Carabao Cup 1st round

Draw will be done on 25th June, same day as the fixture releases. 1st round this year will be the first game of the season due to the international date calendar changing this year which will see the September and October breaks merged into 1 longer break when the 3rd round would normally be played. With games being on the weekend it will be interesting to see what it does to attendances.

The competition will follow the same format as this season with 2 Preliminary Round ties due to 9 English sides in Europe, the ties will be between the 2 promoted sides with 21st and 22nd from league 2. Last year the EFL got lucky with the 4 teams being an even split between north and south but it's not worked out this year, the 4 teams are Tranmere, Crawley, York and Rochdale. With the preliminary round drawn at the same time as the 1st round it's looking like one of Tranmere, York and Rochdale will end up in the southern section. The only way I can see them possibly being able to help this is by having an either/or draw where if the winner is a northern side they get put into the northern half with the most southern team from that half (possibly Peterborough) moving into the south. If Crawley win then they stay in the south as do Peterborough.

Based on last season's first round split our potential 1st round opponents could be:

1. Barnsley
2. Birmingham City
3. Blackburn Rovers
4. Blackpool
5. Bolton Wanderers
6. Bradford City
7. Burnley
8. Burton Albion
9. Chesterfield
10. Crewe Alexandra
11. Derby County
12. Doncaster Rovers
13. Fleetwood Town
14. Grimsby Town
15. Huddersfield Town
16. Leicester City
17. Lincoln City
18. Mansfield Town
19. Middlesbrough
20. Notts County
21. Peterborough United
22. Port Vale
23. Preston North End
24. Rotherham United
25. Salford City
26. Sheffield United
27. Sheffield Wednesday
28. Shrewsbury Town
29. Stockport County
30. Stoke City
31. Walsall
32. West Bromwich Albion
33. Wigan Athletic
34. Wolves
35. Wrexham
36. Northern Section preliminary round winner

 

In 12/13 the first round was scheduled for the midweek before the first league game but if both teams agreed it could be moved to the weekend before which I think most did, I certainly wouldn't say no to a repeat of that season. The other season it has happened in recent times was the behind closed doors season.

I feel as well teams will play stronger sides than they normally would as normally the first round ends up being a reserve match in the most.

For me I would do this going forward as I think it will help the competition as it needs something to get it going again.