Luke Williams disappointed to be knocked out of EFL Trophy

Luke Williams admitted on Tuesday night that he is disappointed to no longer be in the controversial EFL Trophy, citing his young players and a missed trip to Wembley as the reasons why.

Since being rebranded from the Johnstone's Paint Trophy to the Checkatrade Trophy, which now has Premier League and Championship B teams as well as a group stage, the competition has been the subject of much backlash from fans, pundits and managers alike.

Williams has always been a big supporter of the EFL Trophy though, stating it's "great for English football" earlier on this season.

The question was put to Williams by Total Sport  on Tuesday night, asking if he was disappointed with being knocked out or whether he saw it as an opportunity to focus on the league, to which he responded:

"Personally I'm disappointed. I think the likes of Jake Evans and Ellis (Iandolo) scoring a fantastic goal and Jermaine Hylton has had limited time.

"For those boys it is possibly the only chance, you don't know what's going to happen but for sure (they) have had a chance of playing in this competition so I would like to see them get more minutes.

"I would also like a trip to Wembley but it's not to be this year and we'll try again next season."

Meanwhile, injured pair Nathan Thompson and Yaser Kasim are back in training, following hamstring and ankle injuries respectively.

"They're training. They both look sharp and fit but we have to make sure before we go back in the arena because anything that's not 100% gets found out in that environment so we need to be sure."