And Owen Coyle hopes to avoid adding to that list of casualties tonight as his side entertain League 1 leaders Oldham Athletic at Turf Moor.

Last season, the FA Cup, although won by Portsmouth, was all about the Championship, with losing finalists Cardiff, Barnsley and West Brom all making the last four.

However, the tables have been turned in the Carling Cup this term, with Yeovil winning at Charlton, Luton seeing off Plymouth, Crewe upsetting Barnsley, Blackpool embarrassed at Macclesfield, Norwich bowing out to MK Dons, Doncaster losing at Notts County, and Sheffield Wednesday edged out in a south Yorkshire derby with Rotherham.

John Sheridan, a former Republic of Ireland international colleague of Coyle's, brings his Latics side to Turf Moor with four wins in four games to top the table and progress past Rochdale in round one, and Coyle anticipates a tough night's work: "We realise a number of Championship sides were knocked out in the last round, and we want to make sure that doesn't happen to us.

"They will be confident, and regardless of what level you play at, if you have that, you feel you can win games.

"We'll just look after ourselves though, knowing we have a building block and a base to build on and move on.

"We have good players at the club, and we want them to show that when they cross the white line, to pass and move that ball, make sure we make no silly mistakes, get in the ascendancy and kick on from there."

Coyle enjoys the cups, as his managerial record north of the border proved.

And his team received great acclaim for their performance against Arsenal in the FA Cup in January.

He looks forward to the challenge, and the possibility of drawing one of the big guns in round three, with the Premier League teams in European competition entering at that stage: "I've always loved cup competitions, they provide prestige, the longer you stay in them, and, equally, financial rewards.

"If we were to progress past Oldham, who's to say you won't pull a plum draw?

"We want to stay in the competition as long as we can.

"We went to the League Cup Final with Bolton in 1995, losing to Liverpool when Steve McManaman scored both goals and Alan Thompson scored for us, and we had a fantastic run in the FA Cup as well.

"People can feel the early rounds are quite tedious, but nothing is further from the truth, that's why we love football, Tuesday nights with the floodlights on, a cup tie and an opportunity to progress and get among the so-called glamour clubs."

Having shifted from a 4-2-3-1 formation to go 4-3-3 at Crystal Palace, Coyle may well use his squad's versatility again tonight: "We're at home, and it may well be that we change the system again, maybe one or two come into your thoughts with it being a home game.

"So we'll look at that accordingly, see who's got a spring in their step in training, and pick the team from there.

"We worked extensively on the defence ahead of the game at Crystal Palace, not just the back four, collectively.

"We had to be seen to be doing something about it, given that we had given up some soft goals, but I thought the players took individual responsibility to go and defend well.

"It's a confidence thing, like strikers scoring goals, if you're not conceding, the defenders feel good about themselves, and they've shown that.

"It probably took a little bit off us in terms of our attacking flair, so it's now about getting that balance, trying to marry that together.

"We've shown when we're focussed and tuned in, we can defend well, but we now have to replicate that again, and get our match-winners involved and get them higher up the pitch to go and cause some damage.

"All the players were prepared to muck in, and they have to be, but although we know they have high levels of fitness, we want them up at the other end.

"We will create opportunities with the players we have."