McCarthy: We Go to Wolves Looking to Win Friday, 17th Apr 2015 06:00 Town boss Mick McCarthy says the Blues will visit his old club Wolves on Saturday “to go and win the game” rather than sitting back looking to grab an away draw (Sky Sports 1, from 12 noon, KO 12.15pm). “I expect them to try and give us an early barrage but I’m expecting us to go there and put an early barrage on them and put them on the back foot,” he said. “We’re not going there to sit and soak it up and invite pressure because that’s exactly what it is - pressure. We don’t need that. Let’s go and try and put it on them.” McCarthy dismissed the suggestion that given the league situation all the pressure will be on Kenny Jackett’s eighth-placed side, although he feels Wolves have to get something out of the match to stay in the play-off hunt. The Midlanders are level on points with seventh-placed Brentford - who are at home to Bolton on Saturday - and are three points behind the Blues in sixth and four off fifth-placed Derby, who travel to Huddersfield. “There’s pressure on us as well to get something out of the game but, of course, with us being three points clear, if we were to beat them then I think that’s them out of it,” he said. “They’re not going to overtake us with two games to play and us six points in front. So to stay in it they have to get something out of it, possibly beat us.” He says the Blues having picked up back-to-back wins in the last week will mean little when the whistle goes on Saturday. “You might say we’re going there with confidence, but all that has to happen is they start well and score a goal and suddenly you’ll see their confidence come flooding back and ebbing away from the opposition. I don’t get wrapped up in all that.” While people may talk about pressure at this time of the season, McCarthy says it’s something that’s there throughout a campaign. “Is that not the case all the time?” he asked. “If you look at their last two results and ours it would suggest that we can handle the pressure better. “But we were at home to Blackpool and Cardiff and they were away against Birmingham and Middlesbrough. Is that them not handling the pressure or is that them having two tough games? “I know to my cost when I was the manager at Wolves we didn’t have particularly good results at Birmingham, it’s not a happy hunting ground. “Then they went to Middlesbrough and that wasn’t going to be easy when they’re trying to get first or second.” He added: “We’ve got no problem whatsoever with characters in our dressing room, in the team, in the club. They’re a great bunch of guys. “I said earlier in the week, whatever happens, Ipswich Town have got a team and a group of lads that they can be proud of and let’s hope we can make sure they are at the weekend. “We’re here with 43 games gone and having played the way we did at Huddersfield and then to come home, that’s pressure. And we’ve won two games and won them well. I think that’s a sign that we can handle it.” He says his history with Wolves - the highlight of his six years as boss was winning the Championship in 2008/09 - makes no difference to his approach to the game: “No, it doesn’t. And it would be the same if I was playing against Celtic, Lyon, Barnsley, Millwall or Sunderland. It’s got no bearing. It doesn’t matter to me. “I’m employed here and I’m a professional and I want to win the game. And whilst I’ll still enjoy going and seeing some old pals, that’ll be lovely, but I’ll enjoy it all the more if we’ve beaten them.” He says that like fans anywhere, the Molineux support will become impatient if things aren’t going their way and Town go in front: “They’d be like they are anywhere around the world when they’ve got a team that’s got a chance of being promoted, of being successful and then they’re behind. “They’ll be moaning and whinging and hoo-ing and ha-ing, putting pressure on their team, but nevertheless with that driving them on because they are great supporters and they’re no different from anywhere else. “I’ve been to enough teams now to know that if you go behind at home and it’s unexpected and you’re playing one of your big rivals for anything, the crowd gets on your back “But it depends how players react to that. If you’re getting a bit of a battering from your own crowd, some can hide but if you’ve got really good ones in your team it really drives them on.” McCarthy says Kenny Jackett has done well since taking over as manager at Molineux in May 2013, seeing Wolves back into the Championship as League One champions at the first attempt last season. “He’s done a very good job,” the Blues boss said. “Getting them promoted and then being in contention for back-to-back promotions back into the Premier League would be an amazing job. But whatever happens with them I think he’s done a fantastic job already.” Just over four years since his Wolves departure, McCarthy says only a handful of his players are still there: “I don’t think there are that many left. “Stears is still there, of course. He was here on loan and helped us. Dave Edwards, Carl Ikeme was in the team, but not that many now, it’s Kenny Jackett’s team and he’s got a good team and he’s done a great job.” The Blues boss is likely to largely keep to the same team which beat Cardiff on Tuesday. Bartosz Bialkowski will start in goal with skipper Luke Chambers at right-back and Tyrone Mings on the left and Tommy Smith and Christophe Berra at the centre of the defence. Cole Skuse will take up his usual central midfield position with Teddy Bishop likely to be in the other role ahead of him. Having been rested on Tuesday, Jay Tabb could come back into the side on the left for Stephen Hunt with Jonny Parr or Paul Anderson on the right. Luke Varney again misses out with his hamstring problem. Daryl Murphy and Freddie Sears - who have scored 46 goals between them this season, including Sears’s 14 for Colchester - will start up front. Jonny Williams is likely to play a part from the bench. Wolves boss Jackett believes his side, who are unbeaten in their last six at home, have improved defensively since they were defeated 2-1 at Portman Road in November. “When we last played them, Kevin McDonald got caught on the edge of his own box for the one goal and Lee Evans got caught on the halfway line going across and Daryl Murphy scored both goals,” he told the Wolves official site. “So we were disappointed with the goals against because we made crucial mistakes. Certainly defensively we've tightened up and made strong efforts to avoid conceding soft goals. “If the opposition are going to score against us, let's make sure they're good goals, not goals we feel disappointed in ourselves for making it easy for them. That's been something we've worked hard at. “We'd love a clean sheet every game but you can't stop every goal and we felt we were getting it wrong in terms of our approach in terms of giving people opportunities in and around our box. “There was a difference then in stepping up from League One to the Championship in terms of the finishing and it was costing us in the results and it was eating away at our confidence. “So, working from the back, we were very determined to make sure that we could earn clean sheets and it was harder for sides to score against us. That was the start of that period. “We came through it but we're disappointed now because before [Tuesday’s 2-1 defeat at] Middlesbrough, we conceded five in two games which makes it very difficult to get points on a regular basis. The odd game you can win 4-3 but mainly you won't do that.” Wolves have no new injury worries but midfielder Tommy Rowe isn't yet ready to return after a knee problem. The sides are fairly evenly matched over the years, Town winning 29 times (28 in the league), Wolves 27 times (24) and with 20 games (17) ending in draws. In November at Portman Road, top scorer Daryl Murphy was on target twice as Town beat Wolves 2-1. Murphy smashed home a brilliant opening goal in the 35th minute, the visitors got on terms via a James Henry fluke on 53 but the Irishman netted the winner six minutes later to take his season's total to 10. The sides last met at Molineux four days after Christmas 2012 during Wolves’ Championship relegation season. The game was Mick McCarthy’s first return to his old club and it ended in a comfortable 2-0 victory via a goal in either half from Aaron Cresswell and DJ Campbell. Cresswell netted the opener in the 33rd minute with Campbell slotting home his 10th and final goal of his loan spell on 64. Blues manager McCarthy was the Wolves boss between July 2006 and February of 2012, helping them to the Championship title in 2008/09. Town assistant boss Terry Connor fulfilled a similar role during McCarthy’s time at Molineux — having joined the club in 1999 under John Ward’s management - before briefly taking over as manager after McCarthy’s departure. After a similarly short spell as his successor StÃ¥le Solbakken’s assistant, he left Molineux four games into the 2012/13 season, rejoining McCarthy at Town in the November. Blues U21s coach Mark Kennedy wore the old gold from 2001 until 2006, while Town’s director of football Dave Bowman and scout Ian Evans were both at Molineux until they followed McCarthy and Connor at Portman Road. Stephen Hunt and Christophe Berra both played under McCarthy and Connor at Molineux. Wolves defender Richard Stearman spent the second half of 2012/13 on loan with the Blues, making 15 appearances. The game is all-ticket for Town fans with no tickets on the gate on the day. Saturday is the Molineux club’s first ever Cultural Day with the Punjabi Wolves Supporters Group putting on a series of events on the day to celebrate and highlight their culture. Wolves captain Danny Batth is of Punjabi descent and is an ambassador for the group. Saturday’s referee is Stuart Attwell, who has shown 85 yellow cards and four red in 35 games so far this season. Attwell’s most recent Town match was the 2-1 home victory over Sheffield Wednesday in February in which he booked only one of the visitors. Squad from: Bialkowski, Gerken, Chambers, Mings, Hewitt, Fryers, Parr, Smith, Berra, Skuse, Bishop, Chaplow, Benyu, Williams, Tabb, S Hunt, Bru, Ambrose Henshall, ,Anderson, Varney, Murphy, Sears, Wood.
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