Hands up!

Anything yellow and blue
joepoolman
Mid-life Crisis
Posts: 834
Joined: Thu Jun 02, 2011 11:22 am

Re: Hands up!

Post by joepoolman »

ty cobb wrote:No one cared about the cup last year until we played the Scum and then got to the semi final/final.
This is the one statement in the whole debate that pisses me off more than any other. Speak for yourself. I always enjoyed matches in this competition, only missing one game in the run last year and I don't think I've missed a single home jpt game since we got back into the league, so on that basis I can tell you categorically that your assumption is incorrect. JPT games have always been good fun imo because if you win great, but if you're out it's not the end of the world. That and the fact you always had a good chance of a derby.

People talk about not caring till Wembley, in any cup competition the final is THE big carrot for any team that could plausibly win it and excitement builds in the later rounds - just look at some of the attendances in the fa cup last week.

Fwiw I decided in summer I would not be attending any EFL trophy games this season and our success in the competition has not changed my view whatsoever.
Geoff
Middle-Aged Spread
Posts: 1751
Joined: Mon Jul 31, 2006 4:11 pm

Re: Hands up!

Post by Geoff »

Hog wrote:I will continue my boycott through all the rounds but if we got to Wembley and it wasn't against an U'21 team then I'd consider it ... :oops:

Anyway, I've given a little thought to how to revise the format to try and increase interest and wonder what you think?

There are 48 teams in L1 and L2 so divide them into 16 groups of three where the three are geographically as close as possible so you get the local derby interest so potentially higher crowds and less midweek travelling for supporters. They play each other home and away and group winners progress to a knock-out where the opponents are again decided on the nearest clubs geographically playing one another once only with the lowest placed team in the League getting home advantage (or the other way round if you prefer). Do the same for the next round and the semi-final.

If we use this season as an example the groups could look like this:

1. Carlisle, Hartlepool, Bradford City
2. Morecambe, Fleetwood, Blackpool
3. Bolton, Accrington, Sheff Utd (tricky to fit them in!)
4. Oldham, Rochdale, Bury
5. Doncaster, Scunthorpe, Grimsby
6. Mansfield, Chesterfield, Notts County
7. Shrewsbury, Crewe, Port Vale
8. Northampton, Coventry, Walsall
9. Luton, Stevenage, MKD
10. Colchester, Cambridge, Peterborough
11. Millwall, Orient, Barnet
12. Gillingham, Southend, Charlton
13. Slumdon, Oxford, Wycombe
14. Newport, Bristol R, Cheltenham
15. Portsmouth, Crawley, AFCW
16. Plymouth, Exeter, Yeovil

There might be an argument to say each group should include at least one club from each division but I don't have the time nor will to do it! Of course you could argue it may become stale after a couple of seasons if the same clubs are in the same groups each year but I'm guessing that promotion/relegation will shake the geography up a bit and move clubs around? Not sure!
The two finalists would end up playing eight games in all.

I guess there would still have to be something about the strength of side teams put out I'm not too sure what to do? Perhaps the purely arbitrary minimum six players who started the last first team game?
To put the icing on your revamp cake, perhaps a bigger prize would encourage clubs and fans to take it more seriously. A prize in the form of automatic entry into Round 2 of the League Cup for the finalists?
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