York City manager Scott Lindsey has called the rule that led him to make a substitute after 44 seconds ‘massively ridiculous’.
Lindsey remarkably substituted star striker Ollie Pearce less than a minute into the League Two side’s 3-1 defeat to Newcastle U21s in the EFL Trophy, with Ben Farrar coming on for his senior debut in his place.
‘Massively ridiculous,’ Lindsey said. ‘Ollie’s trained today; the boys that are in the first team played against the youth team. And then he had to come tonight and do that; it’s ridiculous. But we had to do it because we have to tick all the boxes for the rules.’
The EFL Trophy laws state that all EFL clubs ‘must include’ at least four senior members of their squad in the starting line-up, otherwise known as ‘Qualifying Players’.
In the competition handbook, a qualifying player is described as somebody who had started the immediately preceding first team game, has made 40 or more first team starting appearances, or is on standard loan from a Premier League Club or any EFL Club operating a Category One Academy.
The rule led to Lindsey having to start four of his senior stars, including Pearce, who has scored 67 goals in 102 appearances for the club.
York City’s Ollie Pearce was substituted after 44 seconds against Newcastle U21s on Tuesday
He continued: ‘It’s madness, it really is, it’s ludicrous. And I think it’s actually stopping younger players for clubs like ourselves playing. Ben Farrar is starting on the bench, but he should be starting that game.
‘I think they try and support Premier League clubs rather than clubs at our level. They want the Premier League clubs to play against seasoned pros, which is fine. But then it doesn’t help our homegrown talent.
‘They have to look at the rules for this competition, definitely.’
Pearce bagged a goal and an assist in York’s 4-0 thumping of Swindon Town at the weekend, and was most likely hoping to be in the stands against the Newcastle U21s, earning a rest.
The only thing that stopped the striker doing that for the entire game was the location of his house.
‘The reason that I picked Ollie Pearce is because he lives in York,’ Lindsey continued. ‘I’m not even joking. I didn’t want anybody travelling from Sheffield or wherever they lived to play for 30 seconds. It would have been a waste of time.
‘I said to him afterward it’s the best he’s played, we had a bit of banter about that. He said to me, “if I get a penalty in the first 30 seconds, can I take it?” And I said no, the board will be coming up.’
