York’s first game in the EFL Trophy in over a decade is also their first ever competitive encounter with an academy team, as Newcastle’s U21 side are the visitors to the LNER. What kind of line-up might we expect Scott Lindsey to field, and what can we expect from the young opposition?
We’ve met before…
Not only is this City’s first competitive meeting with Newcastle U21, it’s their first competitive fixture against any U21 side: academy sides were only invited to take part in the EFL Trophy in 2016, just after the Minstermen had dropped out of the football league. However, City do have notable history against Newcastle’s first team, having taken them to a replay in the 1955 FA Cup semi-final (we put together a special episode on that Happy Wanderers cup run for the 70th anniversary last year). Prior to that, the two clubs had met in the FA Cup 3rd Round in 1930, which also saw the Magpies progress after a replay.
The Happy Wanderers: remembering City's FA Cup semi-finalists 70 years on
A very special episode telling the story of York City's run to the FA Cup semi-final in 1955. Featuring club historian Paul Bowser, as well as interviews with fans who were at the games 70 years ago about their memories from the time.
What to expect from Newcastle U21
The EFL Trophy rules for U21 teams state that their team sheet must include a minimum of six under-21 players, and a maximum of two players who are aged over 21 and have made forty or more senior appearances. We can expect Newcastle U21 manager Robbie Stockdale to select mostly from their U21 squad, perhaps with a few U18 players also coming into contention.
Some of their most highly-rated young prospects have headed out on loan to gain greater experience of first-team football, so fans in attendance won’t see the likes of forward Sean Neave who has joined Wolves, or midfielder Rory Finneran who made his Republic of Ireland debut earlier this year and recently went on loan to Notts County. In a strange quirk of the fixture list, another of their U21 players did appear at the LNER on Saturday, as Anthony Munda is on a season-long loan at Swindon. Exciting winger Park Seung-Soo will also be missing, having been named in the South Korea U23 squad for the 2026 Asian Games taking place this month in Japan.
The Newcastle U21 line-up for last week’s 2-1 defeat at Boreham Wood in the National League Cup may give some pointers on who Stockdale will select on Tuesday night. Serbian centre-back Miodrag Pivaš is relatively experienced in senior football compared to most of the squad, having already spent time on loan at Eredivisie side Willem II, and will be expected to start in defence. In midfield, 17-year-old Mason Miley has broken into the U21 setup recently and will be hoping to follow the same path as older brother Lewis into the Magpies’ first team. Up front, Georgian 19-year-old Vakhtang Salia should start having already found the net twice this season.
York team news
Speaking after Saturday’s win over Swindon, York head coach Scott Lindsey stated that he would ideally like to make eleven changes to the team for this match, but acknowledged that there are “certain rules that we have to adhere to” regarding team selection for the EFL Trophy.
The main rule that Lindsey will need to abide by is that each team must include at least four qualifying outfield players in their starting eleven to ensure that they are meeting the requirement to play ‘Full Available Strength’. A qualifying player means any player who meets at least one of the following criteria:
had started the immediately preceding first team fixture
subsequently starts the immediately following first team fixture
is in the list of ten players at the club with the highest number of starting appearances in first team fixtures in the same season
has made forty or more starting appearances in first team fixtures or international equivalents (and not limited to the same club or season)
is on standard loan from a Premier League club or any EFL club operating a Category One Academy.
We can disregard the last criteria as our only loanee from a Premier League/Category One Academy club is Alfie McNally from Fulham, and goalkeepers aren’t included in this rule. The criteria about players who subsequently start the following first team fixture can also be set aside for the moment, as it’s unlikely to factor in to Lindsey’s thinking here (and we obviously don’t yet know exactly which players will start at Chesterfield).
Taking into account the remaining three criteria (started the last game, is in the top 10 appearance makers for York this season, or has forty or more first team starts across his career), my research suggests that this gives a pool of fourteen qualifying players. This is interpreting ‘first team fixtures’ as not including games played in the National League or other non-league competitions, and not considering injured players who may meet the criteria of forty appearances such as Hiram Boateng. Ten of these fourteen qualifying players are the outfield starters from the Swindon game, but the remaining four (Jack Hunt, Zech Medley, Arthur Read and Joe Felix) did not start at the weekend, meaning that Lindsey could change his entire starting eleven by using these four as the qualifying players.
Aside from the requirement to start four qualifying players, Lindsey will have free rein to use whichever players he wishes. There is no restriction to only use players from the 22-man squad submitted for league fixtures, meaning that Ash Palmer could play despite not being named in that squad (Palmer actually comes close to having enough appearances to count as a qualifying player, but by my reckoning has only made 35 starts in ‘senior’ games above non-league). George Sykes-Kenworthy could get a first start of the season in goal, while youth prospects such as Ethan Stiver and Ben Farrar may be granted some valuable minutes. Other players who have been mostly used from the bench, such as Charlie McArthur, Craig Hewitt and Jovan Malcolm, could be set for a start, while Dipo Akinyemi has reportedly returned to full fitness so should come into contention.
