Next Up: Exeter City vs Stevenage – League Cup

City’s encouraging start to the season gathered pace with a last gasp 2-1 win over Reading on Saturday, and all eyes return to the EFL Cup on Tuesday night with the visit of another club that has surprised the pundits so far. The rumour mill went into overdrive post-match regarding Sam Nombe given how the on-pitch celebrations revolved around him – and it will be interesting to see whether he is included in the line-up to take on Stevenage. Given City’s injury problems up front, with James Scott out for a few weeks and Sonny Cox missing out on Saturday due to a knock picked up in the friendly with Southampton last week, Nombe may be required unless he has already departed – with Gary Caldwell stating he has options should this happen. Elsewhere Ilmari Niskanen earned plaudits for his debut performance, while Reece Cole’s late winner will aid his push for a start.

Like City, newly promoted Stevenage were tipped by many for a season of struggle, but also like City Boro, under the colourful guidance of Steve Evans, have defied the critics and also have 10 points from their first five fixtures following a 0-0 draw with Portsmouth on Saturday. Evans was busy in the summer, basically if your surname is Thompson you were in, with three players of that name joining. Amongst the departures were former City skipper Jake Taylor, who dropped into non-league with Eastleigh, but another former City player in Jamie Reid has hit the ground running with two goals so far this season. Stevenage will have to do without Jake Forster-Caskey on Tuesday night after he was shown a red card against Portsmouth.

The sides have met three times in cup competitions although this will be the first meeting in this competition. The last cup encounter came in 19/20 in the EFL Trophy, when City recorded a comfortable 3-0 win on their way to the area final, Nicky Ajose and a Matt Jay brace the scorers. The sides have each one once in the FA Cup.

The match officials for this game will be:-

Referee: Andrew Kitchen
Assistant Referees: Ian Cooper and Andrew Fox
Fourth Official : James Linington

The last time Andrew Kitchen refereed an Exeter City game was February this year in a 1-0 defeat at Port Vale. A game that Rekeem Harper was sent off for Exeter.