League Cup

[FatherStairmaster]

Tonight’s European results mean 9 Premier League teams in Europe also impacts the EFL Cup next season.

9 PL Euro teams start R3, so
Ipswich & Leicester must start in R1 (usually R2)
Accrington, Newport, Barnet, NL-PO winners must play in preliminary round

[letchbee94]

That is crazy.
Hopefully we just get the play the national league play off winner and we will get to play it at the Hive.

[BedfordBee]

If they need to do this then I think the only fair way of doing it is ahead of the 1st round draw - they have it split in North / South Sections (as I believe they do) and then pull out 2 balls from each section to decide on the preliminary round tie - as then everyone has the same chance and you aren't penalising sides that have been promoted or the League 2 sides that had a bad season.

It's funny that this is to accommodate the sides that have qualified for Europe and won't actually take the competition seriously anyway

[jerroll]

I can remember this happened in 2002/3 when Boston( conf winners) had to play Bristol Rovers(3rd bottom div 3 as it was still called then!)away.

[becbee]

I deliberately postponed arranging a holiday for May in case we were in the P.O.s / seeing us in the P.O. Final on 2nd June. So ended up booking our main annual holiday for July - safe, I thought, in the knowledge that the season didn't start until August.

Now I find that I stand to miss our first match back as a L2 side after all!

[PBBee]

Yep - I posted this possibility a few weeks ago. Madness that the early rounds are regionalised yet we could have Accrington away in a preliminary round in July!

[pgbee]

If they need to do this then I think the only fair way of doing it is ahead of the 1st round draw - they have it split in North / South Sections (as I believe they do) and then pull out 2 balls from each section to decide on the preliminary round tie - as then everyone has the same chance and you aren't penalising sides that have been promoted or the League 2 sides that had a bad season.

It's funny that this is to accommodate the sides that have qualified for Europe and won't actually take the competition seriously anyway

Since when did fairness ever enter into any decision like this...

[John Hunt]

It is what it is. We would rather be in the League Cup than not. Any of these games will be winnable so not the end of the world really now is it?

[jerroll]

League cup rd 1 is due to be w/c 11th August so no reason prelim wouldn't be played the previous midweek commencing 4th August

[thebeekeeper]

League cup rd 1 is due to be w/c 11th August so no reason prelim wouldn't be played the previous midweek commencing 4th August

I wonder if it would be preferable to play it on the final Saturday before the season starts, to ensure a larger attendance. It would also be quite a useful final warm-up, against another team of a similar standard to ourselves.

[hoofer2]

I remember a miserable home FA Cup tie vs Accrington Stanley on a freezing Tuesday evening at Underhill. Their small group of fans ( about 10 ? ) kept singing the Captain Pugwash theme tune. We lost 1 nil.

To even be in League Cup is amazing preliminary round or otherwise

https://www.times-series.co.uk/sport/47 ... wo-replay/

[Tuesds]

League cup rd 1 is due to be w/c 11th August so no reason prelim wouldn't be played the previous midweek commencing 4th August

I wonder if it would be preferable to play it on the final Saturday before the season starts, to ensure a larger attendance. It would also be quite a useful final warm-up, against another team of a similar standard to ourselves.

I see that when a preliminary round match was last played, in 2011 between newly-promoted Crawley and AFC Wimbledon, it was on the weekend immediately preceding the first weekend of the league season, albeit on that occasion it was on the Friday night.

If anyone can name the 2 ex-Bees playing for the Dons and the 3 future Bees who played for Crawley without looking it up I’ll be very impressed! One of Crawley’s Bees-to-be never actually played in a match for us, but signed for us and was an unused sub, I believe.

[beew]

Barry Fuller?

[jerroll]

League cup rd 1 is due to be w/c 11th August so no reason prelim wouldn't be played the previous midweek commencing 4th August

I wonder if it would be preferable to play it on the final Saturday before the season starts, to ensure a larger attendance. It would also be quite a useful final warm-up, against another team of a similar standard to ourselves.

I see that when a preliminary round match was last played, in 2011 between newly-promoted Crawley and AFC Wimbledon, it was on the weekend immediately preceding the first weekend of the league season, albeit on that occasion it was on the Friday night.

If anyone can name the 2 ex-Bees playing for the Dons and the 3 future Bees who played for Crawley without looking it up I’ll be very impressed! One of Crawley’s Bees-to-be never actually played in a match for us, but signed for us and was an unused sub, I believe.

Michael Kuipers - Crawley
George Francomb - Dons?

[Tuesds]

League cup rd 1 is due to be w/c 11th August so no reason prelim wouldn't be played the previous midweek commencing 4th August

I wonder if it would be preferable to play it on the final Saturday before the season starts, to ensure a larger attendance. It would also be quite a useful final warm-up, against another team of a similar standard to ourselves.

I see that when a preliminary round match was last played, in 2011 between newly-promoted Crawley and AFC Wimbledon, it was on the weekend immediately preceding the first weekend of the league season, albeit on that occasion it was on the Friday night.

If anyone can name the 2 ex-Bees playing for the Dons and the 3 future Bees who played for Crawley without looking it up I’ll be very impressed! One of Crawley’s Bees-to-be never actually played in a match for us, but signed for us and was an unused sub, I believe.

Michael Kuipers - Crawley
George Francomb - Dons?

Kuipers is correct - he is of course the man who signed and was in several squads but never made an appearance for us.

Francomb was not involved.

A clue about one of the Dons players - he had been on loan with us at the end of the preceding season, but signed for Wimbledon permanently that summer (I think!). The other Don we signed from non league.