[Lord Snooty]

Huddersfield Town in the Vertu Trophy 2025/26
starting on Tuesday September 2nd
ending on Sunday April 12th
at Wembley Stadium

Huddersfield Town welcome Newcastle United's under 21 team to the MacAccu Stadium on Tuesday evening in the first group game for this season's EFL Trophy. Hopefully, our last ever participation in this tournament.

Four weeks after this first game, we travel to play Harrogate Town in what will be our first official first team meeting. And then five weeks later, we will welcome Mansfield Town to the Nagle Arena for the final group game.

The other group games are.....

Sept 9th: Mansfield v Harrogate
Oct 15th: Mansfield v Newcastle
Nov 11th: Harrogate v Newcastle

Following his red card at Barnsley on Saturday for serious foul play, our number one goalkeeper, Owen Goodman will receive a three match ban. He will be available to play in the match against Newcastle though as this rule applies.....

A player suspended from league competitions can usually play in an EFL Trophy tie because disciplinary sanctions from league and cup competitions are generally specific to their respective competitions. A suspension incurred in an EFL Trophy match only carries over to future EFL Trophy games, and vice versa, meaning a player suspended from their league team is still eligible for an EFL Trophy tie.

So Lee Nicholls will be in goal for the games against Peterborough (h), Bradford City (a) and Burton Albion (h), does this mean that Goodman will play against the geordie kids? Or is Jacob Chapman fit yet? He was at Sunderland the other night, celebrating with the rest of the squad at full time.

Dion Charles is away with the Northern Ireland squad, as far as I can see the only one missing for international duty.

Depending what happens on Deadline Day, this could be a last chance for the likes of Radinio Balker, Freddie Ladapo and Bojan Radulovic. Some of our youngsters should be getting a run out as well. Dan Vost, Cameron Ashia and Jay Sway have already featured in the squad this season, but will we have debuts for any more?

Tom Iorpenda shone in the Trophy games last season, but he's now on loan at Notts County. His younger brother George Iorpenda, spent some time with the first teamers in pre season, so maybe he'll get a run out in defence. Peter Thomas looked lively on his debut in the match at Doncaster last season and he might get another run out.

Or maybe manager Lee Grant will just go full on, first team and show everybody that we mean to get to Wembley and win this thing.





A brief history of Huddersfield Town in the Football League Trophy:

1988/89: Out in Northern quarter final (beaten by Scarborough)
1989/90: Out in 1st round (beaten by Rotherham)
1990/91: Out in Group stage: (humiliated by Hartlepool)
1991/92: Got to Northern semi final (lost at Burnley)
1992/93: Same again (lost at Wigan)
1993/94: Got to Wembley (beaten by Swansea)
1994/95: Quarter final (lost at Bury)
1995 - 2001: Didn't qualify
2001/02: Northern final over 2 legs (beaten in extra time by Blackpool)
2002/03: Out in 1st round (lost at Wrexham)
2003/04: Same again (lost at Carlisle)
2004/05: Out in 2nd round (extra time loss at Blackpool)
2005/06: Out in 1st round (beaten at Boston)
2006/07: Same again (home defeat to Donny)
2007/08: And again (stuffed at Grimsby)
2008/09: And again (lost at Darlington)
2009/10: Out in 2nd round (lost on pens at Chesterfield)
2010/11: Nortern final over 2 legs (aggregate loss to Carlisle)
2011/12: Out in 2nd round (lost on pens to Bradford)
2012 - 24: Didn't qualify
2024/25: Got to 2nd round (lost at Bolton)



A brief history of Newcastle United under 21s in the Football League Trophy:

2017/18: Out in group stage
2018/19: Out in 3rd round (Lost at Sunderland)
2019/20: Finished bottom of group
2020/21: Finished bottom of group
2021/22: Finished bottom of group
2022/23: Finished bottom of group
2023/24: Finished bottom of group
2024/25: Finished bottom of group

They have only got out of the group stage once, in 2018/19. They topped the group, winning all three games. A 3-1 win at Doncaster, a 2-0 win at Notts County and a 3-2 win at Grimsby. That was followed by a home game against Macclesfield Town at Sid James' Park in front of a massive crowd of 1,126 in which they progressed to round three after winning a penalty shoot out, which came after a one all draw.

That third round game had a much bigger crowd when they played away at the Stadium of Light against local rivals, Sunderland. A crowd of 16,654, more than the attendances of the other ties combined with 2,780 from Tyneside.

Since then, they haven't won a single game in this competition.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80...EFL_Trophy


2025/26 EFL Trophy:

• The 2025–26 EFL Trophy, known as the Vertu Trophy for sponsorship reasons, is the 45th season in the history of the competition, and is a knock-out tournament for clubs in EFL League One and League Two, the third and fourth tiers of the English football league system, as well as the "Academy teams" of 16 Premier League teams.
  
  The defending champions are Peterborough United, who defeated Birmingham City 2–0 in the previous season's final. They have won two consecutive EFL Trophy finals, after beating Wycombe Wanderers in the 2024 final.
  
  
  Eligibility criteria for players:
  For EFL clubs:
  
• Minimum of four qualifying outfield players in their starting XI. A qualifying outfield player was one who met any of the following requirements:
  
• Any player who started the previous or following first-team fixture.
  
• Any player who is in the top 10 players at the club who has made the most starting appearances in league and domestic cup competitions this season.
  
• Any player with forty or more first-team starting appearances in their career, including International matches.
  
• Any player on loan from a Premier League club or any EFL Category One Academy club.
  
• A club can play any eligible goalkeeper in the competition.
  
• Any player out on a long loan term at a National League, National League North, or National League South team can play as long as the loaning team agree to allow the player to return for the match.
  
  For academy teams.
  
• Minimum of six players in the starting line-up who are aged under 21 on 30 June 2025.
  
• Maximum of two players on the team sheet who are aged over 21 and have also made forty or more senior appearances.
  
  
  Competition format:
  Group stage:
  
• Sixteen groups of four teams will be organised on a regionalised basis.
  
• All groups will include one invited club.
  
• All clubs will play each other once, either home or away (academy sides will play all group matches away from home).
  
• Clubs will be awarded three points for a win and one point for a draw.
  
• In the event of a drawn game (after 90 minutes), a penalty shoot-out will be held with the winning team earning an additional point.
  
• Clubs expelled from the EFL will be knocked out of the tournament automatically.
  
• The top two teams in each group will progress to the knockout stage.
  
• In an Event of which group stage match has been postponed, the postponed group stage match will be rescheduled to no further date than the second Tuesday of November 2025.
  
  Knockout stage
  
• The Round of 32, the Round of 16 and the quarter finals of the competition will be drawn on a regionalised basis.
  
• In Round 2, the group winners will be seeded and the group runners-up will be unseeded in the draw.
  
• Semi-final pairings are determined by means of an unseeded draw with no regionalisation.