English Carling Cup Previews: Round 1
The start of a new season evidently caught a few teams with their pants down on Saturday but now it's worth backing a trio of embarrassed Championship clubs to cover themselves up quickly with victory on the road in the Carling Cup this week.
On the face of it, all the ingredients are there for an upset but we reckon this could be one of those occasions when the script is almost too obvious and the layers appear to have over-reacted in anticipation. The Hampshire club clearly lack strength in depth and could only field four substitutes against Coventry but you need only look through their starting XI at the Ricoh to appreciate that these two teams were separated by 73 places at the end of last season. Defeat against the Sky Blues was understandable in light of all the pre-season turmoil at Fratton Park but the players know those reasons will offer no excuse for an under-par performance against the Football League newcomers. Indeed, a national audience ought to sharpen the focus among Steve Cotterill's men, who should need no reminding of how the cup competitions served as a welcome distraction from their week to week struggles last term. Besides reaching the FA Cup final, it should be pointed out that Pompey also progressed to the last eight of this competition and though many of the players involved in those two achievements have now departed, the remaining fringe members of that squad witnessed first-hand the lift that can be generated by a decent cup run. So while Aidy Boothroyd can find a way to combat a front three of John Utaka, Tommy Smith and David Niugent by using an extra man to overpower the south coast outfit in midfield, it doesn't necessarily translate that Graham Westley can do likewise with an inferior group of players. Let's not forget, the script was supposedly written for Stevenage to triumph against a mediocre Macclesfield outfit in their first ever league match at the weekend but they needed a late Charlie Griffin strike to rescue a point. If they were unable to rise to that sense of occasion, we see no reason why they should rise to this. Meanwhile, Bristol City were another team exposed for a lack of cohesion on Saturday but they should nonetheless prove too strong for Southend. The Robins were embarrassed by newly-promoted Millwall, paying a heavy price for the circus that surrounded the arrival of David James last week as they went down 3-0 at Ashton Gate. However, it's a humbling experience that has the potential to bring the Robins together and they should encounter few problems against the Shrimpers at even money, so long as concentration levels improve. The Essex club appear to be in terminal decline on the evidence of last season combined with the comings and goings during the summer. It was clear Steve Tilson could no longer work miracles at Roots Hall once the board started stripping him of the few assets he had and now Paul Sturrock has been called upon to try and steady the ship on miniscule resources. The former Plymouth boss fielded nine hastily-acquired debutants on Saturday and was bailed out by his own son, Blair, who bagged a late equaliser from the substitutes bench against the only side who finished below them in League One last term. And while it's too early to cast damning aspersions about any team at this stage of the campaign, it's probably fair to say that few teams will be viewing a point at home against the Hatters as a positive result this term. All of which brings us on to our third and final selection, because Preston should now prove too strong for County when they make the short trip to Edgeley Park on Tuesday. The Lilywhites were punished for coming slow out of the blocks against a classy Doncaster side at the weekend but we should expect them to respond positively to a piece of Darren Ferguson's mind by coming out on the front foot and landing odds of 2.00 at Bet365 here. Paul Simpson will probably be eager for revenge against the club that sacked him three years ago but it seems like a tall order for the personnel at his disposal and County must get to grips with the task of consolidating in the basement before they entertain ideas of writing headlines against teams two divisions up. 
For starters, the Sky cameras clearly smell a giant-killing at Broadhall Way on Monday but there could be some serious value in backing Portsmouth to make their Premier League pedigree count against Stevenage at 2.30 at Bet365.
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