Town Out to Complete Perfect Home Double Against Resurgent Rotherham Friday, 18th Mar 2016 16:24 Town take on resurgent Rotherham United at Portman Road on Saturday looking to claim six points from this week's two home games to move closer - or even into - the play-off zone. The Blues, who are eighth, one point plus goal difference off the top six, beat Blackburn Rovers 2-0 on Tuesday but manager Mick McCarthy warns that the Millers, who are third bottom, will be no easy touch. “It’ll be equally as hard to beat Rotherham, they’re on a good run,” he said. “In the last five I think they’ve won three and drawn one - which was against Derby and they were 3-0 down with seven minutes to go, so quite clearly they’re fighting for it - and lost one. “So their form has been really good under Neil Warnock and any team that Warney has will be scrapping away, there’s no doubt. “And they’ve just got that little thread to hang on to now. It looked like they were going to be relegated five games ago, now it looks like they’re going to stay up. “They’ve got something to fight for at one end of the table and we’ve got something to fight for at the other.” McCarthy has a lot of time for Warnock, who took over as manager at the New York Stadium last month, the pair having been at Barnsley at the same time. “He’s a good character and he’s a mate of mine, I’ve known him for a long time. I played with him at Barnsley,” McCarthy said. “What’s he had, seven or eight promotions? Did he take Notts County from the old Fourth Division to the First? “At QPR he got them into the Premier League and when he went back to QPR recently they had a really good run of results and it might have been a temptation for them to give him the job again. I’ve got the utmost respect for what he’s done in the game. “I was an apprentice at Barnsley when he was a pro and I’ve known him a long time, I’ve always kept in touch with him. And he always wishes me well except for tomorrow, of course.” Warnock has a reputation for his animated touchline antics but McCarthy can empathise with him. “He’s a pain in the arse! But he probably thinks I am as well,” he laughed. “But he wants to win. I said that with a glint in my eye and my tongue in my cheek because I like him. “I’ve got a lot of time for him, I’ve been a friend of his for a long time and he wants to win, I get that. Let me tell you, there are a lot worse than him on the sidelines.” Reflecting on Rotherham’s Lazarus-like performance last week, he added: “Three-nil down against Derby. All right, so you might be wanting to have a look at Derby, but if you’re the Rotherham manager or the Rotherham players you don’t give Derby any stick, you take all the credit for it. “And I’ve seen it, and it was a real gung-ho effort, never-say-die, and Leon Best got the two goals in the last minutes. “And the last one was just, put pressure on, put a great ball in and Best just threw his head at it - equaliser. “A remarkable comeback against a team that I thought when we played them here would be in the top two. “He has that ability, that knack to get teams to work hard for him, run around and give their all. That’s what we will be up against tomorrow.” McCarthy is set to stick with keeper Bartosz Bialkowski and his usual back four of skipper Luke Chambers and Jonas Knudsen as the full-backs and Tommy Smith and Christophe Berra at the centre of the defence. In midfield, Cole Skuse will take up one of the central roles, but the Town boss now has plenty of options for his partner with Luke Hyam, Jonathan Douglas, Kevin Bru and Kevin Foley - who impressed at the heart of the midfield against Nottingham Forest - all fit and available. In the wide roles, new loan signing Liam Feeney seems set to start, perhaps on the right with former Miller Ben Pringle on the left. That would allow Freddie Sears to join Daryl Murphy in a front pairing, although perhaps playing behind the Irish international given Rotherham’s 4-1-4-1 system. Town could return to the top six if they beat the Millers and results elsewhere go in their favour. Fifth-placed Derby are in home action against local rivals Nottingham Forest at lunchtime, while Sheffield Wednesday in sixth host second-bottom Charlton. Seventh-placed Cardiff are at Reading, while Birmingham in ninth - with a game in hand on everyone else - take on Fulham at St Andrew’s. Millers’ boss Warnock says his side’s results have given them an glimmer of hope that they can escape what seemed an inevitable drop into League One: "We have to be ready for these games and grasp as many points as we can. "All we've done is given ourselves a fighting chance. We've made a couple of other clubs a little bit nervous. We're probably still favourites to go down but we have a fighting chance." Warnock, who was a serious contender to become Town boss back in 2009 when Jim Magilton departed, says he enjoys visiting Portman Road. ”I always get a good reception there. Usually in the first minute or two!” he joked. “It's a great club and I do like them." He also had praise for his old friend McCarthy: "Not everyone appreciates managers like Mick and the job that they do. He has a competitive team and I take my hat off to him. "I like everything about the club and Mick has done a fabulous job. We really need to be on the top of our game." Rotherham have midfielder Greg Halford back from a one-game ban, while central defender Richard Wood is expected to be OK after a hamstring injury and Lloyd Doyley is also fit again after a knock. However, one-time Town loanee Frazer Richardson is out, also due to a hamstring problem, as is recent Blues trialist Jerome Thomas. The Blues have won 14 of the previous games between the sides, all of which have been in the league, seven have ended in draws, with the Millers having won six. In November, Daryl Murphy ended his goal drought by netting his first hat-trick in 11 years as the Blues thrashed Rotherham 5-2 at the New York Stadium. Brett Pitman and Jonathan Douglas had already scored before Murphy grabbed his first of the campaign to make it 3-0 at the break. His second followed three minutes after the restart before the Millers hit back via Brandon Barker and Matt Derbyshire, but Murphy’s third in the 72nd minute ended any hopes of a dramatic comeback. Last time at Portman Road, in September 2014, strike pair Murphy and David McGoldrick netted in the third and sixth minutes as Town took their winning run to four games via a 2-0 home victory to move up to fourth in the table. Murphy nodded home from close range following a corner, before McGoldrick smashed a strike into the net from 25 yards. The Rotherham squad includes ex-Town loanees Danny Collins, Frazer Richardson and Paul Green, as well as keeper Paddy Kenny, who was on a short-term deal with the Blues last season without making a senior appearance, and Jerome Thomas, who spent time on trial at Playford Road in January. Centre-half Collins made 16 starts and scored three goals while on loan from Stoke between August and December 2011. The 35-year-old joined the Millers in the close season after leaving Nottingham Forest. Full-back Richardson, 33, made three starts and four sub appearances between January and May 2014 while on loan from Middlesbrough. He moved to Rotherham that summer. Irish international midfielder Green joined the Blues on loan from Leeds in February 2014 and left at the end of that season when he joined the South Yorkshiremen. The 32-year-old made six starts and eight sub appearances for the Blues and scored two goals. Town midfielder Luke Hyam was on loan at the New York Stadium between November and December last year, making two starts and three sub appearances. Blues loanee Ben Pringle spent four years with Rotherham before turning down a contract and joining Fulham last summer. The 26-year-old made 154 starts and 14 sub appearances for the Millers, scoring 22 goals and helped them to promotion from League Two as runners-up in 2012/13 and from League One via the play-offs in 2013/14. When Fulham visited the New York Stadium in August, Pringle took only seven minutes to net against his old club as the Cottagers ran out 3-1 winners. Academy coach Alan Lee had a successful spell at Millmoor between 2000 and 2003 and fitness coach Andy Liddell was briefly a player and caretaker-manager there late in his career. Town are running a ticket promotion at the game, while numerous Blues legends of the past will be at a Legend in Legends event after the match. Saturday’s referee is Stephen Martin from Staffordshire, who has shown 64 yellow cards and four red in 28 games so far this season. Martin’s last Town game was the 2-1 home victory over Fulham on the opening day of last season in which he booked Tyrone Mings, Christophe Berra and Luke Hyam. Prior to that he was in charge of the 2-0 home victory over Brighton in September 2013 when he booked only one visiting player. Martin’s only other Blues match was the 2-1 loss at Bristol City in the January of that year, in which he showed a single yellow card to one of the home side. Squad from: Bialkowski, Crowe, Chambers (c), Knudsen, Foley, Berra, Smith, Digby, Hyam, Douglas, Skuse, Tabb, Bru, Pringle, Feeney, Maitland-Niles, Touré, Sears, Pitman, Murphy, Varney.
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