This is a competition that Mark Hughes has always taken seriously, which is one of the main reasons that we see his Bradford City team in this tie after coming through a tricky game away at Wrexham in the last round.

The Bantams’ league form has been very inconsistent and their performance levels need to improve if they are to achieve their aims for promotion this season, but Andy Cook finally clicked into gear on Saturday bagging himself a hatrick in the process. A 4-1 away win at Newport will certainly help the atmosphere around Valley Parade and ensure that the home faithful will be a support rather than a hindrance here.

Boro will also be hoping that they have hit a turning point after a much-needed victory over Southampton. However, they conceded the first goal again, making it a perfect 10/10 times this season they have gone behind.

Even if that trend doesn’t continue, (and it can’t go on forever), the Boro defence has shown that, at this stage, they are unable to keep a clean sheet. There will be a rotation of the squad as well from Michael Carrick, so the team will probably be weaker, giving Bradford that bit more of a sniff of getting a goal.

Bradford are fond of a 1-1, having produced that score-line four times already in 2023/24. The teams met at Valley Parade in pre-season as well, and though we can’t read too much into friendlies, did produce a 3-3 score.

Both teams to score at a price of 1.65 is absolutely the way to go here.

Mansfield aren’t the highest scorers in League Two, but they have taken by far the most shots and generated the second-highest xG in the league. At times this season the Stags have looked the most accomplished outfit in the league and Nigel Clough has become a little bit renowned for his cup runs as well as his commitment to attacking football.

Attacking football is also pretty much synonymous with Peterborough. Darren Ferguson has been an EFL Cup mainstay over the past few seasons with Peterborough so we can expect the Posh boss to set his stall out in an attacking manner as well in this cup tie in an effort to progress once again.

Similarly to Mansfield, Peterborough have taken by far the highest number of shots in League One. They are up to 118 in their 8 matches, the next highest is Charlton at 89, so there is clear daylight there. They also top the charts for xG generated, albeit not for goals scored, trailing Barnsley and Wigan in this metric.

So this is a clash of the two most shot-happy sides in the bottom two divisions, in a cup tie, with two attacking managers at the helm. The price of 1.75 on over 2.5 goals looks very tempting indeed.

The Vale hierarchy must be commended judging by the early trajectory of the club this season. There had been fears that the club might slip backward with the poor form shown at the end of 2022/23 and the departure of Darrell Clarke, but manager Andy Crosby, and, especially the recruitment team, have done a great job.

Vale sit 2nd in the league for volume of shots taken, though only mid-table for xG. However, this is obviously in League One, a league above Sutton United.

Sutton have had a really poor start to the season and sit at the bottom of the Football League. Whilst one would expect them to eventually turn this around and steer clear of trouble, there must be slight concerns at this stage of the season. These concerns could lead to Sutton taking their eye off the ball in this match.

This is a League One team in good form against a League Two team in poor form. The other encouraging thing for this addition to the accumulator is that the Port Vale defence has excellent control of their own penalty box. The pitch control diagrams of League One available via Opta Analyst demonstrate that Vale give up the flanks but are in control of their box. This will help massively against a direct, physical Sutton attack.

Port Vale to emerge victorious at 1.70 is the play.

The depth of squad that Burnley have been able to gather over the last couple of seasons is really going to help them in this fixture. Some key players in their Championship triumph last season have been slightly pushed out of the first XI in the Premier League but will be expected to get a start in this match.

Salford have not had the start that they would have been expecting. The Ammies are sitting in 21st and they have lost their key forward Callum Hendry to a serious injury. The pressure is on Neil Wood and, unfortunately for him and Salford fans, their performance and result at the weekend was not what was required, losing 3-2 to expected strugglers Harrogate Town.

The pattern of this match is expected to be lots of Burnley possession and high-pressing. They dominated the Championship last season with this tactic and the quality of their players should see them impose themselves over Salford, who would usually attempt to play in this way as well.

Burnley will likely have the lion’s share of possession, territory, shots, and xG. The higher quality of forward players should be expected to take at least one or two of their chances as well, whether Salford get any chances at all is a potential source of debate. In these circumstances, Burnley seem a solid choice for the accumulator.