Ian Appleyard: Difficult to gloss over the potential drawbacks of JP Trophy

Why on earth should a competition's organisers, in this case the Football League, be able to dictate who does or does not play in his team?

If Irvine, or any manager, wanted to throw a team of youngsters into the firing line, they should be entitled to do so.

Winning league games is what really matters – and if resting 11 players for a relatively unimportant midweek game helps achieve that goal on a weekend, who are we to complain?

Let us not beat about the bush: the JP Trophy is one of the daftest competitions in football.

No one gives a toffee until the semi-final stages when the possibility of a Wembley final suddenly gets people jumping on the bandwagon. Granted, Wednesday's 2-1 victory over Notts County attracted the biggest attendance of the first round – 10,551 – and that was just reward for sensibly cutting prices to a fiver or less.

But I still believe the Owls would be better off were they to 'suffer' an early exit.

Only one club, Milton Keynes Dons, have pulled off the double of winning promotion and lifting the Trophy in the last 12 years.

And do not forget that Leeds United's promotion push so nearly came off the rails last season thanks to extended involvement in the both the

JP Trophy and the FA Cup.

Simon Grayson's men had to play five more games than eventual champions Norwich City between mid-December and mid-February and that fixture pile-up coincided with their worst league run of the season, just one victory in eight games.

Leeds lost in the Northern final of the JP Trophy on penalties to Carlisle United and there was a hangover from that disappointment for the next few weeks.

It took a massive improvement in the last seven games of the season, where Leeds picked up five wins, to prevent rivals Millwall stealing second spot.

As yet, Irvine appears unconcerned about possible fixture congestion and sees no reason why his side cannot be successful on both fronts.

Only time will tell – but is there really any 'glory' in winning a competition that involves just the bottom 48 clubs in the Football League?

Wembley used to be regarded as a venue only for 'the best' –

FA Cup and League Cup finalists, or players representing their country. The Owls know all about that and reached both major finals in 1993.

These days, however, thanks to the JP Trophy, the play-offs, and the FA Cup semi-finals, there are probably less players who have not played at the national stadium than those who have.

If truth be told, a League One player has a better chance of getting to Wembley than a player in the Premier League. What does that say about Wembley's status?

Going back to team selection, there are no rules governing the make-up of sides in the Carling Cup or the FA Cup so why should the JP Trophy be any different?

As Irvine pointed out, managers live or die by team selections and if one was sacked amid the pressure of fixture congestion, would anyone at the Football League take any of the blame?

The League introduced the criteria in an attempt to maintain the integrity of the competition but, if that was the case, why treat the draw as a bit of a 'laugh and a joke' on Sky TV's Soccer AM where hosts Helen Chamberlain and Max Rushden turned over playing cards to reveal the identity of a club and their opponents?

The best place for both the playing cards and the JP Trophy, I'm afraid, is in the bin.