Football
ESPN staff 7y

Sunderland meet Bury in Carabao Cup first round, Forest Green face MK Dons

Championship club Sunderland will travel to League One side Bury in the first round of the newly renamed League Cup, the Carabao Cup.

Sunderland, relegated from the Premier League last season, will come up against Bury in the week commencing Aug. 7.

Hull City and Middlesbrough, who were also relegated from the English top flight last term, have been given a bye to the second round as they finished above Sunderland in the 2016-17 Premier League table.

Elsewhere, Forest Green, who were promoted from the National League to League Two last season, will host League One outfit MK Dons in their maiden appearance in the competition.

League Two side Lincoln, who reached last term's FA Cup quarterfinals, are away to Rotherham.

The draw for the first round had seem some confusion, with Charlton being drawn away to Exeter but then also appearing a second time on a fixtures graphic with a home tie against Cheltenham.

The summary graphics also showed AFC Wimbledon playing Swindon, despite both being unseeded teams, while Forest Green posted clarification on their official Twitter feed that they would play MK Dons at home, rather than Wolves away as the graphic suggested.

A spokesperson for the EFL confirmed to the Press Association there was no error with the actual draw process, but said the accompanying summary graphic was incorrect.

Teams were regionalised into groups for north and south, then split into two pots for seedings, with a separate draw to determine who would play at home.

First round ties to be played the week of Aug. 7:

Information from the Press Association was used in this report.

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