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Still enjoying life in the Championship, Beesotted contributor Luis Adriano pens his third letter back to League One. Remember, not back ‘home’, just back to where we came from. His focus this week is the meaningless League Cup with more digs at Fulham and QPR.

Dear League One,

Yes, the Championship is going very well, thanks for asking.

Another point on the board versus Brum (read about how the game ended up a 10v12 affair here: http://beesotted.co.uk/?p=12844) means the only numbers that matter this week, ie. league points, read…
Brentford 5 Fulham 0.

Still not missing you in the slightest but we did come together this week as the League Cup went into a second round which is what I’ve chosen to discuss here.

On Tuesdays, the Cup is known as a two bob, worthless, tin pot competition on a par with the JPT. BBC can’t even be arsed to do a highlights show on Tuesdays. Many punters avoid placing bets on the competition’s games as they are so unpredictable. There are upsets a plenty but you can never be quite sure where they will happen.

Brentford were part of one of these upsets as Fulham, a full nine places below them in the Championship table, somehow managed to sneak a 1-0 win against an experimental Bees side. As the League is so much more important, maybe the BFC management thought it best to slip out at this stage much less dramatically than last year’s sorry capitulation at Pride Park.

In allowing Fulham to go through thanks to a goal from £11million* man Ross McCormack (*yes, again I know that’s a lot of money), there is the added bonus that Magath has been saved for at least another league game. The more chances he gets to hand his opponents three points the better at this stage of the season #savemagath.

Personally, I’m hoping his stay of execution will also give him time to complete the Ice Bucket Challenge invitation I sent him via his club’s Twitter account. Twice.

Currently he looks as likely to complete it as one of Matthew Benham’s nominees, Robert Mugabe, and a certain member of the BFC Media team.

See here (http://beesotted.co.uk/?p=12881) for Beesotted Dave’s challenge in support of www.mndassociation.org which helps sufferers of Motor Neurone Disease such as 70s and 80s Bees Legend, Paul Shrubb. Well played to anyone who has also been bucketed.

Anyway, so while Tarquin and friends were making their way home pleased to have finally seen the £11million man hit the back of the net, the newspaper back pages and sports website home pages were being filled with tales from Milton Keynes and Will Grigg was trending on Twitter.

Another game which doesn’t matter saw Karl Robinson tactically destroy Louis Van Gaal. See what I mean about this competition being so unpredictable?

Milton Keynes Dons 4 (Grigg 2, Afobe 2) Manchester United 0.

Blah blah blah, so f***ing what?

Now, after reading so many #MUFC fans predicting World Domination following a few pre-season victories under their new Dutch master, I would usually join in the laughing and pointing at them losing by such a margin to a third tier club.

We are talking about Milton Keynes Dons though. They don’t count. They won’t count. Ever.

If I were Van Gaal, my post match presser wouldn’t have been complaining about having to rebuild a whole team. I’d have just said that the result doesn’t stand because this club shouldn’t exist. Some of the comments that have followed in the press have been about how now the club can be taken seriously and how they came about forgotten.

Er, no. Not by me, not ever.

So, there you go, two matches showing that on Tuesdays, the League Cup is as relevant as Katie Price commenting on the crisis in Gaza.

But hang on…

On Wednesdays, well, ok, only Wednesday 27th August 2014, the competition is allowed to be taken seriously.

For you, League One, Bradford City seems to be one club who take it more seriously than they’re supposed to. Going all the way to the Final just a couple of seasons ago, they’ve gone and ‘done a Fulham’ and knocked out a local, higher up in the leagues, team in Leeds United.

This may well result in their manager Hockaday being sacked a day after. Their chairman makes that clown at the Cottage look rather normal.

Also, Russell Slade has reason to celebrate as his Odubajo-less Os have beaten Aston Villa in their own back yard. In his famous quote last season, Russ specifically mentioned how we celebrated like we’d won the FA Cup. “They celebrated like they’d won the League Cup,” clearly wouldn’t have put his point across with the same effect.

However, despite the success for a couple of clubs we’ve left behind, the result of the round goes to Burton Albion.

In a clear battle for worst club in West London, QPR are clearly doing all they can to outcrap Fulham. With an equal amount of League Points (yes – none, nil, zero, nada, Jack Shit) and only being one goal shy in their last match of conceding the five the Cottagers** managed at Derby, maybe their only chance to look inferior was to crash out against a lower league club.

(** I still find this nickname interesting: Cottager – noun – “someone who partakes in cottaging”)

Arry picked an experienced side including the likes of Clint Hill, Junior Hoilett and even Adel Tarrabt but they still couldn’t score a goal and went out to one from Andy McGurk. Even John Mousinho managed forty-five minutes for the home side. Hmm, quality outfit are Burton Albion.

This weekend Fulham play Cardiff while Redknapp’s lot welcome Sunderland. It will be interesting to see who fares worst.

The Bees meanwhile return to Rotherham to try and erase memories of last season’s 3-0 drubbing. I’d expect Warbs to pick a proper team for this game with McCormack returning and Moses being given the opportunity to whoosh past the oppo full back rather than being deployed as one himself.

Hopefully Alex Pritchard will enjoy a similar visit to the one he had with Swindon last season when he scored a stunning free kick to ignite a 4-0 rout. It will be an interesting test to see which of us is equipping ourselves better to this Championship lark.

I’ll try and tell you about it next week when we won’t be interrupted by some meaningless Cup competition.

Laters League One,
Yours in the Championship,

Luis Adriano
@LuisAdrianoUK