Stevenage FC

Weather Forecast: Light rain shower, 20°c

Referee: P Miller (County Durham)

Stevenage kick off their 2012/13 season with a home draw against AFC Wimbledon in the first round of the newly named league cup competition. 

AFC Wimbledon advanced to the third round of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy on penalties against Boro last October after the original game ended in a 2-2 draw. Lawrie Wilson gave the visitors an early lead only for a Sam Hatton penalty and a Rashid Yussuff strike to turn the tables in favour of the home side. Mark Roberts then struck a contender for goal of the season with a fantastic volley in the 90th minute to equalise only for Wimbledon to win 4-3 on penalties.

Boro: Julian, Henry, Ashton, Roberts, Laird (Walker), Wilson, Mousinho, Bostwick, Shroot (Charles); Reid, Beardsley (Harrison)

Subs not used: Day, Edwards

Stevenage have an almost full strength team available for this game and there could be as many as seven competitive debuts. David Gray, James Dunne, Anthony Grant, Filipe Morais, Greg Tansey and Marcus Haber are likely to start with Bondz N’Gala also set to play alongside Mark Roberts if Jon Ashton is unfit. Lucas Akins, Anthony Furlonge and Steve Arnold could be those joining pre-season goal machine Robin Shroot on the bench. Matt Ball is unavailable for the game after being called up to represent Northern Ireland Under 21s.

AFC Wimbledon have doubts over Curtis Osano and Louis Harris who both missed their final pre-season game against Portsmouth.

They say results during pre-season aren’t that important and many Dons fans will be hoping their team can hit the ground running after an indifferent summer which has seen Terry Brown’s men win just twice from eight friendlies. After a 7-0 home thumping by Reading, the Dons responded with consecutive wins over Maidenhead United (3-1) and Bognor Regis Town (2-0) before losing 2-1 at Woking. Since then they’ve drawn 0-0 at Eastbourne Borough and suffered defeats against Preston (4-1), a West Ham XI (2-4) and most recently Portsmouth (0-2).

Seb Brown; Curtis Osano, Mat Mitchel-King, Pim Balkenstein, Warren Cummings; Christian Jolley, Louis Harris, Sammy Moore, Brendan Kiernan; Jack Midson, Luke Moore

Subs from: Jim Fenlon, Byron Harrison, Frankie Merrifield, Angus MacDonald

Stevenage could see as many as five former players lining up against them in this game. Stacy Long arrived at The Cherry Red Records Stadium this summer after making 88 appearances and scoring 10 times for Boro since joining in the summer of 2009. The versatile midfielder will probably be best remembered for his deflected efforts against both Newcastle in the FA Cup and Accrington in the League Two playoffs, both of which lead to famous wins.

Sammy Moore made 11 starts and one sub appearance for Boro in 2008 under Peter Taylor before moving on to become key members of successful Dover and AFC Wimbledon teams.

Jack Midson has enjoyed a decent career since being released by Boro as a youngster. The now 28-year old made 10 appearances for Boro and went out on loan a number of times between 2001 and 2003 before moving on to Arlesey Town. Successful spells at Bishop’s Stortford and Histon earned him a move to Oxford where he was part of their team which won promotion back to the Football League. Last summer he joined the Dons where he found the back of the net 20 times during 2011/12, including 18 in League 2.

Byron Harrison spent just a year at Stevenage after arriving from Carshalton Athletic in January 2011 but scored 10 goals in 22 starts, with a further 24 sub appearances. He signed for Terry Brown’s men back in January for a five-figure sum and has scored twice in 19 appearances to date.

Finally, whilst not playing in a competitive game for Boro, Curtis Osano did feature for 45 minutes in a pre-season friendly against Carshalton last summer. He then went on to play 28 games for non-league Luton before signing for Wimbledon this summer.

Jack Midson notched 18 times for AFC Wimbledon in his debut season at the club and will be a threat with his height and ability to find the back of the net. The experienced 28-year old has scored goals wherever he’s been in the past few years and the Dons will be hoping he can fire them further up the league table in their second Football League season.

• History will be made on Tuesday as neither team has yet won a league cup game since their respective promotions. Boro lost 2-1 to Portsmouth in 2010 and 4-3 to Peterborough in 2011, whilst the Dons lost 3-2 at Crawley in their debut Football League season.

• AFC Wimbledon’s only previous visit to The Lamex Stadium was in December 2009, where they secured a point after a 0-0 draw.

• If he starts this game then Mark Roberts will be making his 70th consecutive start for Boro and his 190th in total for the club. The last game he missed was the 1-0 defeat to Hereford in March 2011 through suspension, following a dismissal at Torquay the previous weekend.