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The You Choose Cup - Introduction

We all know some of the teams we hate, as rivalries are always well highlighted. However, which non-Chairboy club in the EFL are Gasroomers most sympathetic towards? To find out, I am running a cup competition for the next month. You simply vote for your preferred winner each day. Here is the breakdown:

  1. Of the 71 EFL clubs, 7 were removed to make a field of 64. Wycombe (obviously) and 6 clubs that have no chance of winning: Colchester, Oxford, Luton, Bristol Rovers, Plymouth, and MK Dons. That still leaves the likes of Leeds and Millwall in the competition, but oh well.

  2. The first round is groups of four, with a group winner voted each day for 16 days. Only one team goes through from each group, and the final 15 days of the tournament is head to head knockout.

  3. I tried to keep possible winners (such as Accrington and QPR) apart, but generally, the tournament is not particularly seeded or balanced, so in theory the second most sympathetic club could get knocked out early.

  4. Each initial group has at least one club from all three EFL divisions involved.

  5. I will not vote myself, so if there is a tie at the end of the day, I will break the tie.

  6. As I am on US time (Mountain), each day's vote runs until around 2-3am BST.

I know most of us don't really care about clubs other than our own, but in the absence of any meaningful real-life competition, at least we will get some results!

I will post the four Group A teams shortly.

Comments

  • Nice idea @Shev. I think you may be surprised. A lot of us have soft spots for other clubs I think for all sorts of reasons.

  • Are we allowed to speculate on who we think might win? There's a couple of clubs that I tend to think of as "friends of wwfc".

  • That's what makes this interesting to me, @bookertease, as sympathies are a little harder to guess.

    All speculation welcome, @drcongo!

  • I wanted to place a bet on the winner, but can't find the odds at any bookmakers!

  • Wonder if the winner will be either a club where we had a significant event at (West Brom or Lincoln in Shev's group A) or a localish club with no rivalry (Brentford say).

    Really should be Exeter in view of recent shared experience on the fan ownership side but they are such a whiny self satisfied bunch - not for me or QPR in view of Gaz and loanee links but nothing team hard to like for reasons i cant quite put finger on.

    Reckon Chesterfield or Torquay would have been strong favourites had they been in league.

  • Interesting, I wouldn't have gone with any of those @DevC - I was thinking more of the clubs that have always been civil and welcoming (Doncaster and Bradford are two of my favourite away days), or just seem to really like us, Sheffield Wednesday would be top of my list for that category. When we got promoted we seemed to have more tweets of congrats from Wednesday fans than any other club.

  • I have 2 categories really. The places I’ve lived where trips to Wycombe - especially evening games - haven’t been practicable so I would go along to watch (Norwich/Ipswich, Exeter and Doncaster) and those where I’ve had decent away trips and found the natives friendly (Macclesfield a as nd the sadly defunct Darlington)

  • Sheffield Wednesday will win. Bolton, Villa & Spurs up there after recent encounters.

  • edited April 2020

    I think the various comments already show the fascination (to me) of this competition. Sympathies tend to be more hidden, and not line up across the fan base as much as rivalries.

    Sympathies can also be for random reasons. My PE teacher at school liked Stenhousemuir in Scotland simply because of their name, and I had always casually followed their results for the same reason (along with many others).

    For reasons I can't explain, I have always felt very sympathetic towards Shrewsbury, though I suspect it could be for a reason as silly as their name including a small rodent. That said, they seem a well run club in a scenic area.

    There are also many much more legitimate and personal reasons. I was a steward at Stevenage for a while as a teenager, so I find it hard to hate them, all the more so as their name conjours up 'Party in the Park'...

  • As interesting perhaps once you get beyond eight or so obvious candidates is who would be least liked. Perhaps a subject for late May’s lockdown.
    As for June, mirror mirror on the wall, who’s the blandest of them all?

  • Always liked Leicester since the O’Neill connection. Sheffield Wednesday also a good shout.

  • Amazed Dev's gone for a West country side

  • I've always had a bit of a soft spot for Norwich and Fulham, no idea why really

  • Surprised no one has mentioned Mansfield who saved our league existence and very possibly our very existence at all.

    Something bland and instantly forgettable about them though.

  • @DJWYC14 said:
    Sheffield Wednesday will win. Bolton, Villa & Spurs up there after recent encounters.

    Is this mutual admiration purely down to our players lying down and getting their tummy's tickled at the Wednesday promotion party?

  • Mansfield also a good call.

  • Might have been fun to see people having to justify least worse between some rotters. Good poll though, goes to heart of why people go to or enjoy certain games.

    Mansfield employed Steve Evans btw and kicked us off the pitch not too long ago

  • I have a soft spot for Crawley having lived there for 5 years and watching them play in the Southern League

  • @Right_in_the_Middle said:

    @DJWYC14 said:
    Sheffield Wednesday will win. Bolton, Villa & Spurs up there after recent encounters.

    Is this mutual admiration purely down to our players lying down and getting their tummy's tickled at the Wednesday promotion party?

    I suspect there's a bit of that on their side, along with the fact that we're managed by someone that Sheffield Utd despise.

  • Well done and many thanks for doing this @Shev ... a nice little something to look forward to and keep an eye on every day.

  • If you were at Hillsbrough for that game you'd understand the goodwill a bit better I daresay.

  • @DJWYC14 said:
    If you were at Hillsbrough for that game you'd understand the goodwill a bit better I daresay.

    I was at the game and found the Wednesday fans very friendly. We were awful on the day though so it was a lot easier for them to enjoy the day. Not sure why that goodwill still exists though.

  • It might be interesting to have a separate 'group of death' featuring those six excluded clubs, just to see who is most and least hated.

  • Good idea @MindlessDrugHoover - might have to do a little "tournament of evil" after this one!

  • I'm thoroughly enjoying this each day @Shev

  • Cheers @drcongo - I genuinely haven't the foggiest who is going to win, so I'm looking forward to seeing how it plays out.

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