McCarthy Aiming for Win at Blackburn Friday, 1st May 2015 06:00 Town boss Mick McCarthy says the Blues will go into Saturday’s vital last game of the regular season at Blackburn Rovers looking for a win, despite only requiring a draw to secure a place in the play-offs for the first time in a decade (Sky Sports 2 from midday, KO 12.15pm). “I think if you aim for a point you might not get anything, if you aim for three we might get the point,” McCarthy said “We can’t underestimate Blackburn, they’ve got nothing to play for except personal pride, it’s their last game, a home game, they’ll want to send their fans home happy so they come back at the start of next season. They’re not going to lie down and die for us.” Fifth-placed Town could still finish in the top six if they lose at Ewood Park as long as two of following fail to happen - Derby win or draw at home to Reading, Brentford beat Wigan at Griffin Park with a swing of three goals or more, or Wolves win at home to Millwall with a swing of at least seven goals. McCarthy expects the teams competing with the Blues for the final two play-off places - where they will face either Middlesbrough or Norwich - to win their games and that Town will need to take something from their match. “We all think every other result will go in the favour of the others and not in favour of us. I think it’s natural that we feel that way, and everybody else will be feeling the same about us - ‘They’ll certainly get a point, Blackburn have got nothing to play for’ and all that. “But it’s all nonsense because we know in this league there’s nothing that’s ever been cut and dried or guaranteed, whether Brentford are playing a relegated team, Wolves are playing a relegated team, Derby are playing Reading, who haven’t won for a while and lost an epic FA Cup semi-final.” He added: “I think Brentford will win, but I don’t know. Wigan go there and there’s surely personal pride for all of them even though they’ve been relegated “I’ve been there and strangely enough you suddenly find you can play, there’s no pressure on you, the pressure’s all on the opposition. “Wolves are what, seven or eight goals behind us? I don’t see that being an issue to us, but I think they’ll win. So I do think we’ll need to get something out of the game.” Despite being destined to finish ninth whatever the outcome of Saturday’s match, McCarthy believes Blackburn will be out to rain on Town’s parade. “They’ll want to burst our bubble, they’ll want to knock us off our perch,” he said. “There’s no question about that and I saw that last week with Nottingham Forest. “They got to one-all, they were wasting time, trying to slow it down, all the dark arts of the game. I don’t blame them because they wanted a point, they’ve not had great results recently. “They tried their socks off to get a result against us and I don’t doubt Blackburn will be the same, and it’s never been an easy place to go to. “Everybody wants to win their last game because it’s a long time before you get another chance in front of your fans to right any wrongs and make them go away with a good feeling. Everybody wants to win.” He says if the boot was on the other foot, he’d certainly be looking for his side to ruin someone’s day: “I’ve never gone into a game not wanting to win, but I have to tell you I don’t want to be stood on my home patch with opposition fans singing ‘We’re going up, we’re in the play-offs, Wembley here we come’ and all that. “That wouldn’t do anything for me if I was here and I was getting it from some other team. And no doubt Gary Bowyer will feel exactly the same, and their players will. We’ve got to go and play as well as we possibly can.” McCarthy says news of any developments elsewhere filtering through during the game won’t matter if the Blues are doing what’s required of them in their match: “Whether that happens or not it won’t make any difference if we’re doing well ourselves.” Looking to the game itself, the fixture sees Town’s current strike pairing of Daryl Murphy and Freddie Sears at one end of the field and ex-Blue Jordan Rhodes and Rudy Gestede lining up for Rovers. “Normally before games the commentator says the teams have got the two best strike forces in the division and we should expect goals, and then inevitably it’s a 0-0 draw. I’ll take that now!” McCarthy added. “They’re fabulous, they’ve both got 20 or more,” he said of the Blackburn duo. “Gestede’s almost up there with Murph on 21 [in all competitions] and Jordan Rhodes has got past 20 for the third time in three years. We know about his prowess in front of goal. But ours are equally as good.” The Blues will be taking more than 2,000 fans to Ewood Park - with tickets available for cash only on the day with the away ticket office at Ewood Park opening from 10.30am - and McCarthy praised the club’s away following. “Brilliant, we’ve had great away support all season,” he continued. “The games that really stuck in my mind were certainly Fulham away, looking out and seeing that bank of blue and white, that was brilliant. Charlton because of the last-gasp goal, we had great support there. “And then, of course, Watford when for some bizarre reason it was inflatables day. Don’t ask me about that! But it was just wonderful. “The away support’s been great. We all sincerely hope we can give them something to enjoy on Saturday.” In the run-up to the match he feels his role is to some extent to keep a lid on the hype: “A little bit because I’m sat in here being asked about all those other things and the reality is that we’ve got to keep calm and we’ve got to play the way we play. “You’ve got to play the game and not the occasion, if you do it the other way around you can be in big trouble. “I am calm and on Saturday I’ll be nervous. I can’t do anything about the game today, the only thing I could do is make it worse, make people nervous and if that’s my experience making me not do that, then great. “I will get nervous [on Saturday], of course, there’s a big prize at stake and a potentially bigger prize at stake. But I’m OK, I’m calm about it all.” He added: “The week’s been relaxed really, as it’s been for the last few weeks because there’s no magic formula for it at all. “I think putting too much emphasis on it and too much pressure can only be counterproductive. Everybody else is doing that. “We’ve been doing it exactly the same as we’ve done and we prepare for the game in the exactly the same way as every weekend. “Have we prepared properly? Have we made sure everybody knows their jobs? And, of course, they do because we’re very diligent at that. “You can always see what might go wrong but you can also see what goes right. I’d prefer to look at how I’m going to feel if I’m stood in front of that crowd on Saturday and we’re applauding because we’re going into the play-offs. That’s how I like to imagine it, not talking about disappointments.” McCarthy seems certain to stick largely with the team which beat Nottingham Forest last week. Bartosz Bialkowski will continue in goal with skipper Luke Chambers at right-back, Tyrone Mings on the left and Tommy Smith and Christophe Berra at the centre of the defence. In midfield, Cole Skuse will be in his usual central midfield role with Teddy Bishop ahead of him. Jay Tabb, available again having been ill last week, could return in place of Stephen Hunt on the left with Jonny Parr on the right. Up front, 25-goal Championship top scorer Daryl Murphy will be partnered by Freddie Sears, who has now scored nine goals for the Blues since signing from Colchester in January and 23 in total this season. Noel Hunt will be back in the 18 for the first time since injuring his knee at Fulham in February and will take the place of Luke Varney on the bench with the loanee ineligible against his parent club. Blackburn will be without Matt Kilgallon (thigh), Alex Baptiste (hamstring), Grant Hanley (calf), Chris Taylor (groin), Shane Duffy (knee) and Jason Lowe (foot) due to injury, as well as unavailable on-loan Town striker Paul Taylor. Keeper David Raya, 19, could start his second game for Rovers having signed a new contract yesterday. One-time England midfielder David Dunn, 35, is expected to come on at some stage to make his 378th appearance for Rovers before moving on in the summer. Town have had the upper hand on Rovers over the years, winning 17 games (14 in the league), losing 13 (12) and drawing 16 (15). Blackburn are unbeaten in five but having won only one of those games. In October at Portman Road, Ben Marshall netted an injury time freekick as 10-man Rovers grabbed a 1-1 draw. David McGoldrick curled home a freekick in the 65th minute after Matt Kilgallon had been dismissed having picked up two yellow cards and the Blues looked well on their way to their fourth successive home win until Marshall’s late sucker punch. Last time the sides met at Ewood Park, in April last year, Rhodes, inevitably, and Rudy Gestede netted second-half goals condemned Town to a 2-0 defeat. After an evenly-balanced first half, the Blues never looked like getting anything from the game after Rhodes had opened the scoring in the 64th minute, Gestede adding the second with 10 minutes left on the clock. Rhodes, the son of former Town keeper-coach Andy, came through the academy ranks at Playford Road. The striker made 10 sub appearances and scored one goal for the Blues first team before being controversially sold to Huddersfield by then-manager Roy Keane in the summer of 2009 for a fee which, after top-ups and a sell-on following his £8 million move to Rovers in August 2012, climbed to just over £1 million. Rovers defender Yann Songo’o had a spell on trial with the Blues in September 2012 but failed to a win a deal Striker Paul Taylor is technically still a Town player despite having settled his contract and is on loan with Rovers for the remainder of the season. Luke Varney is on loan with the Blues from Blackburn, but is out of contract in the summer. Saturday’s referee is Graham Scott from Oxfordshire, who has shown 131 yellow cards and four red in 41 games so far this season. Scott’s most recent Town match was the FA Cup replay with Southampton in which he kept his cards in his pocket throughout. Squad from: Bialkowski, Gerken, Kenny, Chambers (c), Hewitt, Mings, Fryers, Smith, Berra, Clarke, Skuse, Bishop, Bru, Ambrose, Chaplow, Parr, Anderson, Tabb, S Hunt, Murphy, Sears, N Hunt.
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