Sedge

The FA Cup starts here! St Austell are at home to Bishop Sutton from the league above. I'm bracing myself for our first goal conceded this season!

But they're still scoring!

A good 2-0 home win over Newquay this evening. Its been a smooth ride to the top of the table so far and we start on the road to Wembley in the FA Cup on Saturday! I'm enjoying the good times while they last, but it will make our first defeat all the more painful when it happens.

They need to keep plugging away Inver. Disappointing results bring more opportunities for experimentation and then they might suddenly discover a hidden strength.

We had an excellent start to the season yesterday with a fantastic 4-0 win over last season's runners-up! Our despicable local rivals threw a spanner in the works though by losing 5-0 to the champions. We'll have to make do with 2nd place for the moment.

Six goals in two games - nice! Some more work needed in defence though. We had a similar issue a few years ago and tried throwing everything we had at our opponents' defence. We worked on the premise that we were going to concede many goals no matter what, so we might as well just attack. It helped us to beat the champions 6-4 in our first Premier Division season!

He's got something to work on there, but it's still early enough to fix any problems. Your goalscoring seems promising. We completed our friendlies last week, making it 6 wins from 7. Our first game is at home to last season's runners-up on Saturday. We start as title favourites - yikes!

Oof! Who were they playing? We had mixed fortunes yesterday. We managed a 3-1 win, but we lost last season's player of the year with a broken leg. Bad news.

This afternoon's friendly is off as our opponents couldn't raise a side. There are quite a few clubs around here that are starting to struggle. Hopefully they'll be OK for the start of the season.

Now our same starting eleven have just lost 2-1 to another lower division side. Hmmm. I think I'm going to need a degree to figure this one out.

We're into pre-season friendly territory at last! We began our preparations for the the new season with a 10-0 away win. I'm quietly optimistic.

In the prediction stakes I'm an exceedingly poor replacement for Paul the Psychic Octopus! So Germany to win. Or Argentina.

I think the 3rd place play off could be interesting (although I could also be proved wrong). A Dutch team who really don't seem to be up for it against a Brazil side who desperately want to finish their tournament with at least a thin scraping of pride. Brazil's problem in the semi-final was the way they reacted to going 2-0 down. They just didn't seem used to it, their heads dropped and they stopped playing. I'm going to stick my neck out and go for a Brazil win. They have the players (as long as they get the right mental attitude back) and the Netherlands haven't scored a goal in open play since they second round.

What I did find telling was how angry the German players were at conceding that single goal. That's the kind of passion that wins World Cups!

The US team have come an incredibly long way in the last 20 years. I think they'll become a real force over the next couple of tournaments. You have to admire their sheer enthusiasm! Too many countries have become complacent about competing in the World Cup. Just being there is a terrific achievement.

It seems to me that all teams are going all-out on the attack, but the standard of finishing is declining as the tournament progresses. How many chances did Belgium have last night? Maybe I've been spoiled by watching the silky-smooth skills of St Austell AFC!

I still have a feeling for Argentina, but they'll have to step their game up a level. It's interesting to see that Costa Rica have a very good chance of reaching the quarter-finals. Looking ahead to the QFs, I'd say that Brazil will be the underdogs in their own country! I haven't been very impressed with what I've seen of them so far. Then again, I haven't really seen any stand-out performances yet. In my opinion the strongest teams overall so far have been Colombia, The Netherlands and France.

Our chances of winning the office sweepstake now rest wholly with Russia. Ker-ching!

To continue with my blockbustingly accurate predictions, after seeing last night's big match, I think it's worth a punt on Greece or Japan to win the tournament. I'd say they've just been sandbagging. And sandbagging extremely well!

I still think Spain are in with a shout. Just a (very) bad day at the office. As long as del Bosque doesn't panic and change the side too much, I think they'll do OK. I have an inkling that Argentina might just sneak it though.

I wish them luck from one group of Saints to another.

That's got an upset written all over it!

The greatest joy of a bad season is when it's over. Technically Glendale are back on the same points as everybody else now!

We arrived at yesterday's game with a 6-man injury list, so could only play with one striker. Fortunately Plymouth were practically dead on their feet as well after 3 games in six days. We edged the game for seventy minutes, but our lack of strike power meant we couldn't produce a goal. Then the league champions hit us on the break to go one up. This woke them up and they pushed forward in numbers, forcing our number 6 to give away a penalty and receive a red card. 2-0. We pushed until the end, but couldn't quite do it. Still, we avoided the expected heavy defeat and walked away with the biggest runners-up trophy I've ever seen! What's the news from your boys Inver?

So we're both enjoying nail-biting ends to the season. It's better than mid-table obscurity with nothing to play for though! As long as your boys can stay up that is.