Lifelong West Ham fan Paul Baker says it’s “win-win” for him after Cheltenham Town were drawn against the Londoners in the second round of the EFL Carabao Cup last night.

Cheltenham’s chairman lived the dream when the League Two club played the East End side at Upton Park in the same competition four years ago.

Now the Premier League big boys are heading to Gloucestershire on Wednesday 23rd August and Baker, who has done so much for Cheltenham over the past 20 years or so, is already counting down the days, hours and minutes.

“It couldn’t be better,” he enthused. “It’s a fantastic draw, it’s incredible. As you can imagine it’s been pretty manic since the draw was made.

“We’ve had a disappointing pre-season but now everyone wants to watch Cheltenham Town again. It’s brilliant.”

Cheltenham booked their place in the second round of this season’s competition with a remarkable 4-3 win at Oxford United in midweek. After trailing 3-1 at half-time they hit back to win 4-3 in extra time with Mohamed Eisa grabbing the winner.

“It’s a great reward for the players, the fans and everyone at the club,” Baker said. “It’s great news for the club financially and I couldn’t be happier. I can’t wait.”

Cheltenham put up a brave performance before losing 2-1 at West Ham in 2013/14 and the long-serving chairman will be a looking for a similar performance and an event better result later this month.

So, will Baker be wearing one of those ‘half and half’ football scarves that have become so popular in recent seasons showing the colours of both teams on match-days?

“No, no way,” he laughed. “I’ll definitely be wearing my Cheltenham Town scarf although in many ways it is a win-win for me.”

Last night’s draw saw West Ham’s name drawn out of the hat before Cheltenham’s but because the Hammers’ London Stadium is still in athletics mode at the date the tie will be played the Londoners were given special dispensation by the EFL Board to play the fixture at the opposition’s venue.
As agreed with the EFL board in advance, West Ham will give up their share of the gate receipts at Whaddon Road, which has a capacity of just above 7,000.

The trip to Gloucestershire will be West Ham’s third of four successive away games. They begin their Premier League campaign at Manchester United on Sunday before heading to the other end of the country to play Southampton on Saturday 19th August – a game that was switched because of the unavailability of the London Stadium.

The following week they head back up north to play Newcastle and they don’t play their first home game until after the international break when newly promoted Huddersfield head to the capital on Monday 11th September.

As you’d expect, West Ham have been busy in the transfer market this summer with big-money captures Javier Hernandez and Marko Arnautovic signalling their lofty intent this season.

Throw in loan signing Joe Hart, Pablo Zabaleta, who they got on a free, and the potential capture of Sporting Lisbon’s £25 million-plus rated midfielder William Carvalho, and it’s clear that the powers-that-be at the London club are not entertaining another misfiring campaign like last time out.

How many of those big names are on show in Cheltenham, of course, remains to be seen but manager Slaven Bilic is under pressure to take the club to the next level and he won’t want to be leaving Gloucestershire with anything other than a ‘W’.

Even if West Ham do rest some of their bigger names they will still be able to field a side packed with Premier League experience with the likes of goalkeeper Adrián, James Collins, Aaron Creswell, Sam Byram, Edmilson Fernandes, Andre Ayew, Robert Snodgrass – if he’s still at the club – and possibly Mark Noble all likely to be in the running to feature.

One Irons player Cheltenham fans will be hoping to see is Michail Antonio, who enjoyed a loan spell with Cheltenham in 2009.

The 27-year-old winger has been a revelation since joining the club a couple of years ago, showing the kind of form that has been good enough to earn him a couple of England squad call-ups.

He is currently recovering from a hamstring injury that he picked up towards the end of last season and will miss the game at Old Trafford at the weekend. Bilic remains hopeful that he may be available to play at Southampton the following Saturday.