Carabao Cup 22/23

[Chris FGR]

Pizza cup should be 48 teams - league 1 and 2.
If we need more teams include the top half of the conference.
Regional rounds, north and south.
Semis - 2 legs,
final at Wembley.

No need for NL teams, could include Italian clubs instead. The Anglo/Italian Pizza Cup.

 

[SVH]

Get rid of the league cup but the Pizza cup with U'23's is fine?

Give your head a wobble chaps. Before you know it U'23's will be in our league ffs.

 

[Bartonyellow]

Get rid of the league cup but the Pizza cup with U'23's is fine?

Give your head a wobble chaps. Before you know it U'23's will be in our league ffs.

I never said keep the under 23s. I said fuck em off.
The league cup is going anyway - they said as much, so it’s on borrowed time.
The pizza cup is a realistic chance to get to Wembley for a league 1 or 2 club so it’s very important for me. More so than a league cup scalp against a squad team premier league outfit.

 

[SVH]

Get rid of the league cup, don’t bother with FA Cup replays, 5 subs etc etc etc. Wake up and smell the coffee.

 

[thewwfc]

Get rid of the league cup but the Pizza cup with U'23's is fine?

Give your head a wobble chaps. Before you know it U'23's will be in our league ffs.

I say, keep the league cup.

Pizza Cup is fine with U23s since it's a crap competition anyway unless you get to the final, and as long as there's no restrictions on the amount of stiffs you can field, it's fine to treat it as a reserves cup where you might get some cash out of it. I mean, I know they try and regionalise it and all but we haven't got any true local rivals anyway, so the prospect of playing Stevenage, Posh and Spurs kids is nothing to get excited about.

Prem teams being allowed to field B teams lower down the pyramid is obviously a step too far and should never be allowed to happen. I can get the argument of, "if you water down the TOURNAMENT INTEGRITY of the Pizza Cup, it's just the thin end of the wedge", but I don't buy that.

 

[Bartonyellow]

As far as I am concerned there is still a papa johns boycott - most fans don’t bother going to the games - hence some 3 figure attendances. That tells you all you need to know about what the under 23s and the group stages has done.
I have not been to a game yet and won’t either. Can’t be arsed to see 3 sides of our ground empty playing Newcastle reserves on a Tuesday night.
But a fixture versus Walsall or Mansfield in a knock out game has more appeal to me and I would go for a tenner.
The competition still has legs - it’s just the way it’s been run.

 

[Laker]

I rather like the League Cup, we’ve had some decent games at home in recent years, and it’s another opportunity to get a Prem side at home along with the FA Cup. I want it to stay, it’s part of the fabric of our football now.

But I hate the pizza cup with a passion and have even committed myself to not going to the final if we ever got there even if it was against another league club. The presence of B teams in it is just appalling. I like the idea of inviting the top 16 from the conference to join instead of the B teams, straight knock out and regionalise to cut travel. Remove the B teams and I’d go again.

 

[kieran_vale]

I wouldn’t want to be getting rid of the League Cup to be honest. The FA Cup is the better one but it adds some interest outside of the league campaign early in the season. The only thing I dislike is our record in it is an embarrassment. I’m not sure that’s still the case but at one point it was the worst in the EFL for appearances in the third round or beyond.

The pizza trophy to be honest in its entire existence I’ve attended games four times. Once at Stoke, an area final with Lincoln and then the main finals at the old Wembley and Cardiff. Truth be told I hate when we have a game in it as the injury risk is too great for frankly very little. If it was abolished I wouldn’t miss it.

 

[thewwfc]

As far as I am concerned there is still a papa johns boycott - most fans don’t bother going to the games - hence some 3 figure attendances. That tells you all you need to know about what the under 23s and the group stages has done.
I have not been to a game yet and won’t either. Can’t be arsed to see 3 sides of our ground empty playing Newcastle reserves on a Tuesday night.

It's each to their own.

I don't live locally to Wycombe, and even when I did, rarely bothered going to these games (I think at a push, I've maybe been to 3 or 4 ever?), so I suppose for me there wasn't much to boycott - and attendances have always been low in general I think. I have seen that they've hit record lows for some clubs since the introduction of the Prem U23s though.

But fair play for the boycott.

 

[Muzzle]

I stopped going when they allowed premier league youth teams in. Shouldn't have been allowed then and not now

 

[Greenacres]

I don't go because I still see it being used as an excuse to get Premier League reserve teams into the Football League...if that happens the integrity of the pyramid, as we know it, is pretty much destroyed...will never go to a game.

 

[denzel ecfc]

I say, keep the league cup.

Pizza Cup is fine with U23s since it's a crap competition anyway unless you get to the final, and as long as there's no restrictions on the amount of stiffs you can field, it's fine to treat it as a reserves cup where you might get some cash out of it. I mean, I know they try and regionalise it and all but we haven't got any true local rivals anyway, so the prospect of playing Stevenage, Posh and Spurs kids is nothing to get excited about.

Prem teams being allowed to field B teams lower down the pyramid is obviously a step too far and should never be allowed to happen. I can get the argument of, "if you water down the TOURNAMENT INTEGRITY of the Pizza Cup, it's just the thin end of the wedge", but I don't buy that.

I'd be in favour of making it an under 23s Cup, especially as we've been banned from entering the Premier League Cup this season. Apparently we were embarrassing everyone by playing it in front of crowds at St James Park..

 

[Luke Imp]

People seem to be forgetting that the League Cup forms around 30% of the solidarity payments Clubs get each season, so getting rid of that isn't particularly useful from a financial point of view.

 

[Dan Phillips]

I agree, just sub the 16 U23's for the top 16 of the national league, its a fairly competitive level now in the fifth tier so would give some decent games.

When we won it I recall we played a non league side en route.

Yeah, we beat Chester 2-0.

 

[cookiemonster]

At Walsall away in the pizza trophy last year the first prize in spot the ball was pizza for a YEAR. Let's all think very carefully before calling for the abolition of a competition with prizes of that magnitude.

 

[Greenacres]

At Walsall away in the pizza trophy last year the first prize in spot the ball was pizza for a YEAR. Let's all think very carefully before calling for the abolition of a competition with prizes of that magnitude.

If I ate pizza every day for a year I probably wouldn't be able to fit into my seat at the footy...the prize would need to include a spare seat either side of me to use as overflow!

 

[Bartonyellow]

If I ate pizza every day for a year I probably wouldn't be able to fit into my seat at the footy...the prize would need to include a spare seat either side of me to use as overflow!

Which ironically at a papa johns fixture is not a problem as there is no fucker there.

 

[kieran_vale]

Rotherham on Wednesday then. Honestly this should serve no purpose than be a glorified pre-season game for us as we could do with giving minutes to the likes of Massey, Pett and Walker etc. Also no injuries as well but that should go without saying.

Bit annoying the game was moved to the Wednesday as Rotherham were meant to be playing at Cov on the Sunday and then that gets called off due to the pitch. Shouldn't have bothered if knew this was going to be an issue but never mind.

 

[The Terminator]

Can the Forest Green fans confirm to me they're still not doing programmes please?

We will make changes for this, Wellens has already said - likely to be around 7 or 8 I think.

I have my climbing equipment back ready for the walk up the hill.

 

[91SPP]

Usually it's a good game to rotate the squad and give some players a run out, but as we don't have much of a squad to rotate then it's going to be a different game.

Wildsmith; Oduroh, Stearman, Cashin, Forsyth; Smith, Thompson, Sibley; Dobbin, Barkhuizen, Collins

Sibley and Dobbin will likely get the opportunity to start the next game. The rest is just where we can refresh it. I think the likes of Davies, Knight, Bird, Hourihane, Mendez-Laing will just be rested for the next league game.

 

[The Jovial Forester]

Can the Forest Green fans confirm to me they're still not doing programmes please?

We will make changes for this, Wellens has already said - likely to be around 7 or 8 I think.

I have my climbing equipment back ready for the walk up the hill.

Still not apparently; claimed they would be doing digital but recent thread on our forum suggests still not got it together. Worth checking just in case they do though.

 

[DippyDon]

We've only opened three blocks for home fans tonight... that's around 2100 in total. It's going to be really depressing

 

[Bobbin']

QPR have sold 2.5k for tonight.

They’ll likely have more there than us.

 

[K-Win]

Away to Cardiff B Team (hopefully). Would be good to see new signings Owen Dale and Tom Lowery starting.

 

[thewwfc]

Sounds like the Cobblers will be putting out as many of their stiffs as they can as well tonight - everyone’s Up For The Cup then?

 

[Luke Imp]

Don't think we'll make too many changes tonight, perhaps two or three but not wholesale because we can't.

Doncaster are a bit of a bogey team for us!

 

[codaplenty]

Expect to see more of our academy lads out there against Wigan. It's more than use of useful to give fringe players game time, even more so when it's a Championship club as opposition Tonights crowd will be 1357, made up of 27% Wigan fans, 60% home fans, 5% who want to get away from the missus, 3% to get away from the kids and the rest who have got freebies

 

[Bartonyellow]

Just seen Coventry are playing their fixture at our place.
They are used to travelling for a home fixture at a smaller ground, so should be an easy trip up the a444 for them.
Warm welcome to the brave souls that can be arsed to go.

 

[Dinmiru]

Playing the mighty, historic, gargantuan... Salford United FC of Manchester City tonight in a massive local derby. Wonder how many United fans get their Salford shirts out after losing to Brighton on the opening day? we may see more than 17 fans for a change

 

[kieran_vale]

Champions elect Exeter already 3-0 up at Cheltenham. Almost makes me feel better about our 4-0 loss to them now.