Someone on FB made an interesting point that boycotting this cup because of Premier League U21s is not the best way to go about restoring the competitions integrity.
Far better for L1/L2 clubs to just absolutely stuff the U21 teams every game, with backing from the fans. Then the Prem teams will quickly lose interest, as the entire thing just becomes pointless and demoralising for their young players.
Yes, possibly or they become more determined to integrate this competition against men’s teams as they need this competition to improve them for readiness for men’s football. You could look at it both ways.
If they were doing well we could see the even more shocking discussion of them being entered in to the qualifying rounds of the FA Cup.
Just a word of caution about free VPNs folks, if you aren't paying directly, do a good deal of diligence to see how the VPN provider is funding the service. It could be that you are paying with your privacy and/or security, or it could be simply that the provider is giving a limited service for free in order to encourage you to upgrade to a subscription service. In short, consider the adage that you get what you pay for.
To add to @Ed_ 's sage advice, a lot of the big VPN providers are now owned by an Israeli firm called Kape Technologies which has some unusually close ties to the Israeli secret service, and whose business model used to be distributing malware.
Thought last night was a very scrappy game, we looked like 11 players who had only met in the dressing room just before the game; dreadfully disjointed for large chunks and struggled to string much together. The game wasn't helped by Crawley being very agricultural in their approach & application.
Certainly not a great advert for L1, though I am glad we got through at their expense.
The biggest block to B teams being palatable to FL clubs is that there is no desire for fans to watch B teams in first-team competitive fixtures. The score racked up against their B teams is largely an irrelevance, an increase in the attendances for games involving B teams will be propagandised in a push from the Premier League to foist B teams on the pyramid.
Draw is likely to be Friday Nov 22nd (based on last year's dates). We can play any of the southern teams in 2nd place, apart from our group - so not AFC Wimbledon. This is therefore one of: Birmingham City, Cambridge, Stevenage, Leyton Orient, Northampton, Swindon, or Reading. We're guaranteed to be at home by virtue of winning our group. This is the last round that is regionalised, and ties are likely to be played midweek in either w/c 9th Dec or 16th Dec, owing to a full set of midweek fixtures already scheduled for w/c 2nd Dec, which was the week these ties were played in last year. The match would go straight to penalties if level after 90 - no extra time.
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Me too, and I have a different account set up on phone and tablet, to double the amount of free data.
I believe only one U21 team made it through (Aston Villa). Good job, EFL clubs!
Sixteen U21 teams in the EFL Trophy only one qualified for the Round of 32.
Good job indeed.
Excellent journalism from the BBC here...
Someone on FB made an interesting point that boycotting this cup because of Premier League U21s is not the best way to go about restoring the competitions integrity.
Far better for L1/L2 clubs to just absolutely stuff the U21 teams every game, with backing from the fans. Then the Prem teams will quickly lose interest, as the entire thing just becomes pointless and demoralising for their young players.
Yes, possibly or they become more determined to integrate this competition against men’s teams as they need this competition to improve them for readiness for men’s football. You could look at it both ways.
If they were doing well we could see the even more shocking discussion of them being entered in to the qualifying rounds of the FA Cup.
Just a word of caution about free VPNs folks, if you aren't paying directly, do a good deal of diligence to see how the VPN provider is funding the service. It could be that you are paying with your privacy and/or security, or it could be simply that the provider is giving a limited service for free in order to encourage you to upgrade to a subscription service. In short, consider the adage that you get what you pay for.
To add to @Ed_ 's sage advice, a lot of the big VPN providers are now owned by an Israeli firm called Kape Technologies which has some unusually close ties to the Israeli secret service, and whose business model used to be distributing malware.
https://mronline.org/2024/09/13/exposed-how-israeli-spies-control-your-vpn/
Is Nord VPN a safe solution @drcongo ?
They're still currently one of the good guys @Blue_since_1990
Thank you 👍
Thought last night was a very scrappy game, we looked like 11 players who had only met in the dressing room just before the game; dreadfully disjointed for large chunks and struggled to string much together. The game wasn't helped by Crawley being very agricultural in their approach & application.
Certainly not a great advert for L1, though I am glad we got through at their expense.
The biggest block to B teams being palatable to FL clubs is that there is no desire for fans to watch B teams in first-team competitive fixtures. The score racked up against their B teams is largely an irrelevance, an increase in the attendances for games involving B teams will be propagandised in a push from the Premier League to foist B teams on the pyramid.
@drcongo is Windscribe a good/bad one?
Started using it after it was recommended on here. Literally only use it for football on the IPad and turn it off afterwards.
@drcongo ... and "Express"? (please tell me it's not the VPN equivalent of its tabloid namesake)
Shit... just googled. It's the worst of news 😠
Express are part of Kape's collection I'm afraid. No idea about Windscribe, I've only ever heard of them via mentions on here.
For anyone wondering about the next round:
Draw is likely to be Friday Nov 22nd (based on last year's dates). We can play any of the southern teams in 2nd place, apart from our group - so not AFC Wimbledon. This is therefore one of: Birmingham City, Cambridge, Stevenage, Leyton Orient, Northampton, Swindon, or Reading. We're guaranteed to be at home by virtue of winning our group. This is the last round that is regionalised, and ties are likely to be played midweek in either w/c 9th Dec or 16th Dec, owing to a full set of midweek fixtures already scheduled for w/c 2nd Dec, which was the week these ties were played in last year. The match would go straight to penalties if level after 90 - no extra time.