Man City caught up in bizarre fixture row as EFL accused of 'favouring' Blues in scathing letter

Grimsby Town's Supporters' Trust have demanded their EFL Trophy fixture with Manchester City be moved after a number of fixture changes have caused one of their League Two fixtures to be postponed, accusing the EFL of putting City's needs ahead of theirs.

City were drawn with Grimsby, Derby County and Mansfield in the EFL Trophy, where League One and Two sides come up against invited academy teams such as the Blues. Brian Barry-Murphy's under-21s lost their opening game against Mansfield and sit bottom of their group after one game.

They were due to play away at Derby last week, however, the EFL postponed that fixture as City had 20 of their academy players called up for international duty. As a result, that fixture has been moved to Tuesday, October 18, when the final group game at Grimsby was originally scheduled.

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Due to City's UEFA Youth League commitments, that means the next possible midweek for City to fulfil that game at Grimsby is Tuesday, November 8, with the EFL taking the decision to postpone Grimsby's League Two clash with Crewe that had been due to take place on the same date. The Derby game couldn't have been played on that November date as the Rams are in Carabao Cup action that week.

Now, the Mariners Trust have written an open letter to the EFL stating that they have broken their own competition rules by prioritising Derby's League Cup game and postponing their Crewe fixture in favour of the City clash, insisting the original league game is reinstated.

They wrote: "Grimsby Town fans are rightly angry that a fixture has been allowed to be rescheduled and then postponed a matter of weeks later when