Latics to play preliminary League Cup clash against Accrington Stanley

Latics to play preliminary League Cup clash against Accrington Stanley

Oldham Athletic will play Accrington Stanley in a Carabao Cup preliminary round

 

Oldham Athletic will play in a preliminary round of the Carabao Cup in the first week of the new 2025/26 season, against Accrington Stanley.

 

With nine Premier League teams involved in European competitions, the League Cup needs to be balanced to ensure the third round contains 32 teams.

 

Therefore, the EFL have today confirmed the format of the Carabao Cup will be amended to introduce a four-team preliminary qualifying round, to reduce the number of clubs in round one and round two of the competition in order to accommodate all Premier League clubs that will play in European cups in round three.

 

The preliminary round will consist of the two promoted clubs from the National League – Barnet and Latics – and the clubs finishing in 21st and 22nd place in League Two – Accrington Stanley and Newport County.

 

The ties will be regionalised, north and south as per round one, with Oldham playing Accrington – a re-match of their second round meeting in August 2021 – and Barnet playing Newport County.

 

The Carabao Cup Round One Draw will take place live on Sky Sports News at 4:30pm on Thursday 26 June, as part of the EFL’s Fixture Release Day.

 

The Preliminary Round of the competition will also be drawn at this time to determine the home clubs for the two ties.

 

Carabao Cup 2025/26 Round Dates

 

The round dates for the Carabao Cup have been confirmed as the following:

 

• Preliminary Round: w/c 4 August 2025

 

• Round One: w/c 11 August 2025

 

• Round Two: w/c 25 August 2025

 

• Round Three: w/c 15 September and w/c 22 September 2025*

 

• Round Four: w/c 27 October 2025

 

• Round Five: w/c 15 December 2025

 

• Semi-Final First Leg: w/c 12 January 2026

 

• Semi-Final Second Leg: w/c 2 February 2026

 

• Final: Sunday 22 March 2026

 

*Round three will take place on the same basis as 2024/25, with split weeks for those clubs participating in the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League.

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