Keith Curle will tonight aim to prove a cut above Derby boss Nigel Pearson - a man he shares a barber with!

Carlisle manager Curle is out to spring an EFL Cup shock on Pearson at the iPro Stadium tonight.

And the Blues boss already joked that he has the edge on his opposite number in one department.

Curle said: "We live in the same city - and we actually have the same barber.

"You can probably tell from his haircut that he spends less on haircuts than I do.

"One thing people would perceive about Nigel is that he's a professional.

"That's one of the things I'm trying to emulate within myself, when people talk about me as Carlisle United manager, my team, myself as an individual."

Curle says all the pressure is on Carlisle's Championship opponents tonight.

The Blues boss is expected to freshen up his team for United's first ever visit to the iPro Stadium.

Curle added: "Derby have got a fantastic squad, fantastic facility, a very good manager and coaching staff - everything is stacked in their favour.

"But we will do our work and they’ve got areas we can exploit. Because they’ve conceded goals themselves, they've got areas on the pitch we can overload and try and create problems for them.

"Likewise we've got go do our job at the back. If we want to go there and have an open, expansive game of football, it could be a long evening for our players.

"We have to come up with a game plan to stay in the game and cause problems in certain areas.

"As a team we need to be 100 per cent on our game, mentally and physically."

Among his selection issues tonight, Curle must decide whether to involve Jason Kennedy and Reggie Lambe after both came off with knocks in the second half at Cambridge on Saturday.

Pearson has played down the possibility of a debut for new Manchester United loan striker James Wilson, while defender Craig Forsyth is out after suffering a second cruciate knee ligament injury.