Preview: Cheltenham Town vs Exeter City - prediction, team news, lineups

Cheltenham Town will welcome Exeter City to Whaddon Road in the first round of the EFL Cup this Wednesday.

This will be the only one of the 16 Southern Section ties to be played on Wednesday, as the other 15 teams advancing to round two will already be known by the time the sides take to the field.

Match preview

A distraction from a woeful start in League Two could be just what Cheltenham need right now, as they are one of five clubs to lose their opening two matches.

Michael Flynn’s men have lost away to Cambridge United and at home to Chesterfield, without scoring, and being outplayed in both.

That makes Cheltenham the joint-second-favourites to be relegated to the National League already, and it is not the start many envisaged after a strong preseason.

Town beat Swansea City and drew with Bristol City, but that once again proves that little can be read into results in preseason, as an improvement on their 15th-place finish last season looks tough.

For the time being though, focus will shift to the EFL Cup, a competition that has ended in first-round elimination in each of the last three seasons, including against Exeter in 2022, in an astonishing 7-0 defeat here at Whaddon Road.

The following season, the two met in League One, and Cheltenham were relegated after losing home and away to Exeter, so the visitors will be keen to extend their strong run in this fixture.

Exeter remain in League One, but they are also among the favourites to be relegated this season, despite an impressive 4-1 win over Blackpool at the weekend.

Gary Caldwell’s men were beaten by newly-promoted Doncaster Rovers on the opening weekend, but they made the perfect response, heading into a cup tie where they are the fancied side.

Exeter reached round four of this competition in 2022-23, losing narrowly to Middlesbrough, but they had no such run last season, going out at the first hurdle on penalties to Walsall.

An impressive run in the FA Cup made up for that early elimination though, but penalties once again were the scourge of Exeter, as Premier League Nottingham Forest knocked them out in the fourth round.

Cheltenham Town form (all competitions):

L L

Exeter City form (all competitions):

L W

Team News

Cheltenham are set to be without teenager Taine Anderson after he missed their defeat to Chesterfield with injury at the weekend.

George Harmon made his debut for the club off the bench, while there was also a first start for young Lithuanian Jakubas Mazionis, but Wrexham loanee Jake Bickerstaff is still waiting to make his full debut.

Exeter are without a number of players due to injury at present, including Pedro Borges with a knee issue and Andrew Oluwabori, who has a hip problem.

Ryan Rydel, Patrick Sweeney and Johnly Yfeko have also been missing, but Jake Doyle-Hayes came in to make his debut for the club in the win over Blackpool at the weekend.

Cheltenham Town possible starting lineup:

Day; Wilson, Harmon, Mazionis; Jude-Boyd, Tustin, Young, Thomas, Archer; Miller, Bickerstaff

Exeter City possible starting lineup:

Whitworth; Turns, Fitzwater, Swinkels; Niskanen, Cole, Doyle-Hayes, McMillan; Aitchison, Wareham, Brierley

We say: Cheltenham Town 1-2 Exeter City

Cheltenham have struggled at the start of their League Two season, so it looks unlikely they will be able to pull off an upset against a club in the division higher, especially one that beat them 7-0 here the last time they met in the competition.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.