Opening day match programme His mistake may have paved the way for defeat but new signing Pierce Charles has a bif fan in boss Julien Stephan. The 21-year-old, who is on loan from Man City, having cut his teeth at Sheffield Wednesday last season, paid a heavy price for dropping a cross straight into the path of Millwall's Luke Cundle in Saturday's EFL Cup clash at Loftus Road. It offered up the easiest of tap-ins for the Lions' poacher and although QPR foought back with a lat

EFL Cup First Round West Ham United (2) 3 Castellanos 43, 50, Bowen 45 Portsmouth (1) 1 Segečić 32 West Ham United survived an early scare on Saturday to beat Portsmouth in the First Round of the Carabao Cup: 3-1. In front of a nearly full London Stadium Jarrod Bowen and Taty Castellanos did most of the damage to a promising Pompey side. For the first time in fifteen years West Ham United were required to take part in the First Round of the League Cup. More than 53.000 spe

Back on familiar turf : Picture by @YTJourno EFL Cup First Round QPR (0) 1 Sykes og 86 Millwall (0) 1 Cundle 53 (Millwall win 2-0 on pens) A penalty shoot-out at the School End in front of visiting Millwall fans proved to be too much for QPR as Lukas Jensen became the hero of the hour with four penalty saves to keep out all four Rangers spot-kicks. It was a quite extraordinary way for the drama to conclude. First the inspired stopper dived to his right to deny Ilias Chair, th

Eyes down for another tilt at glory The World Cup has barely ended but for most of football fans, the attention now turns to the real business - the return of the domestic programme. Saturday sees the start of the campaign with the Carabao Cup taking up the mantle as season curtain-raiser a week ahead of a full EFL programme in the Championship and Leagues One and two. The Premier League's stars gets a extra week on the beach before they get going the following weekend (Augus

By Alessandro Schiavone in Eindhoven No wonder Arsenal have temporarily cooled their interest in Dutch whizkid Kees Smit and instead gone all-out for proven Premier League estrella Bruno Guimaraes. The Gunners saw their opening bid for the Newcastle star knocked back today, but should they eventually be forced to explore back-up options, Smit's name is unlikely to shoot back to the top of Mikel Arteta's shortlist any time soon. The AZ Alkmaar prodigy has been admired in north