A Newcastle United under-21 side will again take part in the Papa John's Trophy during the 2021/22 campaign, it has been confirmed.
Chris Hogg and Peter Ramage's side are one of 16 Category One academies joining the 48 teams from League One and Two for next season's competition.
United's youngsters will face three teams from those two divisions during the group stage and each game will be contested away from home.
Matchday one is scheduled to take place on the week commencing Monday 30th August, with the second group stage fixture set to take place on the week commencing Monday 4th October.
United will wrap up their initial fixtures on the week commencing Monday 8th November and, should they progress, could have a round of 32 clash to look forward to on the week commencing Monday 29th November.
As was the case last year, regionalisation will play a part until the quarter-final stages but the semi-finals will take place at the stadium of the team drawn first in both ties.
The showpiece final will be contested at Wembley Stadium and is scheduled to take place on Sunday, 3rd April 2022.
Last term, Newcastle were unable progress from a group featuring Shrewsbury Town, Crewe Alexandra and Bolton Wanderers but did win all three of their group games in 2018/19, beating the likes of Notts County, Doncaster Rovers and Grimsby Town to top their group.
They then saw off Macclesfield on penalties at St. James’ Park before exiting at the round of 16 stage following a defeat against Sunderland, who won last season's competition, at the Stadium of Light.