Rob Edwards sees benefits of EFL trophy for Wolves youngsters

Edwards is in charge of the club’s under-23 side and will take an under-21 outfit to League Two side Carlisle United for their opening game of the competition.

Wolves are one of 16 invited academy teams in the mix with EFL clubs from Leagues One and Two.

They have been placed in a Northern group with Edwards’ old club League One side Blackpool and fourth tier duo Morecambe and Carlisle.

Last season Edwards’ U23 side clinched the Premier League 2 Division 2 title but just missed out on advancing from their EFL Trophy group.

Wolves, Lincoln City and Scunthorpe United all finished on three points with a goal difference of minus one.

Progression to the next round went down to the amount of goals scored and it was Lincoln who joined group winners Mansfield Town in the next stage.

Edwards is not sure if he will have a full squad to pick from with some of his youngsters in contention to link-up with Nuno Espirito Santo’s first team ahead of Wednesday’s Carabao Cup clash with Reading.

But he sees the competition as a beneficial exercise for academy footballers and league teams.

He said: “We’d love to better last year and be competitive in every game. That is the aim.

“We really enjoyed the tournament last year and we really felt the games were competitive.

“The first team have a game on Wednesday so if that affects us at Carlisle we will see.

“It is just about the experience of playing against senior players and an eye opener about what league football looks like, even though it is cup football. It will be a good challenge. I’m looking forward to it.

“The three games last year were great, we competed against them all and we are looking forward to doing that again this year.

“League clubs have all voted to keep it so there is something there for them.

“Whether that is recruitment, so they can see the best U21 players, they can look at that and there is money available for them if they win the game too so it benefits them too.

“This year we want to go as far as we can but we cannot look anywhere beyond Carlisle at the moment.

“We want to compete in every game.

“Of course we want to qualify, we want to do well in every tournament we are involved in.

“We will have a right go but we know it will be difficult.”

Edwards’ U23 side drew 2-2 with Arsenal on Friday night in their latest Premier League 2 game.

Arsenal gave minutes to defender Kieran Tierney and full-back Hector Bellerin as the duo up their return from injury. But Edwards’ side twice fought back with Bruno Jordao and Taylor Perry cancelling out Folarin Balogun’s double at Telford.

And Edwards saw Arsenal’s use of the night to give Tierney and Bellerin minutes as extremely useful for his side.

He said: “That is what it is all about.

“There has been criticism of U23 football that it can be very young but it is just a little bit more grown up youth football, a year or two older and the old sort of reserve teams where senior players who are not playing for the first team those days are gone.

“It is nice to play against Hector Bellerin and Tierney the other night because you don’t always get that.

“It is great for young Lewis Richards, who is still an under 18 to be going up against Bellerin.

“Even though he is on his comeback and has been out for a long time it is great experience for our lads.

“It is invaluable, you don’t really get that.

“It was a really good evening.

“We sort of matched them and were thoroughly deserving of the point.

“I’m pleased with how the lads reacted.

“Especially going behind twice and get coming back to get a draw.

“I’m really pleased with how it is going right now.”