After the usual mixed bag of first round results, the second round of the newly christened Capital One Cup takes place this week with sixteen of the 24 Championship clubs involved.
Although the draw ensured there’d be no guaranteed third round places, there might be a few surprises. A couple of seasons ago Bolton were in the Premier League whilst Crawley Town were playing in the Conference, but Crawley have a lot of experience of beating Championship teams in cup competitions – Hull, Bristol City and Derby can all vouch for that.
Preston and Crystal Palace were both in the Championship in 2010/11 and Deepdale hasn’t been the happiest of hunting grounds for the Eagles in recent years, with only two wins in their last ten visits. Nottingham Forest entertain Wigan at the City Ground and Fulham visit Hillsborough for the first time since they beat Sheffield Wednesday in the FA Cup almost four years ago.
At the other end of the scale, both Barnsley (at Swansea) and Peterborough (at Reading) look as if they may have to concentrate on the league until the 3rd Round of the FA Cup comes round, but you never know.
The only televised game from the Capital One Cup is Thursday evening’s game between Northampton Town and Wolves at Sixfields (SS1, 7:45pm), which is a repeat of last season’s second round tie in the same competition. Wolves won that game 4-0.
I’ll be back on Friday with a look at the weekend’s fixtures but don’t be too surprised if I mention Blackpool in the first paragraph.
0 comments so far
There are no comments for this post yet. Why not be the first by filling out the form below.