Key events
GOAL! Bromley 0-1 Reading (Stokes 14). Josh Stokes whistles home from the inside-right channel. But should that shot have been parried? Another questionable goalkeeping moment.
GOAL! Leicester City 1-0 Northampton Town (Okoli 15). Caleb Okoli makes up for his earlier error by heading home from a corner hit long from the right. The keeper not covering himself in glory.
GOAL! QPR 0-1 Millwall (Cundle 53). Luke Cundle takes advantage of a mistake by QPR keeper and debutant Pierce Charles. A dropped cross, under no pressure, and the easiest of tap-ins.
GOAL! Cardiff 0-1 Swindon Town (Osho og 9). Gabriel Osho deflects into his own net.
Leicester City 0-0 Northampton Town. Russell Martin’s reign at Leicester nearly got off to a characteristically slapstick start. With just a few seconds on the clock, Caleb Okoli, attempting to Pep-pass his way out from the back, carelessly rolled the ball into the path of Harvey Saunders, who through on goal simply had to score, but slapped his shot straight at keeper Jakub Stolarczyk. That would have been quite the introduction to the Martin era.
GOAL! Norwich City 2-0 MK Dons (Slimane 7). Anis Slimane doubles Norwich’s lead. Mo Toure turns provider this time, unselfishly crossing low from the right to tee up Slimane, who takes a touch before steering home. Philippe Clement is doing some job for the Canaries.
GOAL! Grimsby Town 0-1 Blackpool (Ennis 3). Niall Ennis opens the scoring for Blackpool, who are not managed by Ruben Amorim.
GOAL! Derby County 0-1 Lincoln City (Clarke og 3). Matt Clarke channels his inner Sandy Brown, meeting a Lincoln corner with a spectacular diving header into his own net. No idea what he was trying to achieve there.
GOAL! Norwich City 1-0 MK Dons (Toure 1). Mohamed Toure opens the scoring early doors at Carrow Road. He strides down the inside-right channel and absolutely lashes home from the edge of the box. Just 40 seconds that took!
FULL TIME: Cambridge United 2-1 Barnet
Cambridge hold on, and join Wolves, Stevenage and Middlesbrough in the hat for the second round.
Cambridge United 2-1 Barnet. Idris Kanu puts the ball in the Cambridge net, amid a scramble, but there had been a foul in the build-up. There was also a clearance off the line in that build-up, Kabongo Tshimanga’s header stopped by Kelland Watts.
Cambridge United 2-1 Barnet. There will be seven minutes of added time. Barnet are pushing forward in search of the late equaliser that would take this tie to spot kicks, but without carrying much in the way of threat. Cambridge seem happy enough to sit back and soak up what little pressure there is.
HALF TIME: QPR 0-0 Millwall. Halfway to penalties, then.
… but we will be guaranteed action and/or drama at some point, one way or another. If the scores in these League Cup games remain level after the end of 90 minutes, it’s straight to a penalty shoot-out, with no need for extra time.
QPR 0-0 Millwall. There’s not a lot going on at Loftus Road in today’s only 2pm kick-off. Rangers have had most of the ball, Millwall have just had their first (off-target) shot at goal, and that’s it.
Pre-main-flurry-of-matches postbag. “How is there football already?” splutters Kári Tulinius. “Doesn’t it ever stop? Someone should campaign to stop football.” An admirable idea, though if we’re heading down that road, wouldn’t there first need to be a campaign to re-start the Fiver? And nobody’s going to agitate for that, are they.
GOAL! Cambridge United 2-1 Barnet (Heath 57). These off-piste London buses are becoming a goddamn nuisance. Isaac Heath completes the turnaround for Cambridge at the Abbey, where there’s now been three goals in eight minutes.
Meanwhile, in other time-wasting news, allow us to hang this on-topic retro Joy of Six triptych. Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy.
GOAL! Cambridge United 1-1 Barnet (Knight 52). Almost immediately, Ben Knight levels things up at the Abbey. What are these London buses doing in Cambridge?
GOAL! Cambridge United 0-1 Barnet (Tshimanga 49). We have our first goal of the afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Kabongo Tshimanga has opened the scoring at the Abbey Stadium.
In lieu of action to report, all of which will surely be coming down the line, here’s a musical interlude. All together now, you showbiz kids: ♬ ♪ ♫ You know they don’t give … ♬ ♪ ♫
… but there were goals in the three matches played last night. Wolverhampton Wanderers beat Port Vale 3-0, Stevenage won 2-1 at Wycombe, and ITV cleared their schedules for this:
There’s already one match underway, and we have to be honest with you, we’re not off to a flyer. It’s goalless between Cambridge United and Barnet at the break.
Preamble
The 2026-27 Football League season hasn’t started yet … but it’s started! The League Cup is already up and running, see, and here’s today’s Super 3pm Saturday Clockwatch Card …
AFC Wimbledon v Newport
Barnsley v Wigan
Bradford v Rochdale
Bristol Rovers v Peterborough
Bromley v Reading
Burnley v Notts County
Burton v Blackburn
Cambridge v Barnet (1pm)
Cardiff v Swindon
Crewe v Accrington
Derby v Lincoln
Fleetwood v Chesterfield
Gillingham v Luton
Grimsby v Blackpool
Leicester v Northampton
Leyton Orient v Oxford
Norwich v MK Dons
Preston v Huddersfield
QPR v Millwall (2pm)
Salford v Shrewsbury
Sheff Wed v Bolton
Stockport v Doncaster
Stoke v Oldham
Swansea v Birmingham
Watford v Crawley
West Ham v Portsmouth
… so there’s no time to waste sitting here yakking. Let’s get going. It’s on!