Last night in the EFL Trophy, Chelsea’s under-23 side faced Oxford United at Stamford Bridge and the match finished 1-1 at the completion of play. The sides took a total 34 spot kicks between them as they exceeded the previous record which was recently matched in August of this year when the Championship’s Derby County and League 2’s Carlisle United needed 32 kicks in the EFL Cup just as an FA Cup match between Scunthorpe and Worcester had done back in 2014.

Chelsea eventually won the match 13-12 when Oxford’s very unlucky Wes Thomas missed with his 2nd penalty of the shootout in the 17th round of penalties. Chelsea keeper Bradley Collins saved 4 penalties to help the Blues win after he had missed the spot-kick which he took along with Marco van Ginkel, Ola Aina and Josh Grant who also could not convert their penalties.

The EFL Trophy has replaced the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy as it has been rejigged to include sides from League 1 and League 2 along with 16 academy sides from teams in the Championship and the Premier League. Unfortunately for Chelsea they could not advance from their group, despite their wealth of resources and they join fellow Premier League sides in Middlesbrough, West Bromich Albion, Stoke City, Everton and West Ham in exiting the competition at the group stages.

Sadly the competition has not captured the imagination of the fans yet as many games had very poor attendances with Chelsea registering one of the biggest crowds with over 1,500 fans showing up at Stamford Bridge.