Happy Valley for Town Once Again? Friday, 27th Nov 2015 06:00 Boss Mick McCarthy takes the Blues to Charlton for Saturday’s live Sky game looking for a fourth successive win at The Valley (Sky Sports One, from noon, kick-off 12.30pm). Despite Town having conceded two poor goals in last week’s 2-2 home draw with Wolves, McCarthy has confirmed that he will stick with his regular back four against the Addicks. Town have picked up a maximum nine points out of nine from their away games at Charlton under McCarthy’s management, starting with the 2-1 win on Boxing Day 2012. The following November Tommy Smith netted a fifth minute winner as the game ended 1-0 to the Blues, then last year Noel Hunt slammed in a dramatic last-gasp debut goal to seal another Town victory by the same scoreline. “We’ve played well there and we’ve had a bit of luck,” McCarthy said reflecting on that record. “But we’ve always had to play well there, we’ve had good games. “We’ve had great support there, that stand behind the goal has been fantastic and that always helps. I’ll settle for the same bit of luck again if we can get it. “We get good support anywhere but whenever it’s one of our local derbies only 80 miles away it’s even better.” Recalling Hunt’s goal he was happy to take the plaudits for an inspired substitution with the Irishman having been brought on in the closing stages: “Always! They are, aren’t they? If you put them on and they score and you win, you take the credit for it because you take a lot of brickbats for a lot of other stuff. “It was brilliant and I’d settle for another one of those. But it’ll be difficult because they’ve just had two really good performances and two good results [a 3-1 home win against Sheffield Wednesday and a 1-0 away victory at Birmingham]. “Despite everything that’s going on, managers being sacked and coming and going, I don’t take any notice of that because the league is such that one week you can play and you wonder how they’re in the same league, that’s all of us, and the next week they look like Brazil. I’d include us in that.” He added: “We want to go there and play well. If we play like we did last week every week, I’d settle for that all day long because I thought we were excellent. “Charlton have had two really good results, back to back wins, that gives them a bit of confidence. I treat them all like they’re going to play like Brazil and we’ll go and match them.” While the Blues have a great recent record at The Valley, their form in live TV games has been somewhat less impressive with Town having failed to win any of the 11 since that Hunt-inspired victory at The Valley last November. However, McCarthy played down the significance of the run: “We finished sixth last year and as I’ve said before, it’s where you finish up. If you lose your televised games and you win your others it doesn’t really matter, does it? “But I’d prefer to win them because it’s a global audience that we get and I’d much rather see us play well and see us win. “I’ve got no idea [why we’ve not won on TV for 11 games], I don’t think we’re camera shy. I’m looking forward to it. I’d never given it a thought, to be honest. “If we go there and there’s one man and his dog watching and we don’t play well, I don’t feel any better or worse than if there’s been 10 million, 5 million or 3 million watching on TV. “Don’t think the glamour of the TV is turning me on, it’s the game and the winning that turns me on, not that.” Regarding Charlton, who are now up to fifth from bottom, 10 places and nine points behind the 10th-placed Blues, McCarthy says they’ve changed their approach of late with interim head coach Karel Fraeye having become their fifth boss in two years towards the end of October following the departure of Guy Luzon. “They’ve been playing a diamond, so they’ve changed their system, they’ve tinkered a few times," he said. “I know Jason Euell is part of the staff and he has his U21s who play that system and play it very well. “There’s a little fella up front called Ademola Lookman who played here for the U21s and was different class. “Another fella that played that day [Tareiq Holmes-Dennis], he’s playing. There are a whole load of new players. “Jordan Cousins is a good player, Johnnie Jackson’s been about for a long time and then there’s the big centre forward Simon Makienok and Johann Berg Gudmundsson, who plays at the head of the diamond. “They’ve got some nice, technical footballers and they’ve played well playing that system. They seem to have found a system that suits them, they’ve won two games and that breeds confidence.” Having made a positive start to the campaign - they won two and drew two of their opening four matches - Charlton then went on a run of 11 Championship games without a win, losing nine of them. “It’s this league, it’s just the Championship,” McCarthy added. “They were towards the top of the league, they were unbeaten for a long spell and then they went 11 games without a win. “Two segments of the season have been polar opposites. And then from that they get back to back wins against Sheffield Wednesday, who have beaten Arsenal and who were different class, and against Birmingham, who have been as good as anybody. “You wonder ‘How the hell does that happen?’. That’s how I'll treat them, like the team that beat Sheffield Wednesday and Birmingham, not the team that went 11 games without a win.” Regarding his own side, the Blues boss said on Saturday he was going to assess the goals conceded against Wolves on Monday and having done so has decided to stick with his back four. “I have looked at them and reviewed them but the back four that’s playing is the best back four we’ve got, so they’ll be playing on Saturday.” Skipper Luke Chambers will be at right-back with Jonas Knudsen on the left and Tommy Smith and Christophe Berra at the centre of the defence. McCarthy didn’t comment on whether he might change his keeper but having praised Dean Gerken for his recent performances it’s likely he’ll stick with the former Colchester man even if some viewed him to be amongst those at fault for the first Wolves goal. The Town boss seems unlikely to switch things around much in midfield either with Cole Skuse and Jonathan Douglas again set to be in the centre, Kevin Bru on the right and Freddie Sears on the left. Up front, Brett Pitman seems likely to partner Daryl Murphy once again. Addicks interim head coach Fraeye is pleased with his team’s form in recent games with their diamond formation paying dividends and his players growing in self-belief after their poor run of form. “We’re very pleased with how we’ve played, but it’s not only the system,” he told Charlton’s official website. “It’s confidence too. Confidence is always key, you can play whatever system but it’s about what the players do with the ball. We are more confident now and we are becoming a better team. “We’ve seen a winning momentum returning in training and with the way that the players are talking to each other. We all want to get that third win in a row, absolutely." The South Londoners’ vice-captain Chris Solly is back from a knee injury, but Ahmed Kashi (heel), Igor Vetokele (groin) and Cristian Ceballos (fibula) are all out. Town just have the edge historically having won 22 games (18 in the league), Charlton 18 (15) and with 10 (nine) ending in draws. The Blues are unbeaten in five games against the Addicks home and away, winning four of them. The teams last met at Portman Road at the end of December when Tommy Smith, Daryl Murphy and David McGoldrick were on target as the Blues beat Charlton 3-0 to claim their first double of last season. Smith put Town in front in the 31st minute, Murphy added the second just before the hour and McGoldrick, who earlier had hit both posts and the bar, netted the third in the final minute. They had met at The Valley a month earlier when debutant sub Noel Hunt netted his dramatic injury time winner as Town won 1-0. Hunt, who had come off the bench in the 84th minute, shot home from the edge of the box after a McGoldrick cross had been half-cleared. Town winger Cameron Stewart, who is currently on loan with Doncaster, was on loan at The Valley during the 2013/14 season, making 15 starts and three sub appearances, scoring three goals. Charlton keeper Henderson spent two spells on loan with the Blues from West Ham in 2012/13, making 24 appearances. One of the Addicks' other keepers, Nick Pope, was a schoolboy with the Blues academy before being released at 15 and moving on to Bury Town and then Charlton in 2011. Defender Morgan Fox was also at Playford Road before being released at 11. Charlton are asking fans to arrive early at the game with increased security measures being put in place on the advice of the Metropolitan Police Addicks fans plan to stage a 60-second protest against the way their club is being run in the second minute of the match, holding up A4 posters. Supporters travelling by train should note that London Bridge station is closed on Saturday. The referee is Scott Duncan, who has shown 36 yellow cards and no red in 14 games so far this season. The Northumberland-based official, who shares a name with a former Town manager, last took control of the Blues in the 4-1-after-extra-time win at Doncaster in the Capital One Cup in August in which he booked Myles Kenlock and two home players. Prior to that Duncan was in charge of last season’s 1-1 home draw with Brentford and coincidentally the November 2013 1-0 victory over Charlton at The Valley. Squad from: Gerken, Bialkowski, Chambers (c), Knudsen, Parr, Berra, Smith, Malarczyk, Skuse, Douglas, Bru, Coke, Tabb, Maitland-Niles, Touré, Oar, Sears, Pitman, Murphy.
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