Last season’s runners-up Cardiff City were among the teams to crash out last night as the season’s domestic football got underway. Connor Jipps presents his League Cup round-up.
Eight Championship sides bowed out at the first hurdle of The Capital One Cup as the tournament claimed the scalps of Blackpool, Brighton, Bristol City, Cardiff, Derby and Millwall as well as newly promoted Charlton and Huddersfield.
The game of the round took place at Pride Park where a 10 goal thriller ensued between Derby County and Scunthorpe. The home side rushed into a 3-0 lead at half time with goals from Richard Keogh, Jake Buxton and Theo Robinson and when Jake Buxton cancelled out Scunthorpe’s Andy Barcham’s strike with his second of the match it looked like Derby would be sailing through to the Second Round.
Mike Grella made it 4-2, with Theo Robinson missing a penalty not long after. Bobby Grant took advantage of the miss to bring Scunthorpe within one goal of Derby but Nathan Tyson restored the two goal lead. Going into the final minutes it looked as if Derby had safely secured their passage but late goals from Connor Jennings and a spot kick converted by Grant took the game to extra time. Stalemate was drawn over the 30 minutes of play and penalties arrived, with Scunthorpe eventually victorious taking the shootout by 7 goals to 6.
On Sunday Morecambe caused the greatest shock of the round with a 2-1 victory over Blackpool after goals from Lewis Alessandra and Andrew Fleming gave the League Two side the win despite Alex Baptiste pulling one back with fifteen minutes to go and Matt Phillips hitting the post.
Fellow League Two side Northampton humbled Malky Mackay’s Cardiff City by the same scoreline. Heidar Helguson had given the Welsh side the lead early in the first half from the penalty spot, but The Cobblers hit back with plucky attitude. Goals from David Artell and Alex Nicholls secured Northampton the victory and confirmed Cardiff City’s early exit.
A 2-1 deficit seemed to be a popular shock exit result as Bristol City succumbed by the same scoreline to Gillingham as the Gills earnt a deserved victory. Elsewhere on Monday night Preston dumped Huddersfield out of the cup with a comfortable 2-0 win over Huddersfield, with ten new signings featuring and impressing the boss, Graham Westley.
Former Seagulls midfielder Alan Navarro returned to face former club Brighton for the first time since his move to Swindon and two goals from the former Brighton fan favourite as well as Paul Benson’s opener gave the League One club a resounding 3-0 win over the Championship promotion contenders.
Other Championship exits were confirmed from the dreaded penalty spot with Leyton Orient defeating Charlton 4-3 from the penalty spot after Johnny Jackson and new boy Lawrie Wilson’s failures to hit the target. Across London, Millwall also fell in their case to Crawley Town with goalkeeper Paul Jones the hero as he stopped the efforts of Darius Henderson and Jack Smith, whilst Crawley converted all four of their kicks to take the shootout 4-1, after an entertaining 2-2 draw had been battled out during normal time.
League One’s Bournemouth and Portsmouth both suffered first round heartache when Bournemouth lost to Oxford United 5-3 on penalties, having played out a goalless 120 minutes of football and Portsmouth’s makeshift youthful squad were heavily beaten 3-0 at Plymouth. There was no such problem for fellow League One clubs Coventry, Sheffield Wednesday, Stevenage, Tranmere and Yeovil who all passed safely through courtesy of successes over Dagenham & Redbridge, Oldham, Wimbledon, Chesterfield and Colchester respectively.
There were confidence boosting victories for Birmingham City, Leicester and Peterborough as the Championship side all registered high scoring wins. Birmingham took down Barnet 5-1 as goals from Marlon King, Steven Caldwell, Darren Ambrose, Peter Lovenkrands and Wade Elliott made Jon Nurse’s opener look wholly insignificant. Leicester hammered Torquay United away from home, 4-0, as Lloyd Dyer, Ben Marshall, Matty James and Jamie Vardy on the scoresheet; Marshall’s in particular a goal of exquisite accuracy from a free kick 25 yards out. Peterborough romped to victory over Southend by the same score margin thanks to strikes from Lee Tomlin, Paul Taylor, Joe Newell and mercurial talisman George Boyd.
Ipswich Town successfully qualified for the next round with a 3-1 victory over Bristol Rovers, Crystal Palace squeezed through thanks to Kagisho Dikgacoi’s winner against Exeter City in a 2-1 win and Dexter Blackstock’s 57th minute goal gave the Reds of Nottingham Forest passage through to Round two at the expense of Football League debutants Fleetwood Town, 1-0.
The opening set of games have provided an insight as to what we can expect for the rest of this tournament, and if this standard can be kept up, the League Cup will provide plenty of entertainment.
Whatever it’s reputation, this is most definitely a trophy most clubs want to win so expect surprises in Round 2 as the big boys enter the fray.
image: © joncandy
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