AFC Wimbledon boss Neal Ardley has called for the Football League to switch the early rounds of the EFL Cup and EFL Trophy.
While many clubs field weakened teams in the League Cup these days, Ardley reluctantly fielded a strong side for last night's first round tie at Peterborough out of respect for the competition.
The new-look EFL Trophy, another much-derided tournament, does not begin until late August, by contrast, with its other group games not until early October and November.
Ardley said: “There were two teams out there tonight who did the cup proud. Us and Peterborough wanted to do this cup justice, it's a big cup. Both had strong teams out and had a right go at it.
“My only beef with this cup is the timing of the first round. You're just trying to get your season under way and you've got a cup tie straight away in a busy schedule.
“I played the strongest team I could as I want to do well in the cup. As a club, we need to do well in cup competitions, and the League Cup is a big one.
“For me, if anything, the old JPT Cup should be the one they put in now, and the League Cup should be a few weeks further down the line when you've bedded your team in
“It's their flagship cup, and they put it in a time when you're squad's struggling to keep up with the amount of games.
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“Right at the start of the season is not good timing, but it was an exhilarating cup tie, end to end stuff. We've had a real go.”
Such has their identity become blurred these days, Ardley even found himself confusing the two competitions as last night's tie headed for extra time.
In the end, the additional 30 minutes were not needed as Tom Nichols struck the winner five minutes into stoppage time.
He added: “One of the cups doesn't have extra time, but that's the other one. I actually turned round to my staff and asked does this one go to extra time? They said yes and I thought that's all we need right now. Not that I wanted to lose the game – I would rather it had gone to extra time.”
