Shrewsbury Town face long trips in EFL Trophy
Shrewsbury Town face long midweek trips in a 'regionalised' group of the new-look English Football League Trophy.
Salop have been drawn with Cambridge, Scunthorpe and Middlesbrough in Group G of the Northern Section.
Although they will be hosting Cambridge United in their opener, they are then set to undertake a 280-mile round trip to Scunthorpe and a 400-mile round journey to face Middlesbrough.
It won't even be Boro's first-team that Shrewsbury play, because the Premier League outfit are one of the 'category one' academies fielding an under-21 side in the tournament this year.
According to the EFL, the 16 groups were supposed to be regionalised and were split by division, so the 12 most northern League One sides were put in the northern group.
Each side will play the other three teams once in the group stage, with the top two going through to a last 32 knockout round.
If games are level at full-time then the teams will have a penalty shoot-out for an additional point.
The dates and venues of the matches are yet to be confirmed, but at least one of the academy team's home fixtures must be at their club's main home stadium.
The new-look Trophy has already courted controversy, with supporters of many lower league clubs unhappy at the decision to include Premier League academies.
