Football League Cup - History

History

During the late 1950s, the majority of senior English clubs equipped their grounds with floodlights. This opened up the opportunity to exploit weekday evenings throughout the winter. The League Cup was introduced in the 1960–61 season specifically as a mid-week floodlit tournament, to replace the Southern Professional Floodlit Cup. In the early years of the competition, many of the top teams declined to take part. It was only when automatic entry to the UEFA Cup was promised to the winners that the full League membership took part.

In the last 10 years, following restructuring of European football, and the introduction of the restructured format of the UEFA Champions League, the League Cup was threatened with losing its UEFA Cup berth for its winners. It has retained it thus far, however; England and France are the only UEFA members offering a European berth to the winners of their second cup competitions. This has allowed the League Cup to retain popularity, especially with fans of clubs for whom the League Cup offers the only realistic chance of qualifying for Europe.

Aston Villa were the inaugural winners in 1960–61 defeating Rotherham United 3–2 in the final over two legs. Liverpool have won the cup on the most occasions with eight victories including four successive trophies in the early 1980s. They completed two trebles of trophy wins, in 1984 and 2001. The present holders are Liverpool who beat Cardiff City 3-2 on penalties in the 2012 Final, in the Welsh club's first trip to the final.

Giant killings are less well remembered in the League Cup than the FA Cup due to the absence of non-league sides and the fact that many big clubs have fielded very under-strength sides when knocked out. However, there have been some notable upsets, such as Fourth Division side Chester knocking league champions Leeds United out 3–0 en route to the semi-finals in 1974–75. In 1995–96, Manchester United were beaten 3–0 at home by York City in the second round, first leg; United could only win 3–1 in the second leg and went out 4–3 on aggregate. Also,the final of 1967 saw Division Three side Queens Park Rangers come from 2-0 down at half time to win 3-2 against top-flight West Bromwich Albion in the first League Cup Final to be hosted at Wembley Stadium. United have also been knocked out by Southend United and Coventry City in 2006–07 and 2007–08 respectively: in the match against Southend they fielded a strong side, bucking a trend they had themselves started. In 2001–02, holders Liverpool were defeated 2–1 at home by Grimsby Town, then humbled again by Northampton Town in September 2010. Grimsby recorded another giant killing in 2005 by knocking out Tottenham Hotspur.