Doncaster Rovers head into Wednesday night’s Carabao Cup tie with back-to-back away wins without conceding in the competition to reach this third round stage.
In one of the biggest upsets in this season’s tournament, they thumped Championship frontrunners Middlesbrough 4-0 at the Riverside in round one with Spurs loanee Damola Ajayi opening his Rovers account that night and followed that up with a 2-0 defeat away to Accrington Stanley.
Midfielder Ben Close leads the goalscoring charts in the competition this term, one of 14 players to have scored twice as he netted in both games, while fellow midfielder Owen Bailey is currently top scorer in League One having scored five times. Donny captain Bailey leads the way with headed goals (three) in the division as well, and also scored against Accrington in the Carabao Cup.
However, the Yorkshire outfit head into this encounter having suffered consecutive league defeats, going down 2-1 at home to AFC Wimbledon at the weekend after a 3-0 reverse at Wigan Athletic. Of their three league defeats this term, they’ve failed to score in two of them, also going down 2-0 at Huddersfield Town.
Despite this recent dip in league form, last season's League Two champions have made a promising start to life in the third tier with victories over Exeter City, Mansfield Town, Port Vale, Rotherham and current table toppers Bradford City as well as a solitary draw against Wycombe Wanderers. They also beat Everton Under-21s late on in their EFL Trophy opener at the start of this month.
This evening's game (kick-off 7.45pm UK) will be the 234th League Cup tie in our history. To date, we’ve won 135 of those, losing 110 and have scored 919 goals compared to 553 conceded.
Rovers manager Grant McCann on their trip to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium...
"We're really looking forward to the game and hopefully we can go there and give a good account of ourselves.
"We're playing against a top, top team and a top manager. Looking at their team that didn't play against Brighton every single one of them are internationals. It's going to be an almighty task. Nobody in the country will give us any hope of going there and doing anything. There's no pressure at all on us and hopefully we play our game and see how it goes.
"We have a certain way that we like to play and we'll continue to do that but we know we're coming up against top players where the tiniest mistake will be punished. We want to put a show on, playing in a top, top stadium and I'm really looking forward to the challenge."
McCann on Thomas Frank's journey...
"It doesn't surprise me. I remember playing against his Brentford side when I was at Hull. I remember going into the office for a beer after one game with him and he was just a genuine guy. I've kept in touch a wee bit with him on and off over the years and he was speaking to me about signing Keane Lewis-Potter (from Hull) at the Football League awards recently.
"So he's a really good guy and has a really good way about him and his teams are exciting to watch. And it looks like he's changed his style slightly in terms of how he plays from a 3-5-2 at Brentford to more of a 4-3-3 and expansive at Tottenham and that shows his capabilities and that he can adapt to what he's got."
Head-to-head
Our record against Doncaster Rovers:
Games Played: 9
Wins: 6
Defeats: 1
Draws: 2
Goals Scored: 24
Goals Conceded: 8
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