Preview: Fleetwood Town vs. Tranmere Rovers - prediction, team news, lineups

League One strugglers Fleetwood Town will open their EFL Trophy campaign with a clash against League Two outfit Tranmere Rovers on Tuesday night.

Fleetwood will enter the contest off the back of a 2-1 defeat to Charlton Athletic in the league on Saturday, while Tranmere were beaten 1-0 by Wrexham in the fourth tier on the same afternoon.

Match preview

© Reuters

Fleetwood announced on Sunday morning that they had sacked Scott Brown as head coach, with the 38-year-old leaving his role after 16 months in charge.

Steven Whittaker - assistant to Brown - has also departed, with the Cod Army struggling for results in the early stages of the campaign, only picking up one point from their first six League One games, which has left them down in 23rd position in the table.

Fleetwood also lost 3-2 to Port Vale in the EFL Cup on August 8, and the club have now decided to change direction in terms of the management team, but it seems unlikely that there will be a new head coach appointed before the EFL Trophy contest with Tranmere.

The Fishermen will not view this competition as too important in the grand scheme of things, especially due to their struggles in the early stages of the season.

Fleetwood have reached the Northern Area Final of the EFL Trophy on two precious occasions, though, in 2013-14, when they lost to Chesterfield, and in 2015-16, when they were beaten by Barnsley.

Tranmere, meanwhile, have also found it difficult to pick up positive results in the early stages of this season.

Ian Dawes's side have collected just three points from their opening six League Two games to sit down in 21st position in the table, and they suffered a 1-0 defeat to Wrexham on home soil on Saturday afternoon.

Tranmere beat Barnsley in the first round of this season's EFL Cup but were knocked out of the competition last week courtesy of a 2-0 defeat at home to Leicester City.

The Rovers are previous winners of this competition, claiming the trophy in 1989-90, while they have been runners-up on two more occasions, including in 2020-21, when they were beaten by Sunderland at Wembley.

Tranmere and Fleetwood have been drawn into Northern Group D for the 2023-24 campaign, with Leicester City Under-21s and Wigan Athletic also present in the section.

Team News

There will be wholesale changes to the Fleetwood side for this match, with David Harrington set to feature between the sticks for just the second time this season.

Scott Robertson was an unused substitute against Charlton in the league on Saturday but should come in for a start here alongside the likes of Phoenix Patterson and Cian Hayes.

Daniel Mayor and Kabongo Tshimanga should also be introduced into the XI for this match, with the home side looking to give their supporters something to cheer following a tough start to the season.

Tranmere boss Dawes, meanwhile, will make a number of changes to the side that took to the field for the first whistle against Wrexham in the league on Saturday.

The team is expected to be similar to the one that lined up against Leicester in the second round of the EFL Cup.

Sam Taylor will be among those to come into the starting XI on Tuesday evening, while there will be a change between the sticks, with 42-year-old Joe Murphy set to be included.

Fleetwood Town possible starting lineup:

Harrington; Robertson, Lawal, Holgate; Tshimanga, Asamoah, Hayes, Patterson, Mayor; Stockley, Graydon

Tranmere Rovers possible starting lineup:

Murphy; Yarney, Davies, Turnbull, Pike; Morris, Merrie, Hendry; Taylor, Jennings, Hawkes

We say: Fleetwood Town 1-2 Tranmere Rovers

Both sides have had their problems in the early stages of the season, and neither will be entering this contest in the best of form. We are expecting it to be a close game on Tuesday evening, but are backing Tranmere to secure the win.

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