Bantams start Papa Johns Trophy against Sheffield Wednesday

City’s boss has scooped two Premier League titles, four FA Cups and three League Cups – not to mention a European Cup Winners’ Cup and UEFA Cup.

Can he add the Football League Trophy to that illustrious list in his first stab at the competition at the Valley Parade helm?

City embark on the poor relation of their fixture list tomorrow night with a visit from Sheffield Wednesday in the opening Papa Johns group game.

The Owls, remarkably, have shifted nearly 3,000 away tickets for the type of contest that has traditionally struggled to attract just above four figures.

At least, that will guarantee the feel of a “proper” game for those Hughes chooses to involve.

His selection must include at least four outfield players who tick one of the following boxes:

The player has started the previous first-team game or will in the next; they are in the top 10 for most starts this season or they have made at least 40 first-team starts in their career.

Players on loan from a Premier League club, such as Scott Banks from Crystal Palace, also count for the quota.

It has become a lot easier over the years as the EFL finally saw common-sense, dropped a lot of needless red tape and stopped fining clubs willy-nilly for picking who they wanted.

Stuart McCall once paid the £5,000 punishment himself after deliberately fielding a team of youngsters in his first stint as Bantams boss.

Second time around, he famously switched keepers after just three minutes against Bury to replace Colin Doyle with back-up Rouven Sattelmaier once the Irishman had satisfied the team-sheet criteria.

The powers-that-be accused City of “a transgression that was not within the spirit of the rules” that night and still fined them £3,000.

They completely ignored the fact that a back four of Stephen Darby, Rory McArdle, Nathan Clarke and Matt Killgallon had well over 1,600 appearances between them – and City won the game anyway.

Yet McCall’s keeper switch was not the quickest that Valley Parade has witnessed in the competition.

Remember the last time Wednesday came to BD8 in the Trophy in August 2011?

Phil Parkinson had just been appointed as Peter Jackson’s successor after a worrying start to the season forced a panicky change.

Richard O'Donnell looks on as Wednesday's Cecil Nyoni clears off the line in 2011

The new boss, though, took a watching brief from the stand as Colin Cooper took temporary charge exactly 11 years ago tonight against another, very brief, former City number two.

Teams had to line up with six of their previous starters at the time to meet the rules and Wednesday boss Gary Megson did just that – for about 90 seconds anyway.

He then subbed regular keeper Nicky Weaver for a youthful Richard O’Donnell before replacing midfielders David Prutton and Jose Semedo just 15 minutes later.

An unrepentant Megson said afterwards: “My only reservation concerned our supporters because I knew they would travel in numbers.

“I have heard one or two say that if they had known about the substitutions they wouldn’t have turned up.

“But I couldn’t tell supporters what I was going to do, because that was another rule the Football League stuck in - that you couldn’t talk detrimentally about the competition, and I didn’t.

“I said it was great that Johnstone’s Paint were sponsoring it.”

The fact that the game was shown live on Sky – and what a treat for the viewer(s) that must have been – highlighted his ploy. Not surprisingly, the powers-that-be were quick to summon Megson to explain his actions.

The match itself finished goalless over the 90 minutes although City had the best chances.

Luke Oliver’s header looked over the line when Cecil Nyoni cleared it away and the centre half saw another effort clip the bar.

O’Donnell, on his first Valley Parade outing, also pulled off a strong reflex save to deny Ritchie Jones.

But it was his opposite number who would steal the show – but obviously not the headlines – with two saves in the penalty shoot-out that followed.

Swedish keeper Oscar Jansson is still playing regularly for Norrkoping in the Allsvenskan. In 2011, he was a green 20-year-old on a short loan from Tottenham.

This was his third and last City game but he bowed out in style by keeping out spot-kicks from Liam Palmer and Chris Sedgwick.

Clinton Morrison had also blazed the first one over the bar as successful efforts from Jones, Michael Flynn and Ross Hannah ensured City ran out 3-1 winners.

But that was definitely not the story.