Date: 10th August 2017 at 4:41pm
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With the announcement of the EFL Cup second round draw later this evening, the all important ball numbers have been decided.

The draw will take place on Sky Sports following the culmination of the Bury vs Sunderland tie tonight and with the vast majority of sides knowing their place is booked for the next round, the EFL have now announced the seeds, the regional groups and the ball numbers for the draw.

As usual, Premier League sides not competing in European competition will also enter at the next stage.

The draw will be regionalised to minimise travel time for fans and here are the seeds, non seeds and the ball numbers fans will be looking out for tonight.

With Newport County and West Ham United being given special dispensation to play away irrespective of whether or not they are drawn at home for this round, Newport go into the Northern pot with West Ham being in the Southern pot to ensure they can’t be drawn against each other.

North seeds:
1 – Aston Villa
2 – Burnley
3 – Derby County / Grimsby Town
4 – Huddersfield Town
5 – Hull City
6 – Leeds United
7 – Leicester City
8 – Middlesbrough
9 – Newcastle United
10 – Sheffield Wednesday
11 – Stoke City
12 – West Bromwich Albion
13 – Sunderland / Barnsley*

South seeds:
1 – AFC Bournemouth
2 – Brentford
3 – Brighton & Hove Albion
4 – Cardiff City
5 – Crystal Palace
6 – Fulham
7 – Norwich City
8 – Reading
9 – Southampton
10 – Swansea City
11 – Watford
12 – West Ham United

North non-seeds:
14 – Bury / Barnsley*
15 – Accrington Stanley
16 – Blackburn Rovers
17 – Bolton Wanderers
18 – Carlisle United
19 – Doncaster Rovers
20 – Newport County
21 – Nottingham Forest
22 – Rochdale
23 – Rotherham United
24 – Scunthorpe United
25 – Sheffield United
26 – Wigan Athletic

South non-seeds:
13 – Barnet
14 – Birmingham City
15 – Bristol City
16 – Bristol Rovers
17 – Burton Albion
18 – Charlton Athletic
19 – Cheltenham Town
20 – Ipswich Town
21 – Millwall
22 – Milton Keynes Dons
23 – Queens Park Rangers
24 – Wolverhampton Wanderers

* If Sunderland beat Bury, Barnsley will be unseeded. A Bury win sees Barnsley seeded at No 13 in the Northern pot and Bury will be No 14.

Winners of the cancelled Grimsby Town v Derby County (Aug 22) will be No 3 in Northern pot.

The third round draw will take place in Beijing, China on August 24, 2017.

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