Chesterfield will kick off their 2025/26 Carabao Cup campaign this evening at the SMH Group Stadium against local rivals Mansfield Town.
The Spireites will look to progress to round two of this competition for the first time since the 2006/07 season.
This is also the first time a Carabao Cup tie will be played at home since 2014/15, when Huddersfield Town provided the opposition.
The Spireites have had the better start in the league compared to tonight’s opponents, beating Barrow and Cheltenham Town, scoring three and keeping two clean sheets.
Mansfield have failed to pick up a point from their opening two fixtures, losing to both Burton Albion and League Two champions Doncaster Rovers.
In the spotlight
Will Evans is in his second season at Mansfield after transferring from Newport County last Summer.
Making 40 appearances, Evans chipped in with 14 goals and two assists for the Stags in League One last season.
This record made Evans Mansfield’s top scorer of the campaign. The striker will be looking to better that record to retain the top scorer title and aid his side’s survival bid.
The gaffer’s record
Whilst in charge of the Spireites, Paul Cook has faced Mansfield three times – winning, drawing and losing once, all in the 2013/14 season.
The victory came in the EFL Trophy after Gary McSheffrey scored the only goal as the Spireites made their way to the final, before losing 3-1 to Peterborough United at Wembley.
During his time managing Portsmouth, Cook faced Mansfield on four occasions, drawing twice and winning twice. Spireites coach and ex-player, Gary Roberts, scored in a 4-0 win in November 2016.
Man in the middle
The referee is Adam Herczeg, assisted by Andrew Fox, Darren Williams and fourth official Christopher Husband.
Herczeg has taken charge of six Chesterfield games in his career with the most recent being a 2-1 loss at Bradford City last December.
In his career, Herczeg has shown 508 yellow cards and ten red cards in 188 games – an average of 2.70 yellow cards per game.
Danny Webb’s pre-match thoughts
“I don’t need to try and big it up to all the supporters, do I? It has been seven years since we played them last, and they won that game. So, it’d be nice to not only beat our rivals, but get our own back on a team that beat us last time we played.
“It’s going to be a really, really good atmosphere, and probably a much better atmosphere than it would be at any other Carabao Cup match in the country.”
