Although the League Cup draw provided us with a rare away trip, one can hardly call it an inconvenience as we are down the road at Doncaster for tonight's second round clash KO 7:45pm.

Given Doncaster's MP and Leader of the Opposition Ed Milliband is a self-confessed Leeds fan and the fact that we have been allocated just over 4000 tickets with sales to us available on the night, we could be forgiven in thinking it will be something of a home from home at the Keepmoat tonight and hopefully we will continue our excellent run against our neighbours from down the A1.

Two years ago, two Ramon Nunez strikes on this ground took us through to round three and in October that year, we eased to a 3-0 win in the league fixture, much talked about man-of-the-moment Ross McCormack scoring a sensational overhead strike. One of the big questions is will McCormack start against the club he played for briefly on loan? Despite speculation linking him with Middlesbrough going off the boil somewhat, it will be inevitable that the mischief makers will read more from the team-sheet alone of McCormack fails to start. My hunch is McCormack will warm the bench, for insurance purposes, by this I mean he will be used only if we are struggling like in round one against Chesterfield.

As well as confirming new-boy Scott Wootton will make his full debut, Brian McDermott has hinted El Hadji Diouf will be involved and I wouldn't be surprised to see him start. I think Dioufy will get a rough ride from the locals given his decision last year to walk away from the Keepmoat and join us.

My belief is we will see Zac Thompson involved again, as well as Michael Brown and Adam Drury. I'm going for Jason Pearce partnering Wootton in the central defence with Dominic Poleon up front.

For the visitors, Paul Keegan will be cursing the absurditities of the bizarre Football League rule book. Doncaster's visit to Charlton last Saturday was of course abandoned due to freakish weather in south London with Rovers leading 3-1. Obviously the result is chalked off but Keegan's red card still stands so he will be out of the side managed by one-time Leeds forward Paul Dickov.

Doncaster have made an encouraging start to life back in the Championship, but Leeds certainly have the Indian sign over their local rivals, you have to go back to the League One play-off final in 2008 for the last time the Reds beat the Whites. However I think like against Chesterfield we will narrowly slip through to the next round with a 2-1 win like last time.

Photo: Action Images

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