Worthington Cup

I am a man who loves his football. I can sit and admire the brilliance of Manchester United or Arsenal, backed by Sky and their magnificent television coverage. But above all, I love the real thing. It gets no more real than the League Cup. A competition that many big clubs will only field reserve teams in. A competition with limited television coverage. A competition sponsored by the beer Worthingtons. Leading to it being called the Worthless Cup by the cynics. It is, however, for the less fashionable clubs, a possible route to wealth. The winners of the competition qualify for a potentially lucrative place in the UEFA Cup. My own team, ...

I've never understood the vitriolic attacks on the 'worth' of the Worthington Cup. What I do understand is that some of the arguments against the value of this competition are incredibly short-sighted. The phrase 'can't see the wood for the trees' springs to mind. An argument which crops up again and again is that the competition is poor because the top teams don't enter their first choice 11. The likes of Manchester United and Arsenal routinely send out their youngsters, get soundly beaten by lower division opponents and then trudge home whingeing about the value of the competition. This is the key point. THE ONLY ...

The decline in stature of the League Cup competition is England has been a drawn-out affair, but is none the less sad for that. In the last decade, the top teams in the Premiership have treated the early rounds of this cup as little more than an excuse to give the reserves a run-out in front of a few thousand fans. However, this was not always the case – the early years of the competition may have seen the likes of Rochdale reaching the final, but in the 70s and 80s especially, the League Cup gained a great deal of prestige, due in no small part to the prize of a UEFA Cup place for the winners. My first distinct memory of the League Cup is a sweet one, as ...