Carlisle United 3 Hartlepool United 3 (United win 4-3 on penalties): If a tree falls in the forest and no-one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? 

Similarly, if a Papa John’s Trophy Northern Group A fixture is played whilst nearly everyone is looking in another direction, has it really happened at all? 

Well, the record does say that Carlisle United did draw 3-3 with Hartlepool United at Brunton Park last night before winning on penalties to pick up a bonus point. You will just have to take our word for it.

Chances are, you were otherwise engaged. Keeping an eye on the last hours of transfer deadline day, perhaps. Boycotting the fiasco for another campaign, maybe, this being the sixth when the lower-league cup has been hijacked by the Premier League and its money. 

Other alternative activities were clearly found by many supporters too, given that an official gate of 1,392 was announced: not in record-breaking territory this time, but still familiarly low: the 17th smallest attendance in Brunton Park history. 

This is the norm now, the hit parade of tiny crowds dotted with new entries ever since the old Associate Members’ Cup flashed its wares to the moneyed elite back in 2016. Nine of United’s 17 lowest gates have come in this event in the last five years.

And this, quite simply, remains the fundamental issue with the revamped Trophy. A competition that directly alienates people it’s supposed to attract! Its genius remains unsurpassed in English football.

(The cup’s latest sponsor is offering 50 free tickets for every tie this season, too: more evidence that it may be slightly less appealing than a stuffed-crust BBQ Meat Feast) 

This, and other aspects of salesmanship which have accompanied the new Trophy format since its inception, cannot disguise the truth: that a competition for lower-league clubs to have a rare, safeguarded shot at Wembley should have no place for that elite, their hoarded squads and their desperation to give them all “men’s football” (it’s Everton who Carlisle must assist in this regard in 2021/22). 

It should be simply about games like last night’s, without intrusion: League Two versus League Two – yes, lots of young players still getting their chance, but with the purity of knowing it’s one area of our game that the Premier League can’t barge into.

Voting in polls or with one’s feet hasn’t stopped the march of the Under-21s, alas. All we can do is keep sounding off about it, whilst also pointing out the hypocrisy of calling out the European Super League (as the EFL rightly did) at the same time as continuing to treat 48 of its members as useful idiots for the rich. 

So this, I'm afraid, leaves little space for the usual detail when it comes to a match report. No apologies for that, though, given the balance of priorities. 

For what it’s worth, that detail involved eight changes to the Carlisle team, a first outing of the season for Danny Devine at right-back, a maiden start for Brad Young and a welcome first professional goal from Taylor Charters when he forced Brennan Dickenson’s corner inside Jonathan Mitchell’s near post in the 11th minute. 

Hartlepool were quickly level, Matty Daly lashing high past Lukas Jensen after being picked out behind the Blues defence by Luke Molyneux. 

A clinical header from Manasse Mampala restored Carlisle's lead, the striker joining Charters in getting off the professional mark, before Tristan Abrahams made it three after being smartly released by Zach Clough.

Pools responded twice: Molyneux smashing in a stunner to make it 3-2 and then being upended by Mellish, allowing sub Olufela Olomola to level from the spot against his old club.

United then won 4-3 on penalties, Jensen saving twice and Charters confidently dispatching the winning kick. 

How much it all matters, though…well, you probably know that by now. Shame those high up football’s food chain persistently do not.