Carabao Cup update

We have been drawn as the home team against Watford in round three of the Carabao Cup.

The fixture is scheduled to take place in the week commencing 24 September.

As a result of both our new stadium and Wembley being unavailable during this week, we have applied to the EFL board for special dispensation to play this tie at Stadium MK.

The Club was required to submit its application prior to this evening's draw and the board of the EFL will now consider our request at its next meeting on Thursday 6 September.

We appreciate that Stadium MK may not be an ideal destination for every fan to get to on a weekday evening, however the Club felt it would not be beneficial to request a reverse of the fixture as it would have resulted in no more than a 10 per cent allocation of tickets for our supporters at the venue of our opponents. In contrast, we shall have a ticket allocation of up to 90 per cent at a neutral venue, ensuring greater access for our fans.

Consideration was given to a number of different football stadia and for a variety of reasons – capacity, availability, facilities, accessibility, pitch quality and clubs still being in the competition themselves – it was simply not possible to secure a neutral venue within the M25.

We are extremely conscious of having to ask our supporters to attend home matches at more than one venue and apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Further details regarding the scheduling of our tie, along with ticketing, will follow in due course.