Southend v Bristol City must have been in with a shout, but Sky probably wanted to make sure that both teams turned out
Chesterfield and plain old Stevenage, (no 'Borough' next season!), will be facing the Shrimpers first time around next season on October 9 and November 23, both games away, and the Shrimpers faithful will be able to give them a look over when Sky Sports show both their first round Carling Cup games live.
Amazingly, Stevenage were four leagues apart from opponents Portsmouth at the start of last term, and after their promotion from the Blue Square Premier it will be their debut in the competition.
Shrimpers have never seen the Hertfordshire club's ground at Broadhall Way, previously home to Stevenage Athletic (other than friendlies). After the former town club went bankrupt, the stadium was not used for three years. However, the newly-formed Stevenage Borough moved into Broadhall Way in 1980 as a result of the council re-purchasing the stadium.
Is that our future, without the help from the local council!
Stevenage boss since 2008 is Graham Westley with his assistant John Dreyer.
Graham is in his second spell with the Boro, still their nickname as far as I know, after a long playing and management career in non-league football where he was also manager at Rushden & Diamonds.
Meanwhile, Chesterfield face Championship side Middlesbrough in a repeat of their 1997 FA Cup semi-final where the Spireites drew level with just 65 seconds of extra time remaining on the clock, Jamie Hewitt the hero that day.
In fact, refree David Elleray made two errors that robbed the basement club of a deserved victory that day.
First, with Chesterfield leading 2-1 with 21 minutes left, Jonathon Howard did a 'Geoff Hurst', and TV replays in this case clearly showed the ball had crossed the line as it bounced back down off the bar.
Then Boro went up at the other end and after a clear obstruction outside the area Elleray gave a penalty and the game was level.
Expect to see the goals from that match replayed on a regular basis before the latest tie.
They have met in the Carling Cup since but no one talks about that, Boro winning without incident.
Former Oldham boss John Sheridan is in charge at Chesterfield after being given a three year contract in June 2009, his assistant is Tommy Wright.
For the old hands at Southend, or those who went to the Freddie Eastwood show where we won 4-3 the last time we played them in February 2006, will expect the match to take place at Saltergate and it's 8,504 capacity.
No longer. This game will give us all a chance to see their new £13m b2net Stadium for the first time, which holds 10,600.
Who knows, we could have a chance to shout nasty things at Nicky Bailey all over again, and Gary Hooper might also be in a Boro shirt.
Monday, August 9th; Stevenage v Portsmouth (19.45).
Tuesday, August 10th; Chesterfield v Middlesbrough (19.45).