22/23 Pizza Trophy

[Bartonyellow]

3 fucking 0 up already.
Nightmare.
I hate this competition.
Que our happy clapper “Jimmy must stay brigade” wetting their pants in excitement that we have turned the corner and he must stay.

 

[TractorBoys]

Just the 10 changes for us!

Pipped you by 1!

Cameron Humphreys in the centre of the park which is great to see.

 

[kieran_vale]

Just the 10 changes for us!

I’m not listening or watching but is it true they’ve got fucking Theo commentating on this? Radio Stoke really are the pits.

 

[valefan16]

I’m not listening or watching but is it true they’ve got fucking Theo commentating on this? Radio Stoke really are the pits.

Apparently! Even worse sounds like Stockport have around 300 fans down for it!

 

[BRFC_Gas]

2 goals in 2 games for Loft...

 

[kieran_vale]

Apparently! Even worse sounds like Stockport have around 300 fans down for it!

464 from them apparently, total crowd of 1980. About 1000 more than should be going to this.

Anyway we lead 1-0 from Chris Hussey. Him scoring will upset the narrative of some of our fans who’ve had it in for him for a while.

 

[valefan16]

464 from them apparently, total crowd of 1980. About 1000 more than should be going to this.

Anyway we lead 1-0 from Chris Hussey. Him scoring will upset the narrative of some of our fans who’ve had it in for him for a while.

Cracking strike apparently. Strange crowd that, usually we’ve been getting 5-900!

 

[WhiteRussian]

We lost. Well done Cheltenham. Charlie Brown scored,

 

[valefan16]

Brad Walker injured after coming on… again. Bit of a blow that.

 

[kieran_vale]

Brad Walker injured after coming on… again. Bit of a blow that.

And that’s why I hate this competition. Hopefully it’s nothing serious but it just isn’t worth the risk.

1-0 win for us for whatever that’s worth.

 

[denzel ecfc]

1900 at our place.
Made 8 changes so no surprise that we lost.
Hopefully no one injured

 

[CTFCfan99]

We lost. Well done Cheltenham. Charlie Brown scored,

Think he's only played a total of about 45 minutes since we took him off your hands, unsurprisingly that was his first goal!

A win is a win and hopefully that will at least give them some confidence to take into Saturday.

 

[valefan16]

1-0 win, good to get minutes into fringe players.

 

[TractorBoys]

Excellent night, 11 changes and a joy to see 4 of our academy prospects under the age of 19.

Ladapo breaks his duck for the 6th goal, that will do him the world of good.

More importantly, great to put minutes into a combination of our second team & youth prospects.

 

[YEO YEO YEO]

3-0 win for us at Barnsley, with Norwood sent off for the home side. Another brace for Teddy Bishop and a first goal for youngster Makama. Also great to see Walsh back for 45 minutes after injury. He is such a calming influence, just hope we can see him back for some time. First start also for Diamond after coming in on loan yesterday.

 

[denzel ecfc]

Excellent night, 11 changes and a joy to see 4 of our academy prospects under the age of 19.

Ladapo breaks his duck for the 6th goal, that will do him the world of good.

More importantly, great to put minutes into a combination of our second team & youth prospects.

Only 4? Amateurs

 

[Essex2Wessex]

Three goals, all from our defenders. Something to be said for that.

 

[UppaTowen_ITFC]

3-0 win for us at Barnsley, with Norwood sent off for the home side. Another brace for Teddy Bishop and a first goal for youngster Makama. Also great to see Walsh back for 45 minutes after injury. He is such a calming influence, just hope we can see him back for some time. First start also for Diamond after coming in on loan yesterday.

How’s he getting on for you Teddy Bish? I saw he scored another 2 on Saturday and meant to ask. I always really really liked him but his injuries for us meant a change of scenery was best for both parties.

When he first broke through aged 17/18, he was ripping the championship apart. Very pleased to see he’s getting plenty of minutes these days and hopefully over the worst of his injuries.

 

[91SPP]

A strong-ish team for us, but with the lack of options we have it wasn’t surprising. We have a ton of injuries in our u21 squad and it’s really as paper thin as it possibly can be. 3-1 win, keeping our 100% record at home this season; 5 wins out of 5.

Jake Rooney really does look like a player who could go really far in the game, fast becoming a fans favourite. It’s not going to be long before he gets his opportunity in the league, despite the position he plays being the only one where we are spoilt for choice and experience. A player to definitely look out for as the season progresses.

A side note that we have two players coming in, although Rosenior said we have missed out on a few targets recently. No mention of any names, but can’t be easy to recruit without the ability to pay transfer fees, loan fees or agent fees this late into the transfer window.

 

[Si Robin]

Think he's only played a total of about 45 minutes since we took him off your hands, unsurprisingly that was his first goal!

A win is a win and hopefully that will at least give them some confidence to take into Saturday.

Yeah, I can't stand this competition, but we need to get some confidence into the squad and if a win in it helps then so be it.

Michael Duff's first win was against an Arsenal u23 team in this comp and his tenure turned around almost overnight. Not say this will happen with Wade, but it can only help.

 

[Imp in Branston]

How’s he getting on for you Teddy Bish? I saw he scored another 2 on Saturday and meant to ask. I always really really liked him but his injuries for us meant a change of scenery was best for both parties.

When he first broke through aged 17/18, he was ripping the championship apart. Very pleased to see he’s getting plenty of minutes these days and hopefully over the worst of his injuries.

Bishop has scored 5 already so leading scorer for us this season. It’s been a bit stop start with him in his time here. When he has been fit (which I don’t think has been a lot of the time) he does look very classy and a real threat. Other problem is nailing down his best position because he has been used all over the place in different areas. Would be great to see a fully fit Teddy out there as he is undoubtedly a very good player.

 

[Royalowl]

3-1 defeat away to Bradford, no injuries and a good run out for the reserves and players recovering from injury - a crowd of 6092 (3355 Wednesday fans - very impressive).

 

[thewwfc]

I wasn’t aware of this weird scoring system where if you only win on pens then you both get a point, but the team who won the shootout gets a “bonus point” - wtf?

Anyway, a poor and disjointed game for us v Spurs kids, and a 0-0 to boot. Not surprising that it was disjointed from our perspective, as that line-up has never played together and anticipation of each other’s game would necessarily be limited. One of our dev squad players literally signed in the morning and got chucked straight into the team.

But I wanted to see our fringe players/dev squad, to get an idea of what they can do, and I got that in spades, so I can’t complain. A few promising signs from the dev squad too.

I was surprised how much the Spurs kids defenders hoofed it though, I would have thought that kind of thing got you 50 press-ups in the Spurs academy… “no no no! PASS IT OUT FROM THE BACK!”

 

[Chris FGR]

Do red card bans only apply to this competition?

 

[Luke Imp]

Do red card bans only apply to this competition?

They are now, I think the Pizza Cup was lumped into league at one point with yellows and reds.

 

[Luke Imp]

3-0 win for us at Barnsley, with Norwood sent off for the home side. Another brace for Teddy Bishop and a first goal for youngster Makama. Also great to see Walsh back for 45 minutes after injury. He is such a calming influence, just hope we can see him back for some time. First start also for Diamond after coming in on loan yesterday.

Norwood is a tit isn't he, what on earth goes through his mind?

As you say, good to see Walsh back out there for 45 minutes. Debuts for Diamond and the young lad Benn, Vernam getting game time, youngsters Makama and Gallagher coming on as well.

How’s he getting on for you Teddy Bish? I saw he scored another 2 on Saturday and meant to ask. I always really really liked him but his injuries for us meant a change of scenery was best for both parties.

When he first broke through aged 17/18, he was ripping the championship apart. Very pleased to see he’s getting plenty of minutes these days and hopefully over the worst of his injuries.

I think he'll start getting frustrated this season if he doesn't get a run in his preferred position. Last season he played RB, DM, CM, LW and RW and plugging gaps (didn't an admirable job as well really, especially at RB).

He's not one you can play Sat, Tues, Sat all the time and has generally been left out of midweeks I think.

 

[Floreat Salopia]

I think we were the only club from League 1 and 2 to play their entire youth team last night(?) Not a single first team player was risked and we lost 2-1 to Wolves U21's in the last minute.

Very happy with that approach. If the youth team's are good enough for the Prem teams then why not us too? Might even give us a slight advantage over Forest Green ahead of Saturday if they fielded first team players in their game last night.

 

[nelsonpfc]

Awful match up at Crawley. The backup brigade looked like they couldn't be bothered, but the younger lads did well. Dane Scarlett scored a glorious goal, but then took the worst penalty I've ever seen live.. Ref was totally awful though. Never ever played advantage to either side. Fell over the ball, but allowed the play to continue even though we had the ball originally and led to a very soft pen in injury time. Cowley proper annoyed and will probably get fined for his comments.
We made up almost 50% of the 2300 gate aswell.

 

[thewwfc]

Awful match up at Crawley. The backup brigade looked like they couldn't be bothered,

that’s a shocker, I’d get it if it was towards the end of the season and it’s just jaded guys running their contract down - but surely even if you only give a shit about pocketing appearance fees and the like, you’d want to try and work your way into first team contention, even if the competition itself is a farce.

Our (non-dev squad) fringe players put a proper shift in thankfully, even if they may not much like the idea of playing a side of Prem kids.

 

[Boletus Edulis]

not a bad game, and I like the penalty shoot out bit. Three 17 and under players started. Oscar Hall at CB did well at handling Marquis. Then 16 year old came on from the bench, a year after he made his debut. Good to see, but it still sticks in the craw that a competition designed to help young players from Premier clubs can lead to us being “fined” is we play too many of our kids.