Stanley captain Luke Joyce believes the excitement is already building amongst the players about the club’s Capital One Cup first round tie with Leeds United.

The Reds were drawn with the Championship side this morning and will travel to Elland Road in early August.

“It’s a great draw for us,” said Joyce. “It’s a pretty local game against a massive club and I’ve already had a few texts off the lads and the Yorkshire lads in particular are really looking forward to it.

“I think it’s probably one of the standout draws of the round so hopefully we might get a bit of TV coverage which will be a big boost to the club financially.

“You look at Leeds, a former Premier League and Champions League club, and then ourselves who are one of the smaller clubs. We’ve got a big reputation and a good name and people know about us so that makes it a really good draw.”

Joyce was in the Stanley team beaten on their only previous visit to Elland Road in a Johnstone’s Paint Trophy tie in 2009 and has fond memories of that visit despite the result.

“It was brilliant,” he explained. “It’s a proper football ground and it’s steeped in history. Everyone’s seen how loyal and committed Leeds fans are so we know it’ll be a great place to play under the lights. It’s where I made my professional debut when I was at Wigan so it’s somewhere I’ve always loved playing and I can’t wait to get back there and hopefully play again.”

The fixtures for the new season are released tomorrow morning and Joyce thinks that it’s a big milestone as the build up to the new campaign continues.

“We’ve got the World Cup at the moment but the Football League and our fixtures are what matter most to us. It’s always an exciting day as today has been and we’re looking forward to seeing what those opening fixtures will be.

“It’d be nice to get the opening game at home. We had a disappointing start to last season at Newport and I think you just want to make sure you’re picking points up in that first game. If we can get a home game and the fans behind us after a good pre-season it’s a great chance to start the season as we mean to go on.”