Chris Wilder takes his “youthful, athletic squad” to the Boleyn Ground this evening to play Wham in the League Cup second round, following United's 6-1 demolition job on Bristol Rovers in the first round. The Us have so far played twice on the road this season, keeping two clean sheets. The downside is that they have yet to capitalise on that defensive parsimoniousness by scoring at the other end.

Chris Wilder has some selection problems, with Damian Batt almost certain to miss out after turning his ankle at Wycombe Wanderers on Saturday, with Ben Purkiss set for his first start for United since signing from York City just a few days after they were beaten by Oxford in last season's Conference play-off final. Matt Green hobbled off in the second half of Saturday's game and could be considered a doubt, possibly leaving the way for former Westam trainee Mitchell Cole to start, or possibly Alfie Potter. Meanwhile Sam Deering could be in line for a recall to the bench after being dropped for being late for the team meeting before Saturday's game, fortuitously as it turned out as LSD's absence meant that Purkiss was selected in his place. Another possible change could be the recall of Mark Creighton for his first start of the season in place of the inexperienced Harry Worley, although that's pure speculation on our part.

The '80s pop duo haven't had the best of starts in the Premiership this season, losing both their opening games, including Saturday's 3-1 home defeat to Bolton Wanderers. In that game Matthew Upson decided to head Kevin Davies's foot while scoring for Bolton, and as is result is even more disfigured than he already was. He is unlikely to play tonight, although manager Avram Grant will probably field a reasonably strong side as they will be looking for a confidence-boosting win ahead of next weekend's trip to Old Trafford. This might not preclude him from including New Zealand international Winston Reid in place of Upson, and looking at others yet to feature this season, such as Benni McCarthy, Tal Ben Haim, and Freddie Piquionne. We've heard of all of those, so they might not be too bad.

Oxford have met Westam a couple of times before in this competition, with honours even. In 1986 the Appy Ammers beat the holders (that