The Swans and the Pilgrims meet in the League Cup 2nd round tonight (Swansea.com 7:45pm) with the potential of a big draw for the winners in the third round. Both clubs have heavy interest from owners in the USA, the Pilgrims need a boost after a slow start to their League One campaign.
This is the Swans fourth home game in a row, two in the league and two in this competition. They remain undefeated from those previous games with two wins and a draw. Despite being favourites the Swans will have to keep one eye clearly on having a strong bench in case the need arises. It’s a free hit for Plymouth that’s for sure.
With American influences at both clubs, Brett Cravatt and Jason Cohen are the majority shareholders at the Swans and at Plymouth Simon Hallett is in the ascendancy in his role. Both clubs have LLC interests in the USA. However, it could be stated that Hallett has overall control due to influence in Argyles LLC ‘Argyle Green’ The Swans LLC remains a secret …
⚽️ Head-to-Head & Recent Form
Recent encounters favour Swansea: They’ve won five of the last six meetings (all competitions) against Plymouth.
2024–25 season highlight: Swansea secured a 3-0 win in April 2025.
Plymouth’s recent Cup struggles: Plymouth have progressed beyond this stage only once in the past six seasons; their last second-round win was in 2007–08.
⚽️ Referee: Elliot Bell will officiate. This is his second Swansea match—the first was a Championship game last season. He has experience in international exchanges, including matches in Japan. Assistants: Harley McKittick and Ross Murphy. Fourth official: Matthew Russell.
Bell had a shocker on the weekend, truly abysmal, highlighted by Sky Sports, Ref Watch.
Morgan Whittaker (below) has played for both clubs, he scored a hat trick the mast time the sides met in this competition four years ago. Behaviour and attitude were not on Morgan’s side and a circular to all EFL clubs enabled the Swans to get a fee for Whittaker. With decent sell on. The details of this game are below.
Head Coach, Alan Sheehan will most certainly make changes, Kaelan Casey trained in a formation earlier today that reflects his inclusion. We can expect Melker Widell and Marko Stamenic to start, and we really need to see Zân Vipotnik selected to start so he can hopefully carry on from his goal on Saturday. Talking about this fixture Sheehan said, "We will consider whether to make changes, because we want to go and be competitive in every game. We also want to give minutes to players who deserve them and are pushing for them but there will be no handouts. We will be as competitive as we possibly can be. It's one game at a time and we know it will be no easy task. We have looked a strong team in periods in games, so we want to be consistent and create that kind of culture where we can become a good team.”
Yes, there will be some carefully thought out changes for sure.
On Plymouth they will wear their home green strip tonight, Wales U19 international, Freddie Issaka will return to Plymouth Argyle's squad tonight. Club captain, Jon Edwards is back, but Brendan Galloway and Kornel Szucs haven’t travelled with the squad. goalkeeper Conor Hazard, Jack MacKenzie and Jamie Paterson are also out.
Tom Cleverley, Argyle Head Coach: "Since Sheehan has gone in there it's a little bit more tempo, high intensity football than the controlled, measured builds of Swansea of the years gone by. No matter how many changes he makes, they will be quality. You look at the lads they brought on against Watford, I thought they made a massive impact on the game so it will be a very tough test. We will go there with a young team and hopefully with a fearless nature and show a really good version of ourselves. It was a thoroughly enjoyable performance against QPR in the last round and a lot of the players should take confidence from that."
Swansea City: Andy Fisher; Sam Parker, Kaelan Casey, Cameron Burgess (captain), Josh Tymon; Marko Stamenić, Jay Fulton, Melker Widell; Zeidane Inoussa, Jisung Eom, Žan Vipotnik.
Substitutes: Paul Farman, Josh Key, Ben Cabango, Malick Yalcouye, Goncalo Franco, Liam Cullen, Bobby Wales, Ethan Galbraith, Ollie Cooper.