I feared for our youngsters before the game started. They certainly exceeded my expectations. It will have helped that most of them play together week in week out. It was probably a better team performance than if we'd mixed and matched some of the youngsters with 1st team regulars. Purse was on the touchline with BBM. Apparently he was heavily involved in training before the match as well. Good management by BBM involving him. A decent interview with Spiers on the city website. A bit clunky in delivery, but good content. Sounds a good lad. Home
I didn’t watch it all just the last 20 minutes; seen a bit more now on the club website. The style of play was impressive; good press, neat control, one touch pass and movement, plus pace and no little skill and in awful conditions. Augurs well for the future
About the only criticism I could level at them was that I think one or two of them started to get a little too comfortable when we were a man up and dominating. At times they held the ball a little too long, trying to turn out of dangerous situations rather than looking for a safer pass. That gave Arsenal a little hope during the last 15 I'd say, but to be fair to them, they regained superiority again before the end and turned the screw fully to bag the 3rd goal.
The Vertu Round of 32 draw will take place live on Sky Sports News on Thursday, 13 November at 2.30pm. Sky Sports’ Will Perry will host the draw alongside former Ipswich Town captain, Luke Chambers and former Jamaican international, Jobi McAnuff. For the Round of 32 Draw, Clubs will remain regionalised with each Group winner being drawn at home to a second-placed Club from a different qualifying Group. Vertu Trophy Round of 32 ties are to take place week commencing December 1. Southern Section Group A Draw Winners Pot Bluebirds Bristol Rovers Northampton Swindon Runners up Pot Wimbledon Peterborough Wycombe Cambridge
Any news yet on whether the club will be sanctioned for fielding a team not compliant with the criteria or what a sanction could be ranging from a draconian exclusion to a fine or a rap over the knuckles?
And are the FA against youngsters getting a chance to show their skills,if they do they ought to be ashamed.
The FA are as woke as the BBC so it wouldn't surprise me if they take this chance to Vertu signal and punish the lesser clubs, whilst ignoring the blatant cheating of the big 6 clubs
I might be missing something here, but who has heard anything at all about any form of sanction that might be imposed on City for fielding a "below strength" team in the Vertu cup? If so, put something up on here so we can all share in the joke. I've heard nothing at all - is this just a wind up that I'm falling for?
Rule 7 of the Vertu Trophy Rules covers this. Trying to work out who the qualifying players are makes my head hurt. Take a look yourselves to see if you make more sense of it. However it is clear that a club could be fined up to £5k if the team doesn't include 10 qualifying players.
Theory. Perhaps the "4 player" rule wasn't imposed on City as they were being forced to play the Vertu Trophy game against their wishes within the international break? City had 6 of the side that faced Blackpool, Rubin Colwill, Joel Colwill, Cian Ashford, Isaak Davies, Ronan Kpakio and Dylan Lawlor unavailable to play through international call ups. No other League 1 nor 2 clubs would have anywhere near that number unavailable for that reason.
That would be the sensible approach. Byt when have football administrators ever been sensible? Also, there were at least 4 eligible players sat in the stands on Tuesday. Possibly all injured. I dont want any repercussions, just playing devil's advocate.
Both the Newport and Arsenal U21 games we were in the Diamond Suite, I hope the Wimbledon game will be the same. Great to see how the other half live.
Well it won't be in an international break so he'll have the lot to choose from. We're home to Mansfield on the Saturday before and again home to Huddersfield the Saturday after - so that's 3 home games on the bounce in 7 days.
