SWINDON Town manager David Flitcroft believes the Checkatrade Trophy only serves to benefit the development of English football as his side begin their campaign at home a youthful West Ham United side this evening.

Since last season, Premier League clubs have been invited to include academy teams in the competition, with the Hammers one of 12 top-flight sides to take up that offer for 2017-18 and they will send their U21s to the County Ground tonight.

Town boss Flitcroft thinks the exposure of some of the country’s brightest young talent into a competitive environment will not only aid those players, but also the lower league clubs they take on such as his own.

The only alteration the 43-year-old would make is to have a level playing field where every club from the top tier is involved.

“My view is that every club should have been sanctioned to go in it,” said Flitcroft.

“I think they have tried to change and modify it so more of the Premier League clubs can go in it but it’s got to be all or nothing for me and every Premier League club should be in it.

“I think it’s a great experience for us to take on those U21 teams, so we will certainly be taking it seriously and playing as good a team as we can get out.

“I think it’s been designed to improve English football and to try to make us all see the talent that is on offer in these academies and hopefully it makes our English game better.

“As a young coach and manager who spends a lot of time at St George’s Park, I hope it does and I hope we find players out of the system that can compete and hopefully get onto the international scene.

“Certainly, I like the competition and I think marrying lower league football with some of the country’s best talent is good for the English game.”

With Town having played three intense games against Carlisle United, Norwich City and Exeter City in the space of eight days at the start of the season – the former two both away from home – Flitcroft says team selection against the Hammers will be done with the welfare of his entire squad in mind.

“We are not going to experiment, we are going to look at game tame, who has played what, who we can rest, who we can’t and just make sure we make a decision based on game minutes and how players are looking,” added Flitcroft.

“Someone like Paul Mullin has just done three games at such ferocity. At times, he looked tired on Saturday and I can understand why.

“He is putting everything into this experience, which is what I love about him, but there might be a deficit somewhere and with a tough game the week after, we have got things to think about.”