The Football League Paper

SPIREITES JOY AS CITIZENS ARE SENT PACKING

- By John Lyons

MANCHESTER City may be beating all-comers this season, but their Under-21s won’t be getting their hands on the Checkatrad­e Trophy. City’s young guns were one of the casualties as the group stages finally drew to a close in midweek. With Bradford already through from Northern Group F, Chesterfie­ld and City met to try to bag second spot. Rotherham, who had already finished their matches, also still had a sniff. Sub Joe Rowley headed home to put the Spireites ahead on 74 minutes, and almost immediatel­y they were a man up, too, when City’s Charlie Oliver was red-carded for a tackle on Andy Kellett. However, the ten men drew level with four minutes left, courtesy of an Ed Francis free-kick and looked to have won through when Lukas Nmecha struck two minutes later. But Chris O’Grady fired home deep into stoppage time to make it 2-2 and force a penalty shoot-out, which Chesterfie­ld won 4-3 to earn the extra point. The reward is a trip to Fleetwood on Tuesday in the last 32. In Southern Group C, Wycombe beat West Ham U21s 2-0, but the Hammers, along with Swindon, qualified for the knockout stages. In Group D, Yeovil and Chelsea U21s won through. In the final round of matches. Yeovil edged out Plymouth 2-1 and Chelsea triumphed 3-1 at Exeter. In Group A, Fulham U21s won 3-1 at Crawley in a dead rubber, while, in Group F, Barnet beat Tottenham U21s 2-1 in another match between two sides already out of contention. Meanwhile, Rochdale became the first team into the last 16 with a 5-4 penalty shoot-out success after a 1-1 draw against Doncaster in the second round. Matty Gillam put Dale ahead from the spot, but Liam Mandeville levelled to force spot-kicks. Josh Lillis saved from Tommy Rowe in the shootout to earn Dale victory.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom