The football season started before the football season started. On 8 August 2026, the Carabao Cup first round swung into action across England — a week of fixtures that gave clubs their first competitive minutes before the 2026-27 Football League campaign had even begun The Guardian.

The Carabao Cup, English football's second-tier knockout competition (the FA Cup being the first), has long served as the traditional curtain-raiser. Clubs from the Premier League and the EFL — the three divisions below the top flight — enter at various stages, with lower-league and some top-flight sides starting in round one. The EFL scheduled this season's opening round for the weekend of 7-9 August EFL.

West Ham United welcomed Portsmouth to the London Stadium on Saturday afternoon, a 3pm BST kick-off that doubled as West Ham's first competitive fixture of the 2026-27 season West Ham United. It was also the first time the two clubs had ever met in the League Cup, despite decades of history between them EFL. Portsmouth, managed by John Mousinho, travelled to east London looking to spring an early upset West Ham United.

Up at Turf Moor, Burnley hosted Notts County — a tie that paired a club with Premier League pedigree against one climbing back through the lower leagues Sky Sports. Sky Sports had both that match and Wrexham's first-round tie among its live selections, reflecting the growing appetite for early-season knockout drama on television Sky Sports.

Elsewhere, the results came thick and fast. Wolverhampton Wanderers dispatched Port Vale 3-0 — a clean, professional start for a side expected to push higher up the pyramid The Guardian. Stevenage grabbed a 2-1 win on the road at Wycombe, the kind of away performance that Cup ties often hinge on. Cambridge United and Barnet reached half-time goalless, a reminder that not every early-season match bursts into life immediately The Guardian.

Leicester City faced Northampton, Burton Albion took on Blackburn Rovers, and Crewe Alexandra met Accrington Stanley in a full Saturday programme that spread from the Championship down through League One and League Two Sky Sports SI.com.

There is something particular about the Carabao Cup first round. The league table is still blank. No team has gathered momentum or lost it. Managers use these matches to hand debuts, test formations, and shake off pre-season rust. For lower-league clubs, a televised trip to a bigger ground can be the financial and emotional highlight of the year. For supporters, it is the first real football in months — the point where friendly matches stop counting for nothing and results start meaning something.

The draw for the competition began early in the summer, with the EFL confirming the preliminary round back in June — a stage that included sides like York City and Crawley Town fighting for a place in the main bracket EFL. West Ham learned their Portsmouth assignment on 25 June, giving fans the better part of six weeks to anticipate the opener West Ham United.

The club even marked the occasion by launching their 2026-27 official matchday programme with the Portsmouth issue — a small but telling sign that, for all the pre-season friendlies and training-ground optimism, the real thing only begins when the referee's whistle goes West Ham United.

And now it has. Ninety minutes at a time, the season is underway.