The B Teams Boycott EFL Trophy

[Crusoe]

Other than Chelsea U21 (through), Leicester are the only other U21 still in the competition now. They were supposed to be away to Oldham this week but it was postponed due to a frozen pitch so they will play that round 3 match next week instead.

I must also admit to being a bit staggered that Portsmouth v Chelsea U21 drew a crowd of 3116.

"Frozen pitch", mmm. Only a cynic would wonder why the covers weren't fully on. I'm sure it had absolutely nothing to do with the club waiting on the FA to clear a takeover, at which point we'll be able to register four new signings that can't play until then.

[imp]

Peterborough just gone 2-1 up at Lincoln. If this ends up being the final score I'm going to go step up and boycott this fucking stupid competition. Who's with me, comrades?

Edit: 2-2! Onwards to Wembley with the champion Checkatrade!

[Kevin S]

The competition has not yet been purged, with the Chelsea Juniors through to the semis.

[imp]

The competition has not yet been purged, with the Chelsea Juniors through to the semis.

That's unfortunate. In an ideal scenario, Lincoln will purge them in the semi. I can think of fewer results that would give me greater pleasure (England 1 Iceland 2 having already happened).

[imp]

Ex-Posh person Harry Anderson puts Lincoln 3-2 up in added time. Matt Green makes it 4-2 on the break. Good game.

[imp]

Lincoln have made £160k in prize money alone out of this competition so far. 6,600 crowd tonight, though with reduced ticket prices and gate split evenly with Peterborough. Valuable income for a D4 team.

Shrewsbury, Chelsea Yoof and Fleetwood/Yeovil other teams left in. Just realised the final on April 8th is when I'm supposed to be far away on the other side of the bastarding world.

[Patrick Thistle]

The final is on Sunday 25 February, imp.

[imp]

I wish that was true, but that's the week of the semi-finals.

[Patrick Thistle]

I'm glad you pointed that out. The website I'd checked before had mixed it up with the EFL Cup final.

[Patrick Thistle]

Crossing my fingers for Lincoln tonight.

(Surely another WSC cover beckons, haha)

[RobW]

I forked out for Sky Sports 7 Day Pass via Now TV for £13 in order to watch this. Hopefully Chelsea's kids will play like the senior team did last night.

[RobW]

Lincoln all over them in first half hour. Few shots blocked and shots straight at keeper. Still 0-0. Sky commentators desperate for Chelsea to win.

[RobW]

Half Time, still goalless. Can see Chelsea winning 1-0 and Sky fawning over these players.

[RobW]

The one decent ball we put in, and Waterfall scores at back post. Rowe then misses a one on one, and inevitably Chelsea equalise.

I've missed three minutes due to my PS3 being awful but now i'm back to see us out on pens.

[Kevin S]

Ah, no extra time then.

[Satchmo Distel]

This Chelsea game appears not to be on the Guardian's live scores page

[RobW]

Penalties, fucking hell. Was our last penalty shout out losing to Emley in the FA Cup?

[RobW]

FUUUUUCK!!!! Lincoln at Wembley, bloody hell. I'm a bit emotional.

[imp]

FUUUUUCK!!!! Lincoln at Wembley, bloody hell. I'm a bit emotional.

I can relate. Fucking hell!

[Patrick Thistle]

Yay. Well done Lincoln.

Yeovil v Shrewsbury in the other semi final.

[imp]

Checkatrade and the FL should be mightily relieved that Chelsea didn't make the final. Although they did apparently bring 268 fans* to Sincil Bank last night, I can't see how they'd have sold this final to the Chelsea support in general unless they'd have sold the tickets for a quid or something.

If Chelsea had made the final, though, it would surely have exposed even more the pointlessness of having these teams in the competition at all. That's the only upside I could have seen - the final being such a non-event that it prompted a re-think.

*Could have been Chelsea fans living locally, now that I think about it. Or friends and relatives of the players and a few diehard suckers.

[Patrick Thistle]

Fleetwood v Chelsea U21s would have been a sparsely attended final.

If Shrewsbury get there I reckon it will be at least a 30,000 crowd. Maybe 40,000. The Lincoln boss reckoned they'd bring 20K and I hope Shrewsbury could match it.

[RobW]

Yeah, I hope Shrewsbury get to the final. I'd like at least 40,000 there. I was looking at the final attendances from recent years last night. As low as 35,000 for Chesterfield v Peterborough to nearly 75,000 last year between Coventry and Oxford. Our singing section are still boycotting the competition no doubt.

[Patrick Thistle]

I went to a group game in November so won't feel like a total hypocrite if I go to Wembley.

[Patrick Thistle]

I've just seen the ticket prices for the final. Cheapest adult seat is £36 with a warning it may have a restricted view. (No detail what that is - I don't mind not seeing the upper decks)