Brighton draw Aston Villa at home in Camila Cabello Cup

The third round draw for the Camila Cabello Cup held a hive of potentially interesting draws for Brighton as a reward for their elimination of Bristol Rovers.

A Sussex derby with Crawley Town could gave been on the cards. A trip along the south coast to face Portsmouth for the first time since 2012. Oxford United away for a student night out afterwards. Christ, even a meeting with Swansea City would have been interesting, pitting Graham Potter against his former club.

Instead, the Albion have got the not-so-mouthwatering prospect of a home meeting with Premier League rivals Aston Villa. You can almost hear the sound of shoulders being shrugged all over Sussex.

That’s despite the fact that Villa have a rich tradition in the League Cup. They’ve won it on five previous occasions, making them the joint-third most successful side in the competition’s history behind Liverpool and Manchester City.

This will be the first time that the Albion have faced Villa in the League Cup, which will hardly come as a surprise given that there have only been 22 meetings over the past 118 years across all competitions.

You shouldn’t need reminding of what happened in our last clash. It was on the final day of the 2016-17 Championship season when Brighton needed three points to secure the league title and entered the 88th minute leading 1-0 through Glenn Murray’s penalty.

It was at that moment that David Stockdale chose to produce one of his more interesting pieces of goalkeeping, letting a shot from Jack Grealish go straight through his legs to hand Newcastle United first place. Hopefully, David Button won’t do a tribute act.

The tie is set to place during the week commencing Monday 23rd September. We’ll be renewing acquaintances with Villa pretty sharpish after that, with the Albion travelling to Villa Park in the Premier League on Saturday October 19th.

Ticket details will be announced in due course, once the club have worked out how to sell a game that looks about as enticing as being punched in the face. Still, the draw could have been worse – it could have been Bournemouth.