Managers who speak glowingly about the EFL Trophy are about as common as mild-mannered Argentinian footballers but Huddersfield Town’s Martin Drury sits firmly in that camp.

“I think it’s a brilliant tournament,” the Town chief said on the eve of his side’s opening group game at Doncaster Rovers on Tuesday night (7pm).

“I love the fact some Premier League clubs’ Under-21s teams enter it, it’s a great opportunity for every club to use it for different reasons. Some might be using it to get a win, some to get young players on the pitch, some to get players back from injury. For us it’s a game of football we want to win.”

He is also using it to give his fringe players a chance.

Huddersfield Town boss Martin Drury has overseen an unbeaten start to the season (Picture: Jonathan Gawthorpe)

placeholder image — Huddersfield Town boss Martin Drury has overseen an unbeaten start to the season (Picture: Jonathan Gawthorpe)

After a few years in the doldrums, Huddersfield have had an encouraging start to the season.

Drury’s task is to build on that while balancing out the needs of his squad.

“There’s a lot of players I’ve had to disappoint over the last few weeks by telling them they’re not going to be playing the minutes they want to be playing for us,” he said.

“It’s a good chance to continue building on our identity, how we want to look, how we want to play, but it’s also a good chance for a couple of players to get some much needed minutes into their legs. We want to be consistent in our behaviours on the pitch and how we want to play, we’ve built an environment and a culture whereby because we’re doing that every day, it doesn’t matter which players start the game we’re confident that will be evident.”

Doncaster come into the game 20 places below the Terriers in the League One table and very much in the “using the tournament to get a win” frame of mind having failed to get off the mark in their seven league and cup fixtures so far.