Accrington Stanley v Bradford City: Game management is the key issue for Mark Hughes as Bantams seek to make amends at League Two rival

But it would certainly affect the mood music among sections of supporters at the start of the new season.

League Two success by way of promotion is the barometer upon which the Bantams - and Mark Hughes - will be judged upon.Yet every match, league and cup, still matters, more especially after a deflating defeat, which City suffered at Crawley on Saturday.

There's also the club’s historically poor form in this competition to consider since reaching the final during an unforgettable 2012-13 campaign. In 14 ties since, 10 defeats have been recorded.

Hughes, who won the League Cup three times as a player, said: "It’s a competition that’s important to us and we want to progress.

“It’s not like pre-season and a case of putting minutes into players because they haven’t had as much as other guys have on Saturday afternoon.

“We will go with the strongest team that I can put out.

“We were disappointed last season and want to do better in the cups this time if we can.

“There’s no reason why we can’t achieve that. We’ve just got to make sure the management of how we play within the game is a little bit better than it was against Crawley.

“We made unforced errors at times that put us under pressure. If we can eradicate them out of our play, then I’m sure we’ll be fine.”

City's record at the Wham Stadium is poor in recent times and they have not triumphed in their last six visits in all competitions.

Hughes added: "They’ve obviously come down from League One, so they are a bit of an unknown quantity. We haven’t faced them for a couple of years.

“We’ll see how it goes, but it’s very much our intention to progress if we can.”