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McCarthy: Stevenage Will Find That Something Extra
Tuesday, 9th Aug 2016 06:00

Town boss Mick McCarthy expects Stevenage to find that something extra that lower division teams tend to discover in cup competitions when they visit Portman Road for this evening’s EFL Cup first round tie (KO 7.45pm).

“We’ve played Stevenage three out of four years since I’ve been here,” McCarthy recalled with League Two Boro having been victorious at Broadhall Way three years ago with Town victorious at Portman Road last season.

“It’s always a hard game playing against teams below you,” the Blues manager said. “It’s a tough ask. I’m not changing that many players and it’s not a team of kids or a second string team. I want to win, I want to stay in it.”

He added: “I don’t know what happens, even when I was in one of those teams when I played at Barnsley, somehow you find something when you go to a team that’s in a higher league and you want to rub their noses in it and play well.

“And that’s generally what happens. We’ve had some really tough games here against lower league opposition and I’ve no doubt in my mind it’ll be exactly the same on Tuesday night.”

If the Blues win this evening they will add a seventh game to their opening month's fixtures - second round ties take place in the week commencing August 21st - which McCarthy believes is too many matches.

“It is too hectic a schedule, if we win this and we have another game,” he continued. “It’s bonkers, to be fair.

“But that’s not a complaint because you’ve never heard me complain about Christmas, about how many games we play.

“It’s just the way it is and we’ll all have to utilise our squads to make sure we come out of it with as many points as we can and we’ll stay in the cup.

“But it is a big ask for them. You come from nothing to ‘bang!’ and it’ll be the same again. We’ll have a two-week break, come back, ’wallop!’ and we’ll have it again when there’s another two-week break. They really do come thick and fast at this time of the year.”

But even so McCarthy doesn’t believe that the EFL should follow the lead of the Scottish League Cup and play games in July.

“It lessens the importance of it as well,” he said, “The degree of importance to us of the cup competitions has been weakened. We know it has, the League Cup, the FA Cup. I think if you put it in July, if you put it in the pre-season friendlies you’re doing exactly that.

“That’s what I think about the Europa Cup, they’re in amongst pre-season friendlies. It doesn’t start getting serious until they really get into it. Even then I’m not quite sure that that competition gets serious.

“I don’t think so. I’ll take playing them when we come back and if we have to have one extra game or two extra games in that month, then we play them, and we’ll see how we get on.”

McCarthy named his team at yesterday’s press conference. Dean Gerken will be in goal with Jonas Knudsen at left-back, skipper Luke Chambers at right-back and Tommy Smith and Paul Digby at the heart of the defence.

Jonathan Douglas, Kevin Bru and Andre Dozzell are set to form a midfield trio with weekend debut hat-trick hero Grant Ward and Conor Grant making their full debuts in a front three with Freddie Sears.


McCarthy was still ruminating on his subs but it’s likely David McGoldrick will be one of the senior players named along with one or two youngsters.

While Brett Pitman (thigh), Luke Hyam, Giles Coke (both knee) and Shane McLoughlin are all injured, Daryl Murphy has been given a few days away from the club having had little break in the summer after the European Championships.

McCarthy says he is giving the 33-year-old additional time off as he is well aware of what can happen to players who have been at summer tournaments from his time as a player.

“After my exploits in 1988 at the European Championships I was given two weeks off at Celtic and I went back and I was flying,” he recalled.

“It was the best pre-season I’d ever had, probably the first one I’d ever enjoyed because I was fitter than everybody else because I’d gone all the way through.

“I started the season but in about September somebody pulled the power plug out of me and I hadn’t got a run in me, at all.

“Me, Chris Morris, Packie Bonner, [manager] Billy McNeill pulled us all into the office one day and said, ‘That Republic of Ireland lot, they’re a right lot they are?’. ‘Why’s that?’, we asked.

“‘I sent three players away with them in the summer and they’ve sent nobody back!’. That was how we were playing. Subsequently we were left out because we were just running on empty.

“We started in August, played a few games and it was suddenly almost like hitting the wall, it really was.

“We had to have a bit of time off, not a lot of time off, we just didn’t play in a couple of games, and we came back and got back into it.

“Daryl was fine on Saturday, it’s just me trying to look after him, from my experience. And we’ve had a lot of injuries with Murph and I don’t want that to happen.

“If we don’t have any understanding of it and just keep saying, ‘Right, you’re in today, you’re playing tomorrow, you’re playing on Saturday’ suddenly he could end up with a calf strain or a hammy or whatever he’s had in the past and we’re missing him for six weeks.

“It would be remiss of me not to use my experience and try and help him and make sure we’ve got him for all the league games. When he is fully fit, he makes a difference.”

Having been left out of the 18 at the weekend, Dozzell makes his first start of the season this evening with McCarthy feeling he is making good progress but is being patient with the midfielder, who only turned 17 in May.

“Andre’s fine, he scored on his debut, which helped him,” the Town boss said. “Talking about debuts, that wasn’t a bad debut either was it for a 16-year-old!

“He’s settled in fine. He’s OK. He’s still a way away from being a regular starter and certainly in a 4-4-2 up against two tough, experienced midfield players if it’s him and somebody else. But in a 4-3-3 he can play and he’s a real talent. He’s learning his trade and we shouldn’t put too much expectation on him.”

Also starting in that three is Jonathan Douglas, who was on the bench on Saturday having been a regular last season.

“Dougie’s been great since he came here,” McCarthy added. “Dougie had a great season last year and he’s playing on Tuesday.”

Stevenage boss Darren Sarll has no injury problems ahead of the game and is expected to name a side not too far from the team which lost 2-1 at home to Crewe in their opening League Two fixture at the weekend.

Sarll is keen for his side to do well in the cups: “I want to make sure that the players take their slap on the wrist and we get them in a positive frame of mind to do something good in the cup because cup runs for this club are really important.

“We have no choice but to go again to pick ourselves up. That’ll be the true test of how together this group is.

“When we lose we press the reset button. We have the blueprint and we go back to the blueprint. We go over it and we go again. Something I know about this group is that we will step up under disappointment.”

The sides met at the same stage of the competition last year, also at Portman Road, when the Blues ran out 2-1 winners with Josh Yorwerth and Jay Tabb netting for Town, and Boro replying via a Christophe Berra own goal.

Prior to that the teams also faced one another in the first round at Broadhall Way in August 2013 when the home side won 2-0 with Filipe Morais (pen) and Jordan Burrow on target.

Those two ties are the only occasions on which the teams have played one another competitively.

Tommy Smith spent two months on loan at Broadhall Way early in 2008, making 15 appearances for the then-Conference side, while keeper Michael Crowe was on loan with Boro between November and January last season without playing a game. No current Stevenage player has appeared for Town.

The new FanZone on the FieldTurf behind the East of England Co-op Stand will again be open with gates opening at 6pm.

This evening’s referee is Charles Breakspear from Surrey, who last season showed 142 yellow cards and four red cards in 37 games.

Breakspear’s most recent Town game was the 1-0 defeat at QPR in February in which he booked Kevin Bru and two home players.

He was also in charge of the 0-0 home draw with Wigan in January last year in which he booked Tommy Smith and three Latics.

Prior to that he took control of the 1-0 home victory over Bolton in February 2014, the winning goal a 55th minute David McGoldrick penalty awarded after the striker had been hauled back by Trotters’ keeper Andy Lonergan, who had dropped a high ball.

Breakspear also refereed Town’s 3-0 pre-season friendly victory at Colchester in July 2013 in which he also awarded the Blues a spotkick, which Daryl Murphy scored after he was fouled by U’s keeper Sam Walker.

Town: Gerken, Chambers (c), Digby, T Smith, Knudsen, Douglas, Bru, Dozzell, Grant, Ward, Sears. Subs from: Bialkowski, Crowe, Emmanuel, Kenlock, Berra, Webster, Robinson, Bishop, McDonnell, Skuse, Blanchfield, Morris, Patterson, McGoldrick.


Photo: Action Images



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Jimmy86 added 09:50 - Aug 9
Sorry Mick, but Dougie was far from brilliant last season. At 34 his legs have gone and the holding role is not great for him, as he isn't mobile enough to get around and get in people's faces. Strong team tonight, capable of beating Stevenage. COYB
9

weevil added 10:01 - Aug 9
HOW MANY TIMES have we played Stevenage... it's bizarre. The odds of facing the same team 3 times in as many cups is 1 in 753571....
2

Geoff added 11:17 - Aug 9
The reason lower teams play better against us is MM puts out such a weakened team.We need to show respect and stop playing our reserve team and expect fans to watch and pay for second rate performances.
2

battyblue added 11:19 - Aug 9
Its the same for everyone Mick stop moaning young fit athletes should have no problem when i was in my prime i could play every other day no problem and wanted to as well.
-2

bohslegend added 12:20 - Aug 9
that's how you reached the pinnacle of professional football too, isn't it batty?
1

Fat_Boy_Tim added 13:44 - Aug 9
This a basic pre-match press conference, he could have been reading a script. He has to not sound complacent and he also wants to give fringe players a chance. There is nothing to see here folks, let alone be negative about, move along please!
2

brazilblue added 14:05 - Aug 9
does anyone know how i can listen to this online?
0

dirtydingusmagee added 15:27 - Aug 9
just hope we take this game seriously and get the win ,im fed up year in year out sacrificing cup chances for prOmotion that dosnt come .The ITFC of the past [ie Sir Bobby's days ] tried to win everything, respected the cup competions ,and gave fans something to look forward to.Remember the days ? , sitting waiting for Town to be drawn ,hoping for whatever team .COME ON MICK ,LETS GO FOR IT .
4

SheptonMalletBlue added 15:40 - Aug 9
Mcarthy getting in the excuses already!!
0

Seasider added 16:08 - Aug 9
Yes Brazilblue;but think you have to pay through the ITFC website.However before doing so perhaps some of our many overseas followers will confirm this.
1

oldegold added 16:48 - Aug 9
Gave up watching Town in cup games after the latest fiasco which was the Portsmouth at least while McCarthy is in charge. He doesn't take it seriously and is giving Town a bad reputation in cup games as a team that lies down. As someone brought up on our sterling cup performances going back to '75, it's pathetic really.
0

jas0999 added 17:19 - Aug 9
Should be a very straight forward victory this.
1

essex57 added 18:12 - Aug 9
You can get radio Suffolk via free view TV now you have to re tune the channels.
-1

runningout added 18:22 - Aug 9
Jas0999.. don't be so sure.. if our squad is up for it a win could be on the cards..
-1

braveblue added 18:45 - Aug 9
He really does talk some crap. Doughie has been great does he think we are all stupid. Getting fed up with this constant drivel.
1

afrodids added 19:27 - Aug 9
Brazilblue it's on freeview
-1

runningout added 22:04 - Aug 9
and where's our something extra???
0


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