Plymouth Argyle will be hoping to keep their cup form going as they take on Norwich City U21 in the first round of EFL Trophy fixtures at Home Park (7:45pm KO). 

The newly-promoted League One side secured an impressive 3-2 victory over Queens Park Rangers in the Carabao Cup on Saturday, and they will fancy their chances against a Norwich U21 side who failed to progress beyond the group stages of this competition last season. 

Team news

Neither side has reported any fresh injury concerns ahead of the fixture. 

But with three games in the space of a week from tomorrow, Plymouth are likely to rest some of their key players before the start of their league campaign at home to Blackpool on Saturday. Speaking to the club earlier, assistant manager Steven Schumacher claimed that rotation would be key if the squad was to remain as strong as possible.

With this in mind, there could well be chances for some players to stake their claim for a place in the starting XI. Young first-team squad members such as Tyler Coombes, Daniel Law and Adam Randell may well be viewing tomorrow's game as a chance to impress manager Ryan Lowe. 

The Canaries however have seen several of their young team sent on loan over the summer. Goalkeeper Archie Mair, new striker Sebastian Soto, midfielder Daniel Adshead and several others will all be playing their football elsewhere this season as they look to gain experience.

However, of those who have stayed in Norfolk, it is likely that there will be a return for several of Norwich's youngsters who featured in the competition last year, including Rob Nizet, Saul Milovanovic and Shane Hutchinson. 

Predicted line-ups

Plymouth Argyle: Coombes, Watts, Canavan, Law, Edwards, Reeves, Mayor, MacLeod, Randall, Telford, Moore.

Norwich City U21: Barden, Nizet, Brown, Lomas, Richards, Hondermarck, Milovanovic, Martin, Dennis, Gilmour, Hutchinson.

Head-to-head and form guide

Plymouth and Norwich have not faced each other in a competitive fixture since 2009. Despite Norwich doing the double over Argyle during the campaign, they could not avoid relegation to the third tier, whilst Plymouth eventually finished just one place above the relegation zone, albeit with a five-point buffer. 

Ahead of the victory over QPR last weekend, Plymouth won two of their three pre-season friendlies, with 2-1 wins over non-league side Plymouth Parkway and Forest Green Rovers, followed by a 0-1 defeat against Championship outfit Middlesbrough. 

Their record in the EFL Trophy is, however, not their most eye-catching. The Pilgrims have never progressed beyond the group stages since it began to include 16 "invited" teams in 2016, including a fourth-placed finish in 2018-19 in which they failed to score a goal in their three games. 

Norwich's academy side were unbeaten in two pre-season friendlies, following a 0-0 draw with League 2 side Portsmouth and a 1-0 victory over newly-promoted National League side Kings Lynn. 

In their debut season in the competition last year, Carrow Road's young guns finished third in Group J, with defeats by Oxford United and Portsmouth enough to send the Canaries out, despite victory over Crawley Town. 

They perhaps have an even tougher task this year. With competition rules saying "invited" sides must play all fixtures away from home, this match alone represents a 680-mile round trip. Future long distance trips to Newport County and Cheltenham - both on the opposite side of the country - could well pose a challenge which Norwich's youngsters will do well to overcome, before a ball is kicked. 

"There will be no letting up from us"

Ahead of the match, Schumacher - who will be in the dugout in place of head coach Lowe tomorrow night - spoke of how his side 

"We don't go into any competition thinking 'we're not really bothered about this game'. It gives people an opportunity. The EFL Trophy is a good chance for everybody to stake their claim to be in the side, so we want to go out there and win. We will be putting on a strong team and we want to, first of all, perform properly and to the standards that are now expected. There will be no letting up from us.

"We know that they [Norwich] are a really strong academy. They have produced some really good, homegrown players over the last few years that are now in their first team. We expect them to have talented individuals that will try and play football, I think that's their philosophy. They try and play the right way, and we are expecting a tough game."

How to watch

Although the game is not being shown live, supporters can watch the game on the clubs' respective streaming services. 

More details are available here. 

Kick-off is at 7:45pm BST.