While Sutton ended last season with a near miss, just missing out on the League Two play-offs, MK also came close to promotion, reaching the end of season competition in League One before being beaten in the semi finals by Wycombe after being in or around the top three for most of the season.
Several of that squad moved on during the summer, Scott Twine and Harry Darling moving up to the Championship with Burnley and Swansea respectively, while Troy Parrott, who was on loan from Tottenham and scored in the play-off semi final, is now also in the Championship with Preston. However goalkeeper Jamie Cumming has returned from Chelsea for a second loan spell and other summer signings include experienced midfielder Bradley Johnson and strikers Louie Barry, on loan from Aston Villa, and Matthew Dennis from Norwich after he was on loan at Southend last season. They also have Northern Ireland striker Will Grigg, although he was injured in Saturday’s 1-0 home defeat by Sheffield Wednesday, a result that left MK still looking for their first point, and goal, of the season after the lost by the same score at Cambridge on the opening day.
Sutton are also looking for a first win, which seemed set to come at Doncaster until the stoppage time drama, and manager Matt Gray reports no new injury concerns after Saturday’s game, with Will Randall close to being in contention for a return after his injury against Newport, but Ben Goodliffe still sidelined.
For those unable to get to the game we will have audio commentary on our iFollow service from Stadium MK, and you can buy a match pass for £2.50 here, as well as monthly and seasonal audio passes at £4.49 and £45 respectively. Please note that Carabao Cup games are not able to be live streamed at home or abroad, and so the only coverage tomorrow wherever supporters are in the world will be the audio commentary.
Last season saw both teams make their exit from the competition at this stage, Sutton’s Carabao Cup debut ending in a narrow defeat at Cardiff while MK lost 5-0 at eventual Championship runners-up Bournemouth.
The game will be decided on penalties if it is level after 90 minutes, and referee Charles Breakspear, a familiar face to Sutton supporters since the Ryman League days of 2009 and in his tenth season as an EFL referee, achieves an unusual feat of refereeing two different games in the same round of the competition having also taken charge of Cambridge’s win against Millwall last week.
The draw for round 2 is after Wednesday’s game between Sheffield Wednesday and Sunderland, and the second round is scheduled for the week of 22 August.
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