Manchester City have swapped one clash for another after rearranging their Leasing.com Trophy game with Rochdale.
For the third consecutive year, the Blues have entered their Under-21 team into the controversial cup that includes 16 academy sides to battle it out with 48 League One and League Two clubs in a competition that ends up at Wembley.
Drawn into a group with Bolton, Bradford and Rochdale , Paul Harsley's side were due to go to Spotland next Tuesday to kickstart a campaign that saw them reach the quarter-finals last season.
However, City have decided to rearrange the game with a number of the players they would like involved in the game absent on international duty with their national youth teams.
If that is a sign of commitment to the competition - their best players were with Pep Guardiola at Burton rather than Sunderland for the quarter-final last season - the new date of September 11 throws up a problem for some supporters.
With Vincent Kompany's testimonial taking place at the Etihad on the same night, fans that were planning to attend the youth game will now have to choose between supporting the future prospects and celebrating the achievements of the club's greatest players.
City's youngsters played Rochdale in the last-16 last season and came back from 2-0 down to complete a thrilling 4-2 comeback win. Felix Nmecha and Ian-Carlo Poveda would go on to make their first-team debuts later that month.
