Next Up: Exeter City vs Chelsea B – EFL Trophy

City bounced back from Tuesday night’s horror show at Crawley with a massive improvement in defeating Accrington 2-0 on Saturday, and attention turns back to cup action, firstly with a match Paul Tisdale probably needs like a hole in the head. Tisdale stated prior to Saturday that one or two of the long list of names on the injury list are close to a return, but they are unlikely to be risked in the EFL Trophy. Instead, although City do have a chance to progress in to the knockout stages, Tisdale is likely to rest a number of players and give a chance to those more on the fringes of the first XI like James Hamon, Alex Byrne, Matt Jay and Jack Sparkes, ahead of the altogether more important FA Cup 2nd round tie at Forest Green on Saturday.

One potential area of interest from the visit of Chelsea when the draw was made had thought to be the return of Ethan Ampadu, but such has been his meteoric rise it’s thought likely he will instead be with the senior squad for their midweek Premier League match, although he didn’t make the bench for the Liverpool match on Saturday having been an unused sub for the past month or so, a time in which he made his full Wales debut against France.

By some quirk of fortune it was Chelsea providing the so-called “glamour” in City’s group last season, and a strong City side went 3-0 up through Watkins, Wheeler and McAlinden before Chelsea pulled it back late on to 3-2 through a double from Ike Ugbo. Should either side win and Yeovil beat Plymouth, a place in the next round and a trip to MK Dons awaits.

The match official will be:-

Referee: Lee Swabey
Assistant Referees: Matt Eva and Mark Derrien
Fourth Official: Marc Whaley

Lee has refereed a few Exeter games, with the most recent being the 3-1 win over Morecambe in April. Details at http://www.grecians.co.uk/wordpress/?s=swabey