West Ham v Portsmouth, Burnley v Notts County: Carabao Cup first round - live

Key events

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.

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GOAL! Grimsby Town 0-1 Blackpool (Ennis 3). Niall Ennis opens the scoring for Blackpool, who are not managed by Ruben Amorim.

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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.

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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!

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FULL TIME: Cambridge United 2-1 Barnet

Cambridge hold on, and join Wolves, Stevenage and Middlesbrough in the hat for the second round.

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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.

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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.

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HALF TIME: QPR 0-0 Millwall. Halfway to penalties, then.

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… 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.

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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.

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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.

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Updated at 09.35 EDT

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.

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Meanwhile, in other time-wasting news, allow us to hang this on-topic retro Joy of Six triptych. Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy.

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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?

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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.

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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 … ♬ ♪ ♫

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… 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:

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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.

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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!

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