Carabao Cup 22/23

[SMH]

Not surprised- least you will get a mid week off now as there are loads coming up to fit games in.

I like the cup so it does annoy me somewhat, but I completely understand it. If we played a first team and someone got their leg broken, the ramifications in terms of the league are massive. It's financially negligent at this point for Championship sides to take the League Cup seriously.

 

[Luke Imp]

Comfortable 3-0 win at Donny with 5 changes to the side (more than I thought we'd make).

Excellent goal from Bishop, getting the ball from halfway inside his own half and scoring (albeit aided by Doncaster refusing to bring him down and taking a yellow card).

 

[TractorBoys]

Our complete indifference to this cup goes on. Only Burgess started from the weekend and McK clearly saw this as a way to put minutes into bench/fringe players which I have no problem with, despite the defeat. Not all ITFC fans agree with me on this but I honestly couldn't give a fuck about this cup.

 

[denzel ecfc]

Really don't know why fans don't like this cup. I think its a great competition, look at Burton a few seasons back.
And I'm not just saying this because of last night, last year I was disappointed to go out, has we won the shootout we may well have gone on to place Man City in the third round.

 

[Luke Imp]

I agree, it's an easier way to potentially draw a PL team. We've played Everton and Liverpool at home, both on TV, in recent years, which made us a bit of cash.

I can understand why some managers prefer to get minutes into fringe players because it's an early cup competition and August is generally a busy month even without it. Maybe if they started it in September it would be viewed slightly differently, although I think the Pizza Cup starts then as well so available midweeks are sparse?

 

[denzel ecfc]

Port Vale are arranging friendlies, there isn't a problem with fixture congestion in August

 

[AmberRich]

One positive would be that the team have had early warning that they must pick up their game.
Sometimes these defeats actually work to the long-term benefit of club.

Definitely this. Get the hammerings out the way now at the start of the season so you have plenty of times to fix things. The League Cup as well so won't hamper their league campaign.

Don't get me wrong it's a bad result but I've seen Cambridge get stuffed 7-0 and 6-0 and in the end we were fine.

We (Cambridge) beat Cheltenham 5-0 away last season. So what?
Cheltenham still had some cracking results against the bigger teams, stayed up comfortably and finishing only two points and one place below us. They had an off day against us, and we had a good day against them, that's all.

Exeter have had a decent start but have so far only had two - undoubtedly good - results against a fellow promotee and one of the weaker club's reserves (no offence Cheltenham fans, but you guys appear a bit weaker this season than last); you haven't played any of the teams expected to finish top half yet and won't until next Tuesday. I didn't have you down for relegation but I still don't see you likely to trouble the top half of the table.

Wycombe will give you a feel for where you really are; win that and you may have some genuine bragging opportunities...

There's been stranger things than Exeter get a top 6 finish so who knows. But yeah they haven't faced a proper test yet, and even if they had already faced a promotion favourite and stuffed them it's only August. That said looking like a tougher game against them on Saturday than first thought!

 

[AmberRich]

Really don't know why fans don't like this cup. I think its a great competition, look at Burton a few seasons back.
And I'm not just saying this because of last night, last year I was disappointed to go out, has we won the shootout we may well have gone on to place Man City in the third round.

I liked all three cup competitions until they destroyed the EFL Trophy with B teams. Find the early rounds of the League Cup quite fun too, for us it's usually a chance to see a few new signings who haven't made the starting lineup yet. Had a few good results in recent years against Sheffield Wednesday, Brentford, Birmingham and now Millwall as well.

Don't think the League Cups a nuisance either, us and Millwall used it this year to get minutes into more players something both managers wanted.

 

[Trapdoor]

We aren't that good. I think we will finish around 15th this season. Don't worry about us just yet lads.

 

[SVH]

Port Vale are arranging friendlies, there isn't a problem with fixture congestion in August

Yeah Bonner said we had planned a friendly at the end of the month for fringe players but now we don't need to as we went through to the second round.

I enjoy Tuesday night games too so always a bonus to be drawn at home.

 

[valefan16]

Port Vale are arranging friendlies, there isn't a problem with fixture congestion in August

Mostly for trialists and players coming back from long term injuries to get up to speed but as you saw at the weekend we are now in the position we are having to use most of them in league/cup games.

 

[Luke Imp]

Port Vale are arranging friendlies, there isn't a problem with fixture congestion in August

We only have two free Tuesday's until the beginning of October and 8 games in August.

 

[ProfessorGreen]

We've got Peterborough tonight.

We were kind enough to accept their request to move the game to the Wednesday so that they can stay down here for the league fixture on Saturday.

Seems to be a decent relationship between the clubs despite them thrashing us every season they're in this league!

 

[Chris FGR]

Don’t really understand managers playing severely weakened teams. A couple of changes maybe, but surely it’s better for your league form to try and get a decent result/performance. This is still a worthwhile competition imo, you can make some decent money getting through a couple of rounds especially if you get a big tie.

 

[Marked Ox]

Well, no bad thing to find out if your stiffs aren’t worth it, ship ‘em out on loan and be done with it.

I don’t expect anyone to be arsed enough to do this in real life, but I’d be genuinely interested to see how many teams are taking this cup seriously, i.e. how many first teamers per club featured in this round.

Both ourselves and the Cobblers put out heavily rotated sides tonight - Ainsworth showed last season how much this cup means to him by playing our stiffs v Man City ( ) so I can’t imagine a full first WW XI is going to grace this competition in the near future.

Genuinely pleased that the fringe players get a shot at first team football though, and apparently a few of ours acquitted themselves well tonight - good to have some reassurance of strength in depth and also stop any first teamers getting complacent.

We made 8 changes last night and Swansea made 7 in our penalty win over them. Some of their fans were saying we only beat their reserves until it was pointed out by some of their other fans that we made more changes.

Our team had our new keeper Ed McGinty start his 1st game, a 17 year old centre back, James Golding at right back (he'd played at CB in his only start in last season's final league game), a winger, Tyler Goodrham, who just turned 19 making his full debut, Alex Gorrin in his 1st full game since his ACL injury last season, new signings Jodi Jones and Lewis Bate making their 1st start for us.

They should have beaten us after we didn't turn up for 60 mins, our keeper gifted them the 1st goal (by his own admittance), but they made subs as did we and we got on top for the rest of the game. Tbf, their keeper gifted us our 1st goal as well. Swansea really have to sort out their defence panicking when they get a bit of pressure from the opposition as they fell apart at the end.

 

[Muzzle]

As has been said, we made 8 changes. What has pleased me the most, is that we seem to have strength in depth for the first time in years, and I'm hopeful we can cope with injuries, and players out of form over the season.

 

[Chris FGR]

We made 4 changes, 2 were forced by injury. The 4 players that came in had all played in both our league games. Doing it properly.

 

[Marked Ox]

Don’t really understand managers playing severely weakened teams. A couple of changes maybe, but surely it’s better for your league form to try and get a decent result/performance. This is still a worthwhile competition imo, you can make some decent money getting through a couple of rounds especially if you get a big tie.

I agree that it can be good for momentum. That said, coming early in the season, I'm not sure many players are fully ready, fitness wise, for Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday especially with the heat currently. Especially as clubs generally don't want players peaking fitness wise this early in the season. And then it is a chance to get much needed minutes into the legs of the players that are pushing for a start and squad players.

 

[kieran_vale]

I think the problem is and why I’m very understanding of managers doing it if a key player picks up a knock keeping them out for weeks or longer it’s his job on the line.

I know in the past on occasion some clubs have been allowed to bring forward the first round tie to the Saturday before the league season kicks off and that might be the way to go in future certainly with the first round. Avoids the constant Saturday-Tuesday you get at this time of the season.

 

[Si Robin]

Don’t really understand managers playing severely weakened teams. A couple of changes maybe, but surely it’s better for your league form to try and get a decent result/performance. This is still a worthwhile competition imo, you can make some decent money getting through a couple of rounds especially if you get a big tie.

This is what's been aimed at Wade Elliott all day - by all means make a few changes, but to make 8 was criminal. As I said last night, 3 of the players were making their full debuts for the club.

I get you want to see if your back-up players are up to it, but that was crazy last night.

EDIT: With that being said, we made it to the 3rd round for the first time last season and I'm sure we basically made peanuts out of it.

 

[Muzzle]

To make any money, you have to draw a big team. For us to break even at our place, we need a crowd over 10,000....we had 6,500 there last night

 

[dedwardp]

EDIT: With that being said, we made it to the 3rd round for the first time last season and I'm sure we basically made peanuts out of it.

Yeah, I think there's very little money in this one to be fair. A few seasons ago we beat Crystal Palace away, Tottenham at home and then bowed out at Old Trafford in the quarter finals and I think it was only a decent gate receipt from the Man United game that was worthwhile, particularly as we were never televised - think it must have been the first time Man United hadn't been chosen in decades!

 

[kieran_vale]

Well I think DC showed what he thinks of tonight and made 7 changes. That said after Saturday it’s an opportunity for at least a couple to stake a claim for the Bolton game.

 

[Chris FGR]

This is what's been aimed at Wade Elliott all day - by all means make a few changes, but to make 8 was criminal. As I said last night, 3 of the players were making their full debuts for the club.

I get you want to see if your back-up players are up to it, but that was crazy last night.

EDIT: With that being said, we made it to the 3rd round for the first time last season and I'm sure we basically made peanuts out of it.

Looked up the prize money, tbh never realised it was that shite , maybe should try and get Red Bull sponsoring it instead of Carabao.

We've had a couple of very enjoyable trips to Prem teams over the past few years in this, Bournemouth and Brentford, so was glad we made the effort to get through the first round those times especially given we're usually shit in the FA Cup.

 

[valefan16]

7 changes, no strikers on the pitch, 4 players first game after long term injuries.

Could be a long night! Not arsed though just mainly get fitness into those players and keep Procs wrapped in cotton wool.

 

[thewwfc]

This is what's been aimed at Wade Elliott all day - by all means make a few changes, but to make 8 was criminal. As I said last night, 3 of the players were making their full debuts for the club.

I get you want to see if your back-up players are up to it, but that was crazy last night.

But we did that, pretty much, and won.

10 changes, 2 EFL debuts, 2 first starts.

I don’t mean that in a “woo, aren’t we great” way (Cobblers made a ton of changes too) - just that it can work to stick out the most reserve side possible.

 

[thewwfc]

Oh, and Palarse away for the draw please, or Brighton (purely for the ground tickoff possibilities).

We’ll clearly bag another L1 team though.

 

[valefan16]

Unless injured I’m guessing Chris Hussey may be on his way out.

 

[denzel ecfc]

Oh, and Palarse away for the draw please, or Brighton (purely for the ground tickoff possibilities).

We’ll clearly bag another L1 team though.

Greedy. You went to the Etihad last year!

 

[thewwfc]

Greedy. You went to the Etihad last year!

I did…and we even scored first, even if it had long since degenerated into a Citeh passing drill/competition to see who could bag a glamour goal by full time.