League Cup

[theox]

Cracking result tonight!

Does anyone know the last time we beat a team from a higher division away from home in this competition or the FA Cup? Feels like it has been a while!

[Jimski]

Yeah, great result. I feared the worst, especially when I saw we'd conceded an early goal, but what an outcome! Maybe this will provide a confidence boost for the league.

Did anyone on here go? How did we play in general? Was this line-up preferable to Saturday's one?

[theox]

Does anyone know the last time we beat a team from a higher division away from home in this competition or the FA Cup? Feels like it has been a while!

Having trawled this website's archive, I make it Millwall away in the first round of the league cup 03/04. Any advances?

[Geoff]

There was the 6-1 drubbing of Bristol Rovers in 2010 but that was at home.

[slappy]

Anyway, this has given me some encouragement for the season. Friends weren't renewing season tickets, away games are getting more expensive, lack of signings etc.

[Old Abingdonian]

Unable to make Saturday, so I can't compare, but last night I thought we played well. Important to get the goals, because I could see the conclusion being otherwise that we play pretty stuff with little end product.

Atmosphere was a little unreal at times, both because they scored after 70 seconds, and because the home fans really didn't seem to care, and streamed for the exit when the winner went in. Another caveat is that despite a couple of accidental late tackles (one on Hunt in particular looked as if it could have been really serious), City gave our players more respect than they may find in L2. This was a City team with 'eight changes', but it seems that their attitude was more lacking than their skill. After their goal, they sat back and let us play, and although there was a flurry after our equaliser, they never really imposed themselves.

So, a number of reasons to not get carried away, but we passed the ball fluently, linked up well and seemed to have a good level of understanding for a team significantly short of time playing together. We held the ball up well in midfield, and higher up the pitch: both Morris and Brown seemed able to look after the ball better than most recent forwards. Riley looked comfortable in a more advanced role, and this may be an aspect of Appleton's approach: play the same formation, but expect players such as Brown, Riley and Meades to be able to operate in different positions within it. Mullins looked very capable, both defensively and carrying the ball out of defence - the fact that he is a reasonable footballer makes him very useful at this level, and so although the ball did sometimes get stuck in our third, Mullins was often able to take it forward. I suspect Mullins's injury was a major factor in our collapse at the end of last season. Brown was our best player: making runs, almost always available, and - for a relatively small man - able to keep possession under pressure. There was some very good link-up play on both wings, although the final cross was often poor.

Defensively, we allowed City players too much space sometimes (especially on the flanks), and neither Newey nor Hunt was entirely convincing. Crocombe worries me: some rather extravagant play outside the box, and one error of judgment when he passed out to the edge of the box and Wright had to be at his best to 'take a yellow' and prevent the City forward having a clear run at goal. And it would have been good at this point if Max had come out to apologise to Jake.

I hope the win will help with confidence: it should do.

[SmileyMan]

Draw for the next round is after the Coventry v Cardiff game tonight. Premiership teams who are not in the Champions League or UEFA Cup are in the draw too.

[OUFC4eva]

I recall a League Cup win at Everton in Sept. 1999
and a win at Wolves? in 2000 too.

We had a really poor side that 1999/2000 season and just about stayed up
after drawing, ironically enough, at Bristol City in April 2000.

[ty cobb]

I was at that Everton match and remember Joey basically runnning the show and Mad Dog at centre back.

Good win last night against a under strength Bristol team, lets hope we can build on this.

[slappy]

I've just realised we are the lowest ranked team still in the draw!

[GodalmingYellow]

I was at that Everton match and remember Joey basically runnning the show and Mad Dog at centre back.

Good win last night against a under strength Bristol team, lets hope we can build on this.

I was there too and just remember Everton fans hurling stones at the London Road coach after the game.

IIRC, Everton didn't lose another game at home that season and the BBC kept saying how they had an unbeaten home record, but we knew different.

[GodalmingYellow]

I've just realised we are the lowest ranked team still in the draw!

Brizzle must have been one of the higher ranked teams. Surprised (or not) that we didn't get a mention on 5 Live this morning.

[A-Ro]

I was at that Everton match and remember Joey basically runnning the show and Mad Dog at centre back.

Good win last night against a under strength Bristol team, lets hope we can build on this.

I was there too and just remember Everton fans hurling stones at the London Road coach after the game.

IIRC, Everton didn't lose another game at home that season and the BBC kept saying how they had an unbeaten home record, but we knew different.

I too remember the unbeaten run rubbish and IIRC they spouted it again when they drew Preston in the FA Cup later that season.

[A-Ro]

How dodgy was that draw? Who decided whether the unseeded teams were home or away and who decided when they were going to be introduced into the proceedings?

[OUFC4eva]

How dodgy was that draw? Who decided whether the unseeded teams were home or away and who decided when they were going to be introduced into the proceedings?

It was indeed truly appalling. It looked rushed and botched and I've no idea
how we came to be selected as an away team prior to the draw.

It looked at one point as if the whole draw had gone badly wrong - shades of Trevor Brooking doing the FA Cup draw
in 2006 when the same team came out twice.