Carling Cup Draw

Carling Cup Rnd1 draw on Thursday, who would you like to draw?

Personally I would love Portsmouth at home, a good derby to start the season (pretty much)

 

What and how many teams are involved?

 

Not possible - teams are seeded to ensure no all-Championship ties

 

I believe they are also split into Northern and Southern sections in the first round, so any teams above Birmingham way you won't get drawn against.

 

So the Skates can now heave a sigh of relief.

 

All League One and Two plus pretty much all the Championship sides are in Round One. Premier League sides not in Europe join in Round Two and the Europa/Champions League sides in Round Three. It varies sometimes due to various circumstances. Last Season Pompey were the highest ranked side in Round One with Hull and Burnley joining in Round Two. There will be a bit of jigging this season of course, due to (a) Fulham getting a Europa spot via Fair Play and (b) Birmingham, despite being in the Championship, being in the Europa League as holders. Both will therefore join in Round Three.

In Round One, as well as being seeded (half seeded half unseeded) it is divided equally between North and South, so you have FOUR Groups of sides (x North seeded, x North unseeded, x South seeded and x South unseeded). Because the seeding is done before the geographical divide we had the weird situation last season where Nottingham Forest were in the Northern section and Notts County were in the Southern section.

Confused yet?

 

Ah I didn't realise they were seeded, that's annoying :/

Bournemouth at home anyone?

 

Presume we are unseeded then, so might get a tough team in the first match. Wins are always good for confidence, but won't cry (much) if we go out. Went out early last year..didn't do us any harm did it? Though probably didn't improve Pardew's chances. All's well that ends well.

 

With 8 sides in Europe entering in Round Three it means there need to be 24 fixtures in Round Two. Of those 48 teams 12 will be from the Premier League plus 36 1st Round winners. In normal circumstances that would be easy - the 72 NPower League sides would all be in Round One. But Birmingham are in Europe and therefore join in Round Three, so I would imagine that Swansea will be forced to enter at Round One in their stead.

Assuming the 36 seeded teams are based on last season's league tables they will consist of those who finished in the top half of League One upwards. So 12th placed Carlisle will be the lowest ranked seeded team and Charlton the highest ranked unseeded team. Each set of 36 will be divided geographically North and South. This means Saints' [and Pompey's] 1st round opponents will be one of the 18 Southernmost sides from League Two or the bottom half of last season's League One table - meaning either of us could face new boys Crawley or AFC Wimbledon!

 

I'm going to stick my neck out and predict that we get an away tie - surely it's about time?!?

 

We havent had an away cup tie since Northampton back in Nov '09 (not including the 2legged JPT southern final)

 

Barnet away!

 

We are seeded!

 

Thanks for info. Asssumed we wouldn't be because we went out so early last year.

 

It'll be Torquay away I bet.

 

Away to Boscombe ??

 

Trip up at Dean Court for Round 2 of the "South Coast Derby" would be a good shout!

 

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