After Saturday's disappointing draw at home to Walsall, the Imps get a welcome distraction from League action in the form of the Carling Cup. City had 2 fantastic games in the cup last season and even came close to forcing Fulham to a penalty shoot-out. You could also argue that the Imps face a tie that is easier than the previous two 1st Round games where City beat Derby and Crewe. City travel to our local rivals, Scunthorpe United.

The teams haven't met since the 2004/5 season where the Imps beat the Iron 2-0 in front of the Sky Sports cameras. However, City will certainly be hoping to avenge their last visit to Glanford Park, City thought that they had won a point when Ben Futcher headed the Imps level in added on time but Scunthorpe went down the other end and won the match, their only victory over the Imps whilst Keith Alexander was in charge at Sincil Bank.

There are many reasons why both sides will be going for the win, the main prize of course being a potential home tie against a Premiership club, a bit of prize money for the winners and of course, the chance for either Scunny to win their first game or for the Imps to remain undefeated this season.

One talking point will be whether Schofield is prepared to drop the under-performing Alan Marriott and give Simon Rayner a chance, however, given that Rayner had a far superior pre-season and still wasn't picked, we highly doubt he'll make his first appearance of the season. Other than that debating point, it should in theory be the same side that dominated the game on Saturday until Marriott decided to let the ball slide under him.

Who I think will start (Right to left)

Marriott

Beevers   Moses    Morgan    Hughes

Kerr    Frecklington   Amoo     Mayo

Stallard    Forrester

When Brian Laws was rehired the Scunthorpe hotseat just 3 weeks after leaving in the 2003/4 season, many Scunthorpe fans weren't happy and the club finished just one place above relegation to the conference and that didn't improve most Iron fan's opinions. However, the very next season and the Iron won promotion from this division and if it hadn't been for Yeovil beating City on the final day of that season, Scunny would have gone up as champions.

Laws then proclaimed that Scunny would not only survive, but win promotion to the Championship and for a while appeared to be correct. Despite losing their first game, Scunny went on to win 5 of their next 7 matches and topped the table early on. However, form suddenly deserted them and they slowly slipped back down the league but 12th was still a very respectable finish in a higher division.

Scunny haven't started well this season with a 1-0 defeat at Bristol Rovers, followed by 2-2 draws at home to Swansea and Crewe before Saturday's 2-1 defeat at Rotherham. They have infact only won 7 times this calender year and if they keep that up, they could easily find themselves of returning to this division.