Wycombe Wanderers take on Bristol City in the second round of the EFL Cup on Wednesday.
Both sides recorded much-needed victories at the weekend so should head into this tie with plenty of confidence.
Match preview
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Having missed out on promotion after losing 2-0 to Sunderland in the League One playoff final last season, Wycombe did not make the ideal start to the 2022-23 campaign having lost three successive league games following their opening day victory against Burton Albion.
However, Gareth Ainsworth's side are made of stern stuff, having massively punched above their financial weight to gain promotion to the Championship for the first time in the club's history in 2020.
As such, their 3-0 win away to Barnsley - who were only relegated from the second tier last season themselves - should not really have come as much of a surprise to anyone following the Chairboys closely since Ainsworth took over as manager almost a decade ago.
Indeed, next month the 49-year-old will celebrate 10 years in charge of the club which he ended his playing career at, with a close to 40% win rate demonstrating the consistency that he has implemented during his tenure.
Perhaps all that is missing from his copybook is a deep run into one of the domestic cups, having never taken Wycombe beyond the fourth round of the FA Cup or third round of the EFL Cup. After his side's impressive 2-1 win away to Northampton Town in the previous round, a home win against Bristol City would see them match the latter achievement, with the possibility of more to come.
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Bristol City, meanwhile, have turned their early season stutters around with back-to-back 2-0 victories at Ashton Gate within the past week.
Last season's surprise play-off semi-finalists Luton Town were dispatched last Tuesday, despite the Robins losing Mark Sykes to a red card after 67 minutes, before Cardiff City were comfortably put away on Sunday.
Tommy Conway was on the scoresheet in both matches, with the 20-year-old taking some of the heavy pressure off from Andreas Weimann's shoulders after the former Aston Villa forward's 22-goal heroics last campaign.
Nigel Pearson was rightly delighted with his side's 4-1 thrashing away to Coventry City in the previous round of the EFL Cup, a competition which he won as a player with Sheffield Wednesday before twice losing in the final with Middlesbrough.
Perhaps Pearson's proud historical affinity with the competition will help motivate his players to another impressive away win on Wednesday, especially with them finding some serious form of late.
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Team News
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Wycombe's star striker Sam Vokes has not featured since suffering an injury in the 3-0 defeat to Bolton Wanderers on August 6, so Ainsworth is unlikely to risk the Wales striker in a cup match.
The former Queens Park Rangers midfielder heavily rotated his team in the previous round against Northampton and is likely to do so again here, especially with only a three-day gap onto Saturday's league game at home against Charlton Athletic.
Pearson, on the other hand, picked a strong team against Coventry in round one and may do so again.
Wing-backs Alex Scott and Jay Dasilva could receive a rest with Kane Wilson and Cameron Pring waiting in the wings, while experienced heads Andy King and Chris Martin will hope to get a run out, too.
Nathan Baker remains unlikely to play for the club - and perhaps professional football as a whole - again after sustaining a serious head injury last season.
Wycombe Wanderers possible starting lineup:
Dickinson; Pattenden, Forino-Joseph, Wakely, Jacobsen; Horgan, Young, Freeman; Mellor, De Barr, Al-Hamadi
Bristol City possible starting lineup:
Bentley; Vyner, Naismith, Atkinson; Wilson, Massengo, King, Pring; Weimann, Martin, Conway
We say: Wycombe Wanderers 1-3 Bristol City
With Wycombe likely to rotate more heavily than their Championship opponents, we can envisage an away win.
Bristol City's matches usually feature plenty of goals so it should be an entertaining match either way.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Brett Curtis
