After the dust had settled on a pretty dull deadline day (unless you’re a West Ham fan), some actual football got underway last night with 16 fixtures in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy.
The competition is not one which City have really taken hold of over the last few seasons. Our best performance came in the 2012/13 season where we were dumped out 4-1 by the eventual winners Crewe Alexandra. If I remember correctly, however, I believe we went on to have a pretty decent season anyway!
The Bantams received a bye for the first round but here is a brief round-up of the first round games:
Northern Section
Sheffield United needed penalties to get past a stubborn Hartlepool at Victoria Park, Doncaster also needed spot-kicks to beat Burton after a 0-0 draw at home. The first round didn’t provide much in the way of shocks apart from League Two’s Morecambe dumping League One pacesetters Walsall out after a 2-0 win. Notts County are through to the second round after beating Mansfield 3-1, former Bantam Jon Stead scoring their third goal. Elsewhere Bury and Barnsley both recorded 2-1 away wins at Accrington and Scunthorpe respectively. Port Vale and Shrewsbury also got themselves into the second round draws with home wins against Carlisle and Oldham.
Southern Section
Swindon were taken right to the wire at Newport, the teams getting through an amazing 13 penalties before there was a winner at Rodney Parade, Swindon eventually winning 7-6. Another former Valley Parade favourite scored the winner in the AFC Wimbledon-Plymouth Argyle fixture, Carl McHugh finishing the scoring in Plymouth’s 3-2 win. League Two’s Northampton knocked Colchester out after an entertaining 3-2 victory. Northampton left it late with Marc Richards scoring the winner in the 85th minute to send the Cobblers through. Dagenham and Redbridge had seen Cambridge off by half time, goals in the 20th and 27th minute provided them with a comfortable 2-0 win. They will be joined in the next round by Milwall and Yeovil who both recorded 1-0 home victories to see Peterborough and Barnet out of the competition. Elsewhere Luton finished their game against Leyton Orient with 10 men after Jack Marriot was sent off for an off the ball incident, they squeaked through to the second round however with a 90th minute winner from Stephen O’Donnell. They will be joined in the draw by Exeter who beat Portsmouth 2-0 at home.
The draw for the next round will be shown live on Saturday morning on Soccer AM.
Second Round games will be played the week commencing 5th October.