EFL Cup PREVIEW 1 Aug 2026: Two League Cup finalists, no major trophy between them

Tranmere Rovers host Rochdale at Prenton Park in the first round. Between them the two clubs have reached a League Cup final twice and won nothing at all: neither has ever lifted a major trophy, and Rochdale have never played above the third tier in their history.

Rochdale's final came in 1962, when they became the first club from the bottom division of the Football League to reach the final of a major competition, losing 4-0 on aggregate to Norwich City over two legs. Tranmere's was in 2000, the last League Cup final played at the old Wembley. Matt Elliott put Leicester City ahead, Clint Hill was sent off for a second booking, David Kelly equalised for the ten men, and Elliott scored again three minutes later.

They arrive from opposite directions. Rochdale are back in the Football League after three years out of it, having finished second in the National League last season with a club record 106 points and then beaten Boreham Wood on penalties at Wembley on 10 May, 2-2 after extra time. Tranmere finished 21st in League Two on 41 points, two clear of relegation, and were kept up by Pete Wild after Andy Crosby was sacked in March.

Both have new managers and heavily rebuilt squads. Darrell Clarke took over at Tranmere on 26 May, having been sacked by Bristol Rovers in December after a club record tenth straight league defeat; his most conspicuous signing is Tom Ince from Watford, on 27 July. Ian Watson was appointed by Rochdale on 9 June after Jimmy McNulty, who took them up, left for Stockport County, and has since signed seven players, most of them for undisclosed fees rather than free.

One Tranmere record still stands over the whole competition and everything else here: 13-4 against Oldham Athletic on Boxing Day 1935, Bunny Bell scoring nine. The seventeen-goal aggregate remained a Football League record more than seventy years later.