Next Up: Exeter City vs Chelsea U23 – EFL Trophy

After the euphoria of City’s stunning 4-1 win at Barnet on Saturday, the Grecians are back in Checkatrade Trophy action on Tuesday night against Chelsea U23, a match described by Paul Tisdale as “an anomaly”. Like the previous group match at Oxford expect to see plenty of changes with various fringe players and youngsters seeing some action.

City have never faced Chelsea U23 in a competitive fixture. Because Chelsea U23 aren’t a proper club.

Plenty of tickets are still available, while the game will be shown live on Chelsea TV (requires a subscription).

Matt Jay speaking on the Club website said:-

We have a lot of good players in the side and I am really confident we can get out of the group. It should be a good game. It is a good match for us as a club.

It is a chance for the lads who haven’t played that much to get some game time – a bit like the Oxford United tie five or six weeks ago. Chelsea are obviously going to be a very good side so we will have to see how we match up.

I think it is quite good because it is a group thing this season so there are more and more games and you can compare yourself to the likes of Chelsea and the rest of the Premier League teams that in the competition. There are more and more opportunities to impress the manager and everything that comes with playing games.

Asked how an EFL Trophy match differs from a reserve game, Jay added:-

It is a tough one to be fair because a game is a game at the end of the day, but points are riding on it. As good as reserve games are it is just different when you are in that competitive action.

The match officials for tonight are:-

Referee: Chris Sarginson
Assistant Referees: Dean Treleaven and Andy Quin
Fourth Official: Robert Dabbs

Chris has so far refereed 16 Exeter City games. Details here.