Home cup tie confirmed for Tuesday night

The visit of MK Dons in the first round of the Carabao Cup has been confirmed for Tuesday August 13, at Vicarage Road, with a 7.45pm kick-off.

Unsurprisingly it isn’t one of the two games selected for live broadcast by Sky Sports on its main channels, which are Sheffield United v Wrexham (Tuesday August 13) and Leeds United v Middlesbrough (Wednesday August 14).

However, for the first time this season, all Carabao Cup matches in every round will be available to watch on the Sky Sports platform via the new Sky Sports+ channel.

Watford’s game with MK Dons is one of 33 first round ties that will be shown live on Sky Sports+.

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In all, 32 of the 35 ties will be played on Tuesday, with only the game at Leeds, Plymouth Argyle v Cheltenham Town and Hull City v Sheffield Wednesday being played on Wednesday night.

The Hornets have bowed out of the Carabao Cup in the first-round stage in each of the last two seasons, losing on penalties at Stevenage last term following a 1-1 draw and being beaten at Vicarage Road by MK Dons in 2022.

Watford have only gone beyond the third round once since 2009, and that was when they lost 2-0 at Everton in the fourth round in the 2019/20 season.

Only one player in the 18-man squad that night – Dan Bachmann – is still at the club.

The last time Watford went any further was in the 2008/09 season, when wins over Bristol Rovers, Darlington, West Ham and Swansea took them to the quarter-finals.

There they were beaten 2-1 at home by Tottenham, despite taking an early lead through Tamas Priskin.

Roman Pavlyuchenko equalised from the penalty spot on the stroke of half-time before Darren Bent scored a 76th-minute winner for Spurs, who had Heurelho Gomes in goal.

A few seasons earlier, under Ray Lewington, the Hornets went all the way to the semi-finals before losing 2-0 on aggregate to Liverpool.