Our Development Squad will face Gillingham, Colchester United and Ipswich Town in this season’s EFL Trophy.
The draw to place the 16 invited Under-21 teams from Premier League and Championship clubs into the previously-drawn groups of EFL sides took place this afternoon (Friday) live on talkSPORT.
We’ve been placed into Group A of the southern section and will, as usual, face each of the three opposing teams away from home.
This will be our third season in the competition and the second year in a row in which we’ve faced Gillingham. We beat them in the group stage en route to qualifying for the second round last term, where we eventually lost at Oxford United. We’ve never previously met Colchester or Ipswich in the EFL Trophy.
The competition, which gives young players a chance to test themselves against senior sides in a competitive environment, is initially split into northern and southern sections with 32 teams in each section, divided into eight groups of four. The top two teams from each group advance to the knockout stages.
The tournament goes national at the quarter-final stage (round four) and culminates with the final at Wembley Stadium – over 85,000 fans saw Portsmouth beat Sunderland in last season's final.
Dates and ticket information for our fixtures will be confirmed in due course.