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Football League Group Cup

Field	Value
name	Football League Group Cup
image	Elm Park, the former home of Reading FC.jpg
caption	A Football League Group Cup game between Reading (blue and white) and Oxford United (yellow and blue) at Reading's Elm Park in August 1981.
organiser	English Football League
founded	1981
abolished	1983
region	England
number of teams	32
most successful club	Grimsby Town and Millwall (1 Title each)

The Football League Group Cup was a short-lived football competition which first took place during the 1981–82 season. For English clubs it was a replacement for the Anglo-Scottish Cup, which had been discontinued due to the withdrawal of Scottish League clubs. For the 1982–83 season it was renamed as the Football League Trophy.

It is considered as the forerunner of the Associate Members' Cup (which was later renamed the Football League Trophy, and has had various sponsored names), which commenced from the 1983–84 season,

Format

In each season there were 32 participants, split into eight regional groups of four teams each, with three round-robin games played by each side. The eight group winners qualified for the quarter finals, and the knockout stages were played as a single leg, with the game going to extra time and penalties if necessary. The final was played on the home ground of one of the two teams.

1981–82

Main article: 1981–82 Football League Group Cup

Participants

The following 32 sides played in the competition, and these are sub-divided according to the League division they played in that season.

Football League First Division: Notts County
Football League Second Division: Bolton Wanderers, Grimsby Town, Norwich City, Orient, Rotherham United, Shrewsbury Town, Watford (7 teams)
Football League Third Division: Burnley, Carlisle United, Chester, Chesterfield, Doncaster Rovers, Gillingham, Lincoln City, Newport County, Oxford United, Plymouth Argyle, Preston North End, Reading, Southend United, Wimbledon (14)
Football League Fourth Division: AFC Bournemouth, Aldershot, Blackpool, Bradford City, Bury, Hartlepool United, Hull City, Peterborough United, Sheffield United, Torquay United (10)

The tournament was won by Grimsby Town, who defeated Wimbledon 3–2 in the final at Blundell Park on Tuesday 6 April 1982.

1982–83

Main article: 1982–83 Football League Trophy

Participants

The following 32 sides played in the competition, and these are sub-divided according to the League division they played in that season.

Football League First Division: Norwich City, Watford
Football League Second Division: Crystal Palace, Grimsby Town, Shrewsbury Town
Football League Third Division: AFC Bournemouth, Bradford City, Brentford, Chesterfield, Exeter City, Lincoln City, Millwall, Newport County, Orient, Oxford United, Reading, Sheffield United, Southend United (13 teams)
Football League Fourth Division: Aldershot, Bristol City, Chester, Colchester United, Halifax Town, Hartlepool United, Hull City, Mansfield Town, Northampton Town, Peterborough United, Scunthorpe United, Torquay United, Tranmere Rovers, Wimbledon (14)

Final

The tournament was won by Millwall, who defeated Lincoln City 3–2 in the final at Sincil Bank on Wednesday 20 April 1983.

References

[https://www.rsssf.org/tablest/texaco.html List of Texaco/Anglo-Scottish/Football League Group Cup Finals at RSSSF]
link. (10 October 2012)
(30 August 2010). "Gills in the Football League Trophy". Gillingham Official Site.
[http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/football-league-trophy/1981-1982/results/r1-g1 1981–82 Group 1 results and table, with links to other groups/knockout stages – statto.com] {{webarchive. link. (25 December 2013)
[http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/football-league-trophy/1982-1983/results/r1-g1 1982–83 Group 1 results and table, with links to other groups/knockout stages – statto.com]

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

football-league-group-cup defunct-football-cup-competitions-in-england efl-trophy defunct-english-football-league-competitions 1981-establishments-in-england recurring-sporting-events-established-in-1981

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