I’M NOT going to shoot down the Football League Trophy like a lot of people.

There has been a lot of criticism for allowing Premier League and Championship under-23 teams to take part.

Should two of them get to the final it obviously won’t hold the same glory as it did when Barnsley and Oxford got there last season.

I understand that argument.

But they’ll have had to play damn well to get to the final.

You look at the Irn Bru Cup in Scotland at the moment where you’ve got the likes of Celtic Colts playing and the lower-league teams are often beating the kids.

Just because they are good young players, there’s no guarantees that they will always win; far from it.

I’ll stick my neck out now and say a league club will get to the final ahead of the under-23s.

It’s a competition that only ever gets going when you get to the last few rounds and Wembley is in sight.

But you ask any Barnsley fan about last year and they will say how much they loved the day out and seeing their team lift a trophy at Wembley.

You ask Greg Abbott about how much he enjoyed winning it with Carlisle.

That success brings in much-needed coffers and can often be the springboard for more success.

It went hand-in-hand with the league for Barnsley, who were back there a couple of months later to win the play-offs.

Oxford also took that momentum from reaching the final to go on to promotion.

So I’m not going to knock it.

When I was a player, I don’t think I was involved in that many games in the early rounds. The manager would rest most of the boys who were playing every Saturday.

Instead, it gave the lads who needed a run-out the chance as well as blooding some young players to see how they handled a match situation.

Tonight’s game could be handy for Stuart with the likes of Stephen Darby and Matt Kilgallon coming back from injury. I’m sure he’ll also throw in a few young ones.

Flip it on its head and for Stoke and the other higher teams, it’s the chance for their under-23s to play in proper games.

They aren’t getting that experience against other clubs in their normal scenario, particularly with the loan window ending.

From September 1, those youngsters are stuck at their club.

So what will be the highlight of their season? Playing against real league teams in these matches.

I can see where the Football League are coming from with that. But there are pros and cons.

Where they have got it wrong is changing the format. Why is it not a straight knock-out still?

Switching to a little round-robin system at the beginning is a bad move for me.

I don’t agree with groups because you could well end up with pointless games being played three months into the season.

How many people are going to bother turning up to see a dead rubber between two teams who are already out? Clubs will end up losing money on having to stage the game with the cost of the floodlights and everything.

Keep it as a straight knock-out and then there’s something on it.

John Hendrie was talking to Simon Parker