McCarthy Expecting Reading Reaction Friday, 20th Feb 2015 16:44 Town boss Mick McCarthy is expecting Reading to react to Tuesday’s home defeat to Wigan when they visit Portman Road on Saturday. Royals manager Steve Clarke was scathing about his team’s performance in their 1-0 loss to the Latics, describing it as “rubbish” and “embarrassing”. “We played well at Reading and got nothing out of it,” McCarthy said reflecting on August’s 1-0 defeat at the Madejski Stadium. “I watched them on Tuesday night and they’ve got a good squad of players. “Wigan did a similar job on Reading as they did to us, except they won the game on Tuesday night. “It’s not going to help us because I saw Steve Clarke's comments about how he was almost ashamed or embarrassed to be called the coach of a team that played like that and they’ll be looking for a reaction. “And they’ve got good players, so we’ll have to be really on our game tomorrow, it’ll be a tough game.” McCarthy says that although Clarke is not one of his close friends in football, he has a lot of respect for him as a manager. “I know him. Like lots of us we’re ships in the night, passing when you play games or watch games,” he added. “He’s not somebody I know very, very well but somebody I’ve always respected as a good coach in the game and he’s certainly had a good grounding.” McCarthy is unlikely to stray far away from the team which defeated Fulham 2-1 at Craven Cottage last week. Bartosz Bialkowski will continue in goal with skipper Luke Chambers at right-back and Tyrone Mings on the left with Tommy Smith and Christophe Berra at the centre of the defence. In midfield, Cole Skuse and Kevin Bru again seem set to start in the middle with Jay Tabb on the left and Teddy Bishop on the right. Up front, 21-goal top scorer Daryl Murphy will be partnered by Freddie Sears. Despite breaking his nose at Fulham last week, McCarthy says Murphy probably won't play wearing a mask. "I don't know, I think he's got a mask made up but I don't think he'll be wanting to wear it. He's not worn it in training," he added. New signings Luke Varney and Richard Chaplow are likely to be on the bench with David McGoldrick (thigh), Luke Hyam (knee), Darren Ambrose and Stephen Hunt (both hamstring) all sidelined in addition to Noel Hunt, who seems set to miss the rest of the season with the medial knee ligament injury he suffered at Fulham. For Reading, central defender Michael Hector is expected to return from a leg injury, while midfielder Danny Guthrie is close to a return from a calf problem. Defenders Chris Gunter (ankle) and Anton Ferdinand (calf) and midfielder Jem Karacan (knee) remain sidelined. Manager Clarke hopes to see rather better from his side than their performance against Wigan. “We allowed it to become a scrappy, horrible game,” he told the Reading Chronicle. “We didn’t try to play enough football. “I mentioned the pitch and it’s not an excuse. It’s difficult to play football on but we have to be better than just kicking the ball long for the sake of it. "We have to still impose our game and play football. If we don’t do that then we just drag ourselves down to a level that we don’t want to be at.” Clarke has a lot of time for his Town counterpart: “Mick has done a good job wherever he has been. He’s an experienced manager, he knows exactly what he wants. “Some people will use that phrase that I don’t like, ‘old school’. That just means that you’re good at your job and that’s what Mick is. He gets the best out of his players. “I think this is his second full season at Ipswich and you can see the results. He’s got his team challenging at the top of the Championship with a very realistic chance of going up automatically. That says it all about Mick.” Town have just about had the better of the Royals historically, winning 23 times (22 in the league), drawing nine (nine) and losing 20 (20). The teams met at the Madejski Stadium in the second league game of the campaign back in August when Reading midfielder Jake Taylor’s first-half goal was enough to see his side to a 1-0 victory. Taylor seized on a David McGoldrick error in the 26th minute, with Tyrone Mings going closest for Town when he hit the bar with a header in injury time. When the sides last met at Portman Road in January 2014, second-half goals from Murphy and sub Paul Anderson saw Town to a 2-0 home victory. After an even first half in which the visitors were aggrieved at not being awarded a penalty, the Blues were on top after the break with Murphy opening the scoring in the 62nd minute and Anderson adding a late second. Jay Tabb joined the Blues in the summer of 2013 having been released by the Royals at the end of the previous season following a loan spell at Portman Road. He had been at the Madejski Stadium for four and a half years, during which time he helped them to the 2011/12 Championship-winning squad. Noel Hunt was another member of that squad and was with the Royals between 2008 and 2013. His brother Stephen was a Reading player between June 2005 and August 2009 and was in the 2005/06 squad which won the Championship. Town are running a Kid for a Quid promotion at the game, while there are also activities for youngsters and families in the East of England Co-op Stand on the FieldTurf. In addition, the Supporters Club are holding their annual Supporters Day with events both before and after the game. Saturday’s referee is Eddie Ilderton from Tyne and Wear, who has shown 70 yellow cards and one red in 21 games so far this season. Ilderton’s most recent match was the 1-0 home win over Watford in November in which he booked only three opposition players and controversially failed to dismiss Joel Ekstrand for his wild challenge on Blues loanee Jonny Williams. Squad from: Bialkowski, Gerken, Chambers (c), Mings, Parr, Smith, Clarke, Berra, Skuse, Bru, Bishop, Chaplow, Anderson, Tabb, Connolly, Stewart, Murphy, Sears, Varney.
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