By Gary Fulcher.

Liverpool play their second home game in the space of three days when League Two side Carlisle Utd travel to Anfield for a League Cup third round tie on Wednesday evening; 8pm kick off UK time. This will be the ninth competitive meeting between the two sides and the third in this competition. The Blues knocked out Chesterfield 3-1 at home in the first round and Queens Park Rangers 2-1 away in the second to reach the third round for the first time since 2012, where they lost at home to Spurs 0-3.

Carlisle sit 10th in League Two drawing three of their opening four games before winning three in a row against Hartlepool, Barnet and Dagenham. York City ended the Blues’ winning sequence securing a 2-2 at Bootham Crescent on Saturday. While Liverpool have struggled for goals this season, no team has scored more (17) or conceded more (17) than Carlisle in any of England’s top four divisions and they have yet to keep a clean sheet from the 11 matches played in all competitions prior to this tie.

Liverpool’s overall record against Carlisle Utd (all competitions):

League Cup

P: 2 W: 1 D: 1 L: 0 F: 6 : A 2

FA Cup

P: 4 W: 3 D: 1 L: 0 F: 8 A: 0

League

P: 2 W: 2 D: 0 L: 0 F: 3 A: 0

Liverpool first faced Carlisle during the 1972/73 season when they were drawn against each other in the second round of the League Cup at Brunton Park. The Cumbrians competed in the old Second Division back then and acquitted themselves well against Bill Shankly’s Liverpool with Les O’Neill scoring a 72nd minute equaliser – cancelling out Kevin Keegan’s first half opener – to force a replay. Liverpool had opened the season with four wins from the first five league games but went into the Carlisle match on the back of two consecutive league defeats.

The rest of this preview is for subscribers only.

[ttt-subscribe-article]