The EFL Trophy continued with the latest group games played this week.
Premier League and Championship U23 – or are these U21? – sides were involved once again.
Not that all these ‘age group’ sides involved had players entirely falling into that age bracket with several overage players permitted to feature so the aims of ‘young English talent’ being involved in them not exactly the case…
There were some thrilling games, certainly high scoring ones, as Chesterfield and Bradford shared six goals, the Bantams winning 4-2 at the Proact Stadium. A five goal thriller at the Ricoh Arena saw host Coventry beaten by Shrewsbury – a seven goal game at the Hive saw Barnet beaten 4-3 by Wimbledon.
Meanwhile, Oxford thrashed Stevenage 6-2 and Bristol Rovers, like the U’s, away from home, ran out 5-1 winners at Wycombe.
Among the U21 sides beaten were Reading, losing out in a shootout at Colchester. Others were Stoke, Leicester, Brighton, Southampton and Sunderland when beaten at Blackburn, Fleetwood, MK Dons, Peterborough and Scunthorpe, respectively.
Newcastle, running out 2-1 winners at Crewe, were the only U21 side to collect a victory.
Here’s a round-up of the EFL Trophy results.
Results
Tuesday 29th August
Blackpool 1-1 Wigan Athletic 19:00
(Wigan win 5-4 on penalties)
Chesterfield 2-4 Bradford City 19:00
Colchester United 2-2 Reading U21 19:30
(Colchester win 6-5 on penalties)
Crewe Alexandra 1-2 Newcastle United U21 19:30
Forest Green Rovers 2-0 Newport County AFC 19:30
Oldham Athletic 0-0 Port Vale 19:30
(Port Vale win 4-2 on penalties)
Blackburn Rovers 1-0 Stoke City U21 19:45
Coventry City 2-3 Shrewsbury Town 19:45
Crawley Town 0-2 Charlton Athletic 19:45
Exeter City 1-3 Yeovil Town 19:45
Fleetwood Town 3-0 Leicester City U21 19:45
Gillingham 2-1 Southend United 19:45
Grimsby Town 1-1 Doncaster Rovers 19:45
(Doncaster win 4-3 on penalties)
Mansfield Town 1-3 Lincoln City 19:45
Milton Keynes Dons 2-0 Brighton and Hove Albion U21 19:45
Morecambe 0-2 Carlisle United 19:45
Northampton Town v Cambridge United 19:45
Peterborough United 2-0 Southampton U21 19:45
Scunthorpe United 3-1 Sunderland U21 19:45
Stevenage 2-6 Oxford United 19:45
Wycombe Wanderers 1-5 Bristol Rovers 19:45
Barnet 3-4 AFC Wimbledon 20:00
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