F365 Opinion

James, a Sheffield United fan, argued in Wednesday morning's Mailbox that we'd be better off without the League Cup. The home majority among the 8,729 at the Withdean will beg to differ. Likewise - and I know they'rea nother billionaires' club - Queens Park Rangers fans who made the trip to Villa Park.

The League Cup has suffered for all sorts of reasons, such as weakened teams - Newcastle put out some jokers on Wednesday, for instance - and it is true that Robinho did not make the trip to the south coast. But listening to that shoot-out on Radio Five Live was the highlight of my sporting week. Brighton's success, four days after they lost at home to a Walsall team who had nine men for the last hour and did not score till almost half-time, was magnificently unexpected in the specific. However, such wonderful results are a guaranteed result of playing cup football - you just don't know where they will actually happen.

Across the years, the richest sides have always done the best in the league. Even in the 1980s, four of the top five wage payers took four of the top five places if you compiled a table across the decade as a whole - Spurs were the failures, Brian Clough's Nottingham Forest were the team who took their place.

In the past four League Cup finals, six of the eight places have been filled by Big Four teams, with Wigan and Spurs the exceptions. Those Big Four sides reached the final fielding weakened teams - even Liverpool in 2005, with just one player, Jerzy Dudek, appearing in the League Cup quarter-final shoot-out win against Spurs and that season's Champions League final.

But across 90 or 120 minutes anything can still happen and the cup competitions represent the best chance to upset the establishment. On Sunday we heard much of Chelsea's unbeaten league record at Stamford Bridge and no-one has won in regulation play in any domestic competition since before Jose Mourinho arrived, but Charlton did enough to hold the Blues there in the League Cup in 2005 and then win a shoot-out. A stone in the expensive shoe of the Special One.

Coventry won at Old Trafford last season. Arsene Wenger's kids seem largely immune to the troubles, but almost count as giant-killers themselves, inflicting a 6-3 Anfield defeat on a decent-strength Liverpool side in 2007. Rafa Benitez has also been humbled by Crystal Palace in this competition. The beaten Big Four sides are generally not their finest line-ups, but to see often over-rewarded reserves take a pasting is highly rewarding.

The League Cup serves other purposes - indeed allowing squad players the chance of a first-team appearance is an end in itself. Look at the crowd who went to the Emirates on Tuesday. Even if attendances elsewhere can be embarrassing, the competition is not going to vanish while it can command the headlines to keep the sponsors happy.

So is there anything wrong with the League Cup? Well, Middlesbrough's 2004 win was a principal achievement on Steve McClaren's CV...I've changed my mind. Abolish it.

Philip Cornwall