League 1 Cup first round preview: West Hull v North Wales Crusaders

This is a massive game for community club West Hull and their coach Mark Hewitt knows his players will be up against it.

“North Wales are a quality side but we’re a good amateur side and we’ll go out and give it the best we can,” he said. “It’s nice to be at home and hopefully we can get a crowd down to cheer us on.

“We just want the guys to enjoy themselves and do themselves justice, we’ve put no expectations on them. Everybody expects us to get beat and get beat well but we’re going to give it all we’ve got.”

Crusaders coach Anthony Murray is looking forward to his side’s first competitive game of the new season: “We’ve had a good pre-season, all the preparations have gone as expected,” he said. “We had a full weekend away at the Welsh camp at Deeside in preparation for the match on Saturday.

“Obviously we’ll be giving West Hull the full respect that they deserve. They were champions last year and we’re anticipating a really tough fixture. We are approaching it as if they were a professional side.”