starting line-up featured nine new signings, so there’s no real surprise that two debutants made the scoresheet. Burton dominated possession, creating more and arguably better chances (10 shots inside the box to Lincoln’s 4) — they are going to be fun. Manager Mark Robinson might want to work on heading in training this week, as all three conceded came off the bonce. Good win for Lincoln; the Burton project moves into beta.
🟡 Great Oxpectations — Oxford’s first win in the second tier since 9 May 1999. Des Buckingham’s Reverse Mullet delivered a dominant display over a well-fancied Norwich. Will Vaulks playing a little deeper allowed Cam Brannagan to show on the edge of the box… yeah, that worked! Norwich City weren’t helped pre-match by Jon Rowe refusing to start the game, with his future seemingly anywhere other than Carrow Road.
🎞️ Donny do their own highlights reel — Few clubs will enjoy their first highlights package of the season like Doncaster Rovers. All four goals could’ve been included in 5ivelights, but their quality and significance deserve top billing. First, Luke Molyneux strolled onto a pass to the edge of the box and stroked home. Then, second, he gave it the full haymaker treatment. Third, Jordan Gibson tried beating Molyneux’s score on the punch-bag machine. Fourth, and finally, Billy Sharp rounded it off and took his EFL tally to 250 by volleying in his 4th Donny debut goal.
🆙 Blades off the bottom — Sheffield United have been bottom of a league — Premier League and Championship (due to a 2-point deduction) — since 2 December 2023. Their 2-0 win over Preston on Friday night put them on a positive footing through a relentless pressing effort and… what’s that, Chris Wilder? Four at the back?
♨️ Stock rising — Stockport County rolled up on the opening day of the League One season and rattled off 22 shots against Cambridge, the most in League One. Two found the net, as Louie Barry marked his return with a spectacular goal and his strike partner, Kyle Wooton, nicked the other. But the win wasn’t “nicked”: Dave Challinor’s side looked absolutely comfortable at the level, full of threat. Cambridge? Less so.
🐛 Neither Crawling nor creeping — A 2-1 win over Blackpool for Crawley Town should be surprising, it was surprising, and at the same time, it wasn’t. Scott Lindsey is rebuilding the house with fewer and different bricks. It won’t matter that they lost a few battles: shots (11:18), shots in the box (5:12), touches in the area (12:37), final-third entries (44:87). All that matters is points on the board, and three here is strong. In isolation, Blackpool fans needn’t be overly worried, but they travelled the country seeing this exact match play out from last August to May. They’re fed up already.
🗓️ Wednesday, Sunday — No getting away from it, Wayne Rooney’s first league game in charge of Argyle was a steam rölling worthy of the pun. The Owls took 30 shots — a shot every three minutes! They scored four. It could’ve been more. They started the stronger in the first half, and in the second, it was a bit of a bloodbath. Wednesday top the table, Argyle…erm…the opposite.
📊 Monday Morning Cheat Sheet
From the WhatsApp group to the watercooler: stats to keep you ahead of the game.
☕ Brewing — After his penalty at the weekend, the 7 consecutive goals for Emmanuel Latte Lath equals the longest scoring run in the Championship (post-rebrand), joining Charlie Austin in 2012, Jordan Rhodes in 2013, and Aleksandar Mitrovic in 2021.
👑 Maja-estic — Three chances, three shots and three Josh Maja goals from 1.16 xG. His was the first opening-day hat-trick in the Championship since 2016, as well as WBA’s first opening-day hat-trick since the First World War.
⏱️ In good time — Ben Goodliffe’s opening goal on 53 seconds is the fastest on record in League Two (although records began when Opta started taking notes and Bruno Mars topped the singles charts).
🐝 Pointed — It’s just one defeat in 18 opening days for Watford – some teams are just built for the start.
😈 Imperious Imps — Carrying over last season’s form, Lincoln extended their unbeaten away run to 10 games; you have to go back to 1980 for them to better it.
🐎 Saddle Up — A win for Mat Sadler’s Saddlers means Walsall have now won their last five consecutive opening-day home matches by a combined 11-2 scoreline.
🍽️ On a plate — League One’s top assist-maker last year, Nathaniel Mendez-Laing, leads the charge in this year’s Championship by providing two goals on opening day.
🕹️ Control (it’s how you use it) — Birmingham had 74% possession vs Reading in their 1-1 draw, making 541 passes, 96 of which came from Krystian Bielik.
⛳ Fore! — A little birdie tells us that every side promoted from L2 to L1 managed to win on opening day: a clean sweep for Mansfield, Stockport, Crawley and Wrexham.
🤯 Cheek by jowl — It’s all part of the head, and Michael Cheek managed to win 11 aerial duels against Harrogate.
🏴 Keeping it Wales — Huw Davies spotted that current Welsh international goalkeepers have made more league appearances in 2024/25 than they did in 2023/24, thanks to Adam Davies turning out for Blades on Friday night.
🎣 Deadliest catch — we counted this many goal-scoring debuts on opening day…
🧢 Special debut cap doffs to…
Joel Colwill (Cheltenham) who, on loan from Cardiff, scored both the opening goal and a last-minute winner – and it was the 19-year-old’s first senior start.
Ben Goodliffe (Colchester) opened his account in fewer than sixty seconds, doubled it within ten minutes, and walked off with a head injury late on.
And finally… Billy Sharp; the legs might age but the goalposts don’t move.
The View From…
Most of the starry-eyed prose around Opening Day focuses on the glorious hope of the EFL fan. Maybe this year is our year? Maybe that new striker will score 20 goals?
But after a day in which I attended Queens Park Rangers 1-3 West Bromwich Albion and Wimbledon 4-2 Colchester, I realised that my favourite thing isn’t the sense of freshness and optimism, although that is perfectly invigorating. My favourite thing is how quickly it evaporates; how quickly it all gets back to normal.
The hope is powerful. It’s intoxicating — in fact, as we all know, it kills you. Our emotions around football are essentially childlike, and there are few other outlets for such feelings. It should be embraced. But, more important than the hope is the normality that underpins it all — the tradition, the routine, the sense of comfort and belonging. At this level, it’s certainly not the winning or losing, the glory or the pain.
It took until the 55th minute at QPR for the sheen of hope to melt away into reassuring normality. Josh Maja put West Brom 2-1 up.
This is how the Upper Loft felt, I imagine:
Eh? That wasn’t meant to happen. Maybe this isn’t our year. I hadn’t really considered that. Maybe some of the other teams will be decent as well. I hadn’t really considered that. That opposition striker who scored one goal last season has scored an opening day hat-trick, while our new striker is looking a bit lost. I hadn’t really considered that.
Oh well, see you next week? Marti Cifuentes still eats paella. He still drinks Estrella. He still f*cking hates Chelsea.
In the home end at Wimbledon, an hour later, the shattering took 55 seconds. A thumping Ben Goodliffe header, then another after nine minutes. Dreamland for the Colchester fans behind the goal. Finishing in the bottom five in three of the last four seasons? This time, it’s different.
A very loud voice boomed: “JACKSON! CHANGE THINGS! IT’S NOT WORKING.”
Jackson didn’t change anything. By the time Wimbledon actually got on the ball for the first time, in the 12th minute, they were 0-2 down. With that first attack, they scored. Then again. And again. 3-2 at half-time.
“We’ve got Super Johnnie Jackson… he knows exactly what we need!”
The team is rubbish. The manager is flawed. The team is great. The manager is amazing. It’s all good stuff. See you next week?
🏆 Fantasy Football
Go head-to-head against team NTT20 in our EFL Fantasy Football league
You pick a 7-a-side team. You pick two teams to win. Then you’re at the races — 360 of you are already. The co-managers of the NTT20 side are adding a layer of nerdy complexity by insisting on picking one player who 0% of managers have picked; this week, that was JJ McKiernan of Lincoln.
Ali Maxwell was behind the keyboard, putting his faith in Emmanuel Latte Lath, who proved that the hype is more than froth. The NTT20 opening team was a bit Leeds-heavy. Solid logic, but we’re bottom half.
Props this week go to… ‘EFaLumps’ for the biggest haul (87pts) and ‘Mid Table Mediocrity’ who, on 56 points and in 105th place, are doing their bit for the narrative stakes.
📺 Watching Brief
Upcoming live EFL games
Fri 16 Aug 2024
20:00 Coventry City vs Oxford United
Sat 17 Aug 2024
12:30 Bromley vs AFC Wimbledon
12:30 Carlisle United vs Barrow
12:30 Charlton Athletic vs Leyton Orient
12:30 Derby County vs Middlesbrough
12:30 Portsmouth vs Luton Town
12:30 Shrewsbury Town vs Peterborough United
12:30 West Bromwich Albion vs Leeds United
Sun 18 Aug 2024
12:00 Sunderland vs Sheffield Wednesday
15:00 Bolton Wanderers vs Wrexham
Liking the new format, great work.
Love the new format - an excellent read!