Hello and welcome once again to my Matchday Programme Notes!

This week the fixtures computer down at League HQ pits us against league newcomers Everyman at King George’s Park, Kimber Road, in Earlsfield.

LITTLE INTELLIGENCE
Intelligence is short on Everyman, but their start to the season hasn’t been good. They’re a new team that have managed to concede six goals in each of their opening two fixtures, so Logica should have nothing to fear...! It’s worth making a note of the fact that Everyman are likely to be fitter going into the final twenty minutes than us. They’ve played two games already compared to our solitary kick about down in Raynes Park a few weeks ago. All in all, this means that we really need to do a job on them in the first seventy minutes - at least this is my plan.

PACE AND CONTROL
The key to victory against Everyman lies in scoring early. If we can get a couple in the back of their (please note specifics of ownership here, Jez) net early doors, and, just as crucially, remain solid at the back, it’s likely that their confidence will drain and their heads will drop. When this happens, we’ll hopefully be able to control the game at our own pace, which will be handy considering our lack of match practise.

HOME TRUTHS
This should of course be Sportsmans League Match Day II for us. Unfortunately last week’s game against Holland club had to be postponed for the most ludicrous of reasons. There appears to be some confusion in the ranks after The Editor’s somewhat appalling ‘finding the net’ joke, not to mention some anger if the rant by a Mr F.Furious on the message board is anything to go by, so just let me clarify exactly what happened. I received a phone call about 14:00 on Saturday from League HQ (annoyingly getting me out of bed). The voice on the end of the line informed me that "all matches had been cancelled by the ground staff at [Stade d’ILEA]", the reason being that "the nets hadn’t turned up". Where they were expecting them to come from, one can only guess. The upshot is that we are now a game behind in the race for the championship, and worryingly we haven’t even experienced any bad weather yet. Of course it also denied the paying public the chance to see old heroes once more as Spence and Toman were due to play.

EURO CRASHES
European football also kicked off this week, as Liverpool returned to the European Cup for the first time in 16 years, along with regular campaigners Arsenal - the rest of week’s scheduled Euro-games having been postponed as a mark of respect after events in the US on Tuesday. I would have expected Liverpool to beat Boavista but defensive frailty let them down again. Thankfully Owen still knows where the nets are. Arsenal on the other hand were totally outclassed away from home (again), and thoroughly deserved to lose in my opinion. Ashley Cole deserved to be sent off despite what Arsene said. Arsenal to their credit should have had a penalty themselves when Henry was tumbled in the box (quite how the ref interpreted this as a dive, God only knows), and Jeffers should have scored right at the end [Don’t say I didn’t warn you about Little Franny - Ed.]. Overall though, they were ‘lucky’ to lose 1-0. Lets hope the other teams can fare better, except for Ipswich of course.

ONLY A GAME
And finally this week, I’d like everyone to take the time to spare a thought for all the poor Americans and other nationalities who lost their lives in the devastation in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. It certainly makes you realise what’s important in life. Remember that at the end of the day, football is only a game??