Tuesday August 26th
 

Next newsletter will be sent at 10.00 UK time on Wednesday and we will take our first look at US Open tennis tomorrow.
 

Brentford - Fulham
 

West London derby. For many Brentford supporters this is seen as the big local fixture, despite the two clubs not having met for 16 years in a competitive fixture, of course Fulham would see their matches with QPR and Chelsea as their real local( and more attractive) fixtures, but this is a reasonably big deal for a lot of Bees fans. Two to three weeks ago, I would have said that the visitors, who were amongst the pre season favourites to win the Championship, would not have been interested in this competition, with promotion as a sole priority, but having lost all four league starts and coming here on the back of having conceded five at Derby County at the weekend, they and coach Felix Magath need to stop the rot as soon as possible.But needing and being able to do so is not the same thing and they will definitely have one eye on their home game with Cardiff at the weekend, there is a two week break afterwards and they cannot afford to go into that with zero points, that would give the board a fortnight to think about their options and they re-start with difficult road trips to Reading and Forest. If they win tonight and lose to Cardiff, the victory will mean nothing and the latter will surely be their priority and we can expect Magath to rotate.
 

We had copious notes on the hosts in our first Championship pre season preview, no point in repeating all of those, but ahead of last midweek's win at Blackpool I looked at the season so far ..... They played well enough in a 1-1 draw with Charlton, before losing 1-0 at well thought of Bournemouth at the weekend. The Bees were very unlucky there, they really stepped up a gear, but had little luck in front of goal, hitting the woodwork twice and whilst they need that first win now and as soon as possible, they have seen little so far to make them feel that they will not be competitive at this level. Since last discussing them, they have added youngster Jon Toral on a season long loan from Arsenal and made another "big money" signing, paying £1.3m for Jose Peleteiro Ramallo (Jota) from Celta Vigo. Both have travelled North and are looking to make their debuts, Toral was at Barcelona before joining the Gunners, Jota is very well thought of in Spain and was top scorer in the promotion winning Eibar team last season. That gives them three Spanish midfielders amongst a host of talented ball players in the centre of the park, a team full of pace and suited to playing on the road, massive game for both, but the Bees look well ahead in all areas both on and off the pitch and should win this he said with fingers crossed !
 

They won that 2-1 and followed up with a 1-1 home draw with Birmingham City, where they played 75 minutes + with ten men and a goal behind, after Tony Craig was sent off and the penalty converted. Brentford again showed their huge fitness levels, equalising and ending the .......
 

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Millwall - Southampton
 

The Lions lost their unbeaten record on Saturday, losing 1-0 at home to Rotherham who had prior to that game looked in a bit of a shambles defensively. Home boss Ian Holloway said afterwards:"We didn't function like we have been and I felt I should have made some more changes."I felt my attackers looked tired and were not quite as effective as they have been. "When we needed some legs to sprint in behind when we were building we couldn't do that, creating just one shot on target which isn't like us."
 

He seems sure to freshen up his squad tonight and ................

 

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Coupe de la Ligue:

 

These midweek league cup matches have been good to play in recent years and this round has been especially interesting. They have tended to be open encounters, with the last three seasons producing just two draws from 18 matches( 11.11%), and over the last two seasons, 9 of 12 have resulted in away wins, with 58% going "over".

 

Auxerre- AS Nancy

 

These two met here in the main national cup competition last year, with the hosts winning 3-1, four of the last five h2h meetings in Auxerre have produced four or more goals and there is a good chance of this following suit. Hard to know about motivation, both appeared to treat the competition seriously last season, but I have no doubt that if they were to be honest, that Auxerre would admit that a promotion push is beyond them and I suspect a run in one of the cup competitions would suit. That is balanced by Nancy being the stronger side, unbeaten this season and not playing their Ligue 2 fixture until Monday, so there is a good chance we will see both go for it.
 

The visitors will be severly weakened defensively, with goalkeeper Paul Nardi, left back Vincent Muratoru and central defender Ibrahim Amadou , plus veteran forward Youssouf Hadji all rested or recovering from a minor blow, all four have played in all four L2 fixtures to date and this is very much a B (+) starting eleven.
 

However, Auxerre have gone with a similar policy, and rested five starters from their last league game, including central defender Sébastien Puygrenier, left back Karim Djellabi and defensive midfielder Pierre Bouby, who have also each started all four L2 fixtures.......

 

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Auxerre : Lembet, Leon, Ndong, Sefil, Boly, Castelletto, Aguilar, Boe Kane, Aït Ben Idir, Gavory, Vincent, Kilic, Berthier, Haller, Tamuzo, Viale.

Nancy : Beunardeau, Ndy Assembe, Cuffaut, Sami, Bellugou, Diagne, Lenglet, Badila, Walter, Dreyer, Lusamba, Iglesias, Grange, Dalé, Busin, Dembélé.
 

Chateauroux- Clermont

 

These two featured in the mini Ligue 2 pre season preview ....

Last year we started with a look back at how the previous season ended and what we traditionally expect over the opening round, when I wrote .....

I do not feel the last ten starts are quite as releveant, teams do up their game at the last minute when in trouble and others with nothing to play for, are going through the motions, but Brest were again strongest with 20 points, Nancy second with 18 and Angers bottom of the pile with 9 points. They are interesting, second at Christmas, Angers were in a downward spiral from then on and it is they, Auxerre and Clermont who look most vulnerable of the established Ligue 2 teams, especially if they start their season poorly .
 

So, coming into this season there was good reason to feel that these two were going to be amongst the weakest teams and after four matches, there has been little to swerve us away from that line of thinking, they have one win between them and that only because the pair met here 11 days ago with the hosts winning by the odd goal in five. Two struggling ......

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Châteauroux : Bonnefoi, Souchaud, Bonnart, Nestor, Boyer, Obiang, Plessis, Chamed, Sakhi, Roudet (cap.), Kamara, Thil, Bain, Dudouit, Nnomo, Rivas.

 

UEFA Champions League: Celtic- Maribor
 

Celtic were given a lifeline in terms of this competition, being effectively awarded progression after Legia Warsaw had fielded an ineligible player in the previous round.......