Preview: Exeter City vs West Brom U21

As sure as eggs is eggs, so City will go down then come back and draw away from home – and so it was at Bradford in a 2-2 draw that provided great entertainment and meant City have still yet to taste defeat since the first home league match of the season. Tuesday night sees something of a dead rubber for Matt Taylor’s side with qualification for the knockout stage secured last week by results elsewhere and, in common with this competition anyway, Taylor will shuffle his pack for the visit of West Brom’s youngsters. At time of writing it’s not yet confirmed if Jökull Andrésson’s week-to-week loan deal has been extended, with Lewis Ward back in light training he may be close to a return. If Ward isn’t back in the reckoning for this match but available for Saturday it may be that Harry Lee or Jack Arthur deputise for this match. Elsewhere Tom Parkes and Josh Key limped out of the draw at Bradford and would be unlikely to be in the reckoning even if fit, while the likes of Hartridge, Dean, Kite, Seymour and Ajose are likely to start. Nigel Atangana too is said to be close to a return and may feature from the bench.

City have had a decent relationship with West Brom in recent seasons with successful loan spells for Kane Wilson, Kyle Edwards and Dara O’Shea. Wilson is now at Forest Green while Edwards and O’Shea are first team regulars at the Hawthorns, so it will be an entirely fresh side that City will face. While City have already secured qualification for the knockout stage, the Baggies know that they too will go into the velvet bag (or whatever the EFL uses for this competition) should they secure a draw on Tuesday night.

The match officials for the game will be:-

Referee: Paul Howard
Assistant Referees: Samuel Ogles and Justin Amey
Fourth Official : Adrian Quelch

This is Paul Howard’s first season in the EFL, and has not taken charge of any Exeter games so far.