Coca-Cola Championship side Barnsley stand between United and a place in the third round, but the Magpies will pull out all of the stops to make sure they don't fall on this potential banana skin.Michael Owen will certainly start on Wednesday night, and Brazilian defender Claudio Cacapa and Spanish full-back Jose Enrique also likely to be involved.
Allardyce: "I am looking to play Michael Owen and Shola Ameobi up front, and Emre is back in training, so he could come into it as well.
"Cacapa is now ready, but he cannot really play at right-back, so he will go in as a central defender.
"We will be picking a team which we feel will be capable of winning our Carling Cup tie, but it is very important our players are up to that capability.
"The Carling Cup is a bit low-key at this stage of the season, but we are still looking on it as a very important competition.
"I always feel the first hurdle can be the most difficult because it's the opposing team's cup final, and we will go out and try to be very positive on Wednesday night."
Barnsley clung on for their first Coca-Cola Championship win of the season at the weekend but were given a real scare at Oakwell by Ian Holloway's never-say-die Plymouth.
First-half goals from Istvan Ferenczi and Dominik Werling put the Tykes in command and when skipper Brian Howard thundered home a header not long into the second period, the 4-1 opening-day defeat to Coventry seemed a distant memory.
But Argyle struck back through Barry Hayles' close-range effort when Howard looked to have killed the game and Nick Chadwick stole in for a second after fellow substitute Sylvan Ebanks-Blake's shot had been parried by Barnsley goalkeeper Heinz Muller.
But Simon Davey's new-look cosmopolitan outfit held their nerve in the closing stages, including four minutes of time added on, to the relief of most of Oakwell.