Aston Villa to face Wycombe Wanderers in Carabao Cup third round

Aston Villa have been drawn to play against League One side Wycombe Wanderers at Adams Park in the third round of the Carabao Cup. The tie is likely to take place in the week commencing 23rd September as Villa will play their first Champions League fixture the week prior.

Following the news, Wycombe Wanderers players were filmed reacting to the news that they would be facing Villa whilst watching the draw on a mobile phone on the bus back to Wycombe following their second round victory over Swansea City.

An deeper look into Villa's third round opponents

Wycombe Wanderers, nicknamed The Chairboys, were founded in 1887. The nickname is a result of the fact that Wycombe was once considered the world's chair-making capital in the 19th century.

Wycombe have had some successful times over the years and a few famous faces have played for or managed the club. Former Villa boss Martin O'Neill was manager of the club for five years between 1990 and 1995 bringing huge success for the club. Under O'Neills management Wycombe gained promotion to the Football League for the first time and secured consecutive promotions to the third tier. Another former Villa boss, Paul Lambert, managed the club from 2006 to 2008 and led the team to the League Cup semi-finals.

Wycombe have been a team that has yo-yoed between divisions in recent times and achieved promotion to the Championship for the first time in 2020. Unfortunately for the club this came during the lockdown season so fans were unable to be a part of their Championship journey under Gareth Ainsworth and the Chairboys were relegated and not been back since.

Now in League One, Wycombe sit 16th in the table after losing their first two matches of the season against Wrexham and Birmingham before beating Rotherham 2-0 on Saturday. They have progressed to the third round following wins against Northampton Town in round one and Swansea City in round two.

Head-to-Head record

Aston Villa and Wycombe Wanderers have met just four times in the 21st century.

Back in 2003, Aston Villa beat Wycombe 5-0 at Adams Park in the League Cup. A hat-trick from Villa hero Juan Pablo Angel and goals from Peter Whittingham and Darius Vassell gave the visitors a comfortable victory.

Two years later the two clubs met once again in the League Cup and Villa once again came away with a huge victory. Wycombe were 3-1 up at half time and a cup upset certainly looked on the cards. However, Villa ran riot in the second half. Goals from Milan Baros, James Milner (2), Gareth Barry (2), Steven Davis and an own goals in that second half meant Villa won 8-3. A crazy game!

The most recent meeting between the two sides came in 2016 in the FA Cup. Again, Wycombe were drawn as the home team and the game was going to be more of a test for Villa during a very difficult period for the club. Wycombe deservedly enforced a replay after a 1-1 draw that saw Villa captain Micah Richards arguing with Aston Villa fans on the sideline. This game was another disastrous afternoon for the club during their relegation season.

Villa scraped through the replay with two late goals from Ciaran Clark and Idrissa Gueye to defeat a spirited League Two side.

The full Carabao Cup third round draw

Liverpool V West Ham

Manchester City V Watford

Arsenal V Bolton

Manchester United V Barnsley

Wycombe V Aston Villa

Coventry V Tottenham

Walsall V Leicester

Brentford V Leyton Orient

Blackpool V Sheffield Wednesday

Preston V Fulham

Everton V Southampton

QPR V Crystal Palace

Stoke V Fleetwood

Brighton V Wolves

AFC Wimbledon V Newcastle

Chelsea V Barrow

UTV