JP Trophy details announced
July 30, 2010 5 Comments
Initial details of this season’s Johnstone’s Paint Trophy have been announced. The draw for the 1st round will be shown live on Soccer AM on the 14th August 2010, while the games will be played the week commencing the 30th August 2010. The Football League have also confirmed the 16 clubs from both League 1 and 2 that have been awarded bye’s into the 2nd round of the competition. The 16 teams have been split into 8 teams from the North and 8 from the South.
Northern Section
Bradford, Burton, Bury, Carlisle, Crewe, Huddersfield, Peterborough & Stockport
Southern Section
Barnet, Bristol Rovers, Cheltenham, Colchester, Hereford, MK Dons, Plymouth & Wycombe
I don’t really understand how the bye’s are worked out. There doesn’t seem to be any logic involved? 2 of the 3 clubs relegated from the Championship have been given bye’s, but Sheffield Wednesday have not. Last year’s winners of the JPT, Southampton, have not been awarded a bye, but runners up, Carlisle have? There’s also bye’s for the likes of Barnet and Burton, but not for League 1 clubs such as Swindon or Notts County.
Boro are in the Southern East section of the draw so will face one of either Brentford, Brighton, Charlton, Dagenham, Gillingham, Leyton Orient or Southend. The Southern West side of the draw contains Aldershot, Bournemouth, Exeter, Oxford, Southampton, Swindon, Torquay and Yeovil. The 16 teams that progress from the 1st round join the 16 teams that got a bye in the second round of 32.
Elsewhere, Stevenage play their penultimate pre-season friendly against Newport tomorrow ahead of the opening day of the new season. Boro make the trip to South Wales in the battle of the Conference Premier and Conference South champions. County boss Dean Holdsworth is looking forward to the game and has spoken to the South Wales Argus ahead of the fixture.
“This a great game for us, Stevenage are a great barometer having won the league we’re going into this season. The contest really, really appeals to me because Stevenage have done exactly what we want to do. I have been in regular contact with Graham Westley and we’ve spoken a lot about what it takes to win the Conference. He has his ideas and I have mine and he’s someone I enjoy bouncing ideas off.” Holdsworth’s view ahead of the game tomorrow
I think the team that starts tomorrow’s game will give us a big indication as to what team Westley will field against Macclesfield. As a result, you will see Boro taking the game very seriously. It will be a test for the team because Newport are a good side. They ran away with the BSS last year and have strengthened again this summer with the likes of Lee Baker, Guiseppe Sole, Daryl Knights and Eddie Odhiambo joining the club.
I won’t be going down to South Wales myself, but I’ll keep an eye out on events from Newport Stadium and any updates will be on twitter.
Byes are simply drawn out of a hat. There’s no logic, just luck
That would explain it then. Thanks.
I like the look of our section for Round 1 of our JPT debut. I honestly believe that on paper there are only two teams that we would face a tough challenge against, these being Charlton and Brighton. I think the other five clubs in the South-East section of Round 1 are very beatable, I saw Gillingham, Brentford and Dagenham a couple of times last season and I don’t think any of them are that much better than us that we couldn’t at least give them a strong contest if not beat them.
Southend are not in good shape as a club at the moment, I don’t expect them to do well in League 2 this season and wouldn’t actually be surprised if they struggled to stay up or did eventually go down to Non-League status. I would like to face Brighton or Charlton in the first round, I think it would be a great game against either team and they have very nice stadiums as well which would be nice to visit.
I think I want Charlton, Brentford or Orient away.
I’d like Charlton at home, or Brighton. Wouldn’t mind Brentford, Orient or Dagenham at home either. Would rather play a League One club, as would give us a bigger gate, the chance of performing an upset, and some variety rather than having to play a team we will already have to play at least twice this season. I work in Loughton, so if it was Charlton, Dagenham or Orient away that would be handy to get to after work. Charlton or Brighton have good away followings