Football League Cup 2001-02

The Football League Cup 2001–02 (known as the Worthington Cup for sponsorship reasons) was the 42nd staging of the Football League Cup, a knockout competition for England's top 92 football clubs. The competition name reflects a sponsorship deal with lager brand Worthington.

The competition began on 20 August 2001, and ended with the final on 26 February 2006 at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff as reconstruction work had just commenced at Wembley Stadium.

The tournament was won by Blackburn Rovers, who beat Tottenham Hotspur 2–1 in the final, thanks to single strikes from Matt Jansen and Andy Cole, sandwiched by an equaliser from Christian Ziege. Blackburn had only just returned to the Premier League at the beginning of the season after relegation several years earlier.

First Round

The 70 First, Second and Third Division clubs compete from the First Round. Each section is divided equally into a pot of seeded clubs and a pot of unseeded clubs. Clubs' rankings depend upon their finishing position in the 2000–01 season. Therefore, the clubs relegated from the Premier League in 2005, Manchester City, Coventry City and Bradford City, were the top seeds, and the club newly-promoted to the Third Division, Rushden & Diamonds, were bottom seeds.

econd Round

The 35 winners from the First Round joined the 12 Premier League clubs not participating in European competition (plus Aston Villa and Newcastle United as Intertoto Cup qualifiers) in Round Two. Matches were played from 10 to 13 September.

Third Round

The 26 winners from the Second Round joined the six Premiership clubs participating in European competition in Round Three. Matches were played on 8, 9 and 10 October.

Fourth Round

The matches were played on 27, 28 and 29 November.

Quarter-finals

The four matches were played on 11, 12 and 19 December.

emi-finals

The semi-final draw was made in December 2001 after the conclusion of the quarter finals. Unlike the other rounds, the semi-final ties were played over two legs, with each team playing one leg at home. The ties were played in the weeks beginning 7 January and 21 January 2002.

First leg

econd leg

Final

The 2002 Worthington Cup Final was played on 24 February 2002 and was contested between Premier League teams Tottenham Hotspur and Blackburn Rovers at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff. Blackburn won the game 2-1.footballbox
date=2002-02-24
14:00
team1=Blackburn Rovers
score=2 – 1
team2=Tottenham Hotspur
report= [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2002/02/24/sport25.xml (Report)]
goals1=Jansen goal|25
Cole goal|69
goals2=Ziege goal|33
stadium=Millennium Stadium, Cardiff
attendance=72,500
referee=Graham Poll

References

External links

* [http://www.carlingcup.co.uk Official Carling Cup website]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/league_cup/default.stm Carling Cup] at bbc.co.uk
* [http://football.uk.reuters.com/leaguecup/ League Cup news, match reports and pictures] on Reuters.co.uk
* [http://www.soccerbase.com/cup2.sd?competitionid=60 Results on Soccerbase]