Match Thread Aston Villa V Bradford City Vertu Trophy Tuesday 14/1/2025 @ 7.30pm

Wonder where they've sent the camera crew...?

 

Just looking through the past versions of the trophy to see what the usual stance as been on where these U21s play if they are drawn at home and it is always at the first teams ground. Brighton U21s hosted Reading last season infront of 990 fans. Season prior, Wolves u21s played Man United u21s infront of 1,150 and Everton u21s hosted Mansfield infront of 779 fans.

There haven't been a great deal of U21 hosted teams in the draws since they came into it in 2016, usually 1 or 2 per season it seems. But the average attendance is seemingly about 1000 fans, maybe a little more. The record is 2,643 fans who watched Chelsea u21s beat Oxford 3-0 in 2018. The record low was in 2019 when Brighton U21s played Newport at the AMEX infront of 292 fans.

 

For such an insignificant competition you would think those rules would be relaxed.

 

GK Walker
RWB Halliday
LWB Richards
RCB Johnson
CB Shepherd
LCB Kelly
DM Smallwood
CM Pattison
AM Sarcevic
AM Pointon
ST Kavanagh

That be my line up.

 

I would play a weakened side with an eye on the more important game at Carlisle.

The competition still does very little for me and I have never attended a single match over the years in its various guises

 

I'm guessing loads of Oxford Fans probably made up that crowd to see Stamford Bridge.

 

They sold out their allocation of 1000. The Chelsea side had Reece James, Trevor Chalobah and Hudson-Odoi in there along with a few other lads like Ampadu and Dujon Sterling who've gone on to have decent careers to date.

 

I'd forfeit the game. It's a nonsense competition.

 

Never been to Villa Park, probably won't get another chance for a long time. So for a tenner on my day off (+fuel) it's something to do

 

Do a competition, fans can pay to enter a ballot and five winners each get a space on the bench for this game

 

Why do they bother. thrown out of the league in 1970 and never looked like getting back and don't look like they ever will.
I am a hardened city fan and this is probably a no no for most, but they should have become one club, once both started to struggle.
Halving the supporter base in Bradford was madness.
The stadium at Park avenue was decent as well with lots of room to expand.

 

Just our little secret mate .

 

I don't get it?

 

Itd be as effective as Greg Abbott’s recruitment

 

Doyle ,Odour , Oliver and Smith are the equivalent of competition winners anyway

 

I'm expecting the team to be a similar type to all of the other EFL Trophy games we've played under Alexander with a strong team but 3 or 4 fringe players given a chance.

If we think Johnson can manage 60 minutes then I think we'll start with him, I can also see Benn being given a chance after missing out on the squad in the last 2 matches.

 

All the other ties are on Sky plus any one know why this one isn't?

 

It is isn’t it ? I’m sure it was highlighted earlier in the thread P ?