Town Visit Wigan Looking to Ease Worries With Pre-Christmas Win Friday, 16th Dec 2016 06:00 Town visit second-bottom Wigan on Saturday looking for a win which would ease concerns that they could be drawn into the Championship relegation battle ahead of the Christmas fixtures. The Blues are now 17th, five points off the bottom three following Tuesday’s 2-1 defeat at Birmingham with their pre-season target of the play-offs now 10 points away. Manager Mick McCarthy isn’t keen to dwell on the potential for the Blues to get drawn into the battle for survival. “I don’t want to be talking about it, for sure. Our performance and our result against Wigan will tell us a lot, that’s for certain,” he said. “Let’s get the elephant out the room, it’s been my job [we've been talking about] for the last few weeks, so we’ll talk about relegation. I’m not even going to get into that, we want to win on Saturday.” Having played essentially the same side in the previous four games McCarthy says he will make changes at the DW Stadium, the 3-0 home win against QPR having been followed by a defeat at Bristol City, a 1-1 home draw with Cardiff and the loss at St Andrew’s. “There was that 4-4-2, being solid, being hard to beat, grinding results out. But we haven’t have we? We’ve not done that,” he admitted. “We need a spark from somewhere and if you just keep playing the same team and are not getting a result, then I’d be bonkers [to continue to do so], and I think I’d be bonkers as well.” He says his players are used to different systems so a change of formation as well as personnel wouldn’t be too unsettling. “It’s not like we’re just turning up this week and saying, ‘Right, we’ll start playing football, we’re going to play 4-4-2 this week and do something different’,” he added. “We’ve played all the shapes actually, 4-2-3-1, 4-3-3, we played 3-5-2 at Bristol City. It wouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. “We had a good spell when we didn’t look like we were conceding, we were playing with one up front, 4-3-3 or 4-5-1 with one main striker. “And we couldn’t score then. We had lots of clean sheets. Well, we certainly need a clean sheet at the minute.” While McCarthy was “very pleased” with subs Freddie Sears, Brett Pitman and Jonny Williams at Birmingham - “We’ve had good responses from subs recently when they’ve come on to try and make a difference” - have the other players on the fringes been impressing in the U23s and in training? “The U23 games don’t bother me greatly, it’s how they train every day, and they all train very well, they all compete, they’re all pushing for places. “Playing in the U23s, if I played any of them I wouldn’t get the same level of performance that I would on a Saturday in the first team. And that’s across the board, across the country that would be the same. That doesn’t concern me greatly.” McCarthy says the mood isn’t too downbeat at Playford Road even if it has understandably been affected by results: “The lads are all fine, they all get on very well. “Team spirit is high, I guess morale always takes a knock when results take a knock. I’m not going to tell a lie, we’re all feeling a little bit lower than we would like to be and we would like to get a result.”
Defensively, the Blues have all too often been the architects of their own downfall in recent weeks with individual errors, usually from set pieces, having led to most opposition goals. McCarthy has built his Town sides on a strong defence and says he has sought to do little different this season. “We haven’t gone away from that, to be honest, it’s not like we’ve tried to be anything other,” he said. “If I think about the goals we’ve conceded. I know one [on Tuesday] was a penalty, but we missed the first header, we got done for the second one, a header in our box. “At Bristol City, it was a penalty and then a worldy. At Rotherham we gave away goals, Nottingham Forest one after 19 seconds. “Teams haven’t really been carving us open. As a unit we’ve been OK, but we’ve made mistakes. If I could get back to a clean sheet it would be very pleasing.” While generally happy with overall performances, games have turned on “tiny details” at each end of the field. “Absolutely, the most important part of the game at both ends,” he reflected. “We’re not making it easy for ourselves. “We all know if we’d been at St Andrew’s with 15 minutes to go and it was 0-0 they would have all been very nervy and we would have been pushing for a goal. But instead we were 2-0 down.” Wigan, promoted from League One as champions in May, were beaten 2-0 at home by Newcastle on Tuesday night, their third successive loss. “They were on TV last night against Newcastle and I thought they had a pretty good go at it actually,” McCarthy said. “But comparing the rest of us in the Championship against Newcastle is not really a fair fight. “I think [Latics manager] Warren [Joyce] has tried to make them more organised, more solid, harder to beat. They had a great result at Huddersfield [a 2-1 win], of course, and that’s the only win they’ve had out of five or six games. “But that’s what they’re trying to do because you can always nick one, you can nick one on the breakaway, a freekick, a throw-in, a corner. “You’ll get something, you’ll always have chances and I think Warren’s first job was to make them a bit more resolute and tougher, harder to beat. So we’ll see. “They’ll be looking at us and thinking, ‘Wow, this mob that are coming up here, they’re not doing particularly well’, I think they’ll be relishing us going up there. “Hopefully, it’s one of those games where the pressure is on them, they think they’ve got a good fixture for them in the position they’re in.” He added: “I saw them earlier on in the season and they certainly weren’t playing badly but they were getting beaten. “I can empathise with that, it’s not easy if that keeps happening and you have to start figuring out what’s going wrong and by that time Gary Caldwell had lost his job and Warren Joyce was in charge. “They’re a bit more pragmatic now. If you’re near the bottom of the league a bit of pragmatism is required.”
Joyce took over having been highly regarded during eight years working with Manchester United’s reserves and then U21s squad. “He’s got a very good reputation as a coach working with really good players at Manchester United,” McCarthy said. “But he has managed before, he managed Hull City and Royal Antwerp. He’s got vast experience in football and I think you could see that, certainly against Huddersfield, from how he is trying to do it. “It’s a bit different when you’re coaching Manchester United’s U21s, you’ve got the best players but he is a very good coach. I’ve no doubt that he will impress his ideas and what he wants to do on them and get them playing. “I watched it last night but comparing Wigan and Newcastle is just daft, like comparing us and Newcastle.” Despite his reputation in the game, does he believe Joyce needed to step up to managing a senior side in order to prove himself further? “You certainly get more recognition, whether it’s good recognition or bad recognition, you get more of it. “I don’t think he needs to prove himself as a coach, he’s done that, that’s for sure, but like all of us, we all want to manage a team in the league. “They’re aren’t too many that don’t. There might be some who say, ‘I’m not so sure’ but when the opportunity arises you’ve got to take it.” Current Blues loanee Tom Lawrence and former Blues Ryan Tunnicliffe and Freddie Veseli are among the recent Town players to have worked with Joyce at Old Trafford. “We’ve had a few of his players, I know him quite well,” the Town boss continued. “We’ve had some players from him in the past and I know [director of football] Dave Bowman knows him particularly well. He’s a good guy.” One of Wigan’s main threats is Northern Ireland international striker Will Grigg, who has scored six times this season. However, like the Blues the Latics have struggled for goals overall this season, having netted only 16, the lowest in the division, with Town having scored the second fewest, 19. “He scores goals, doesn’t he?” McCarthy added. “But I guess you could be asking that about us and we’d say we’re finding them particularly hard to come by, and so are they. “Both of us are just having a struggle at the minute. I think someone up there might be asking, ‘What about David McGoldrick?’ or ‘What about Freddie Sears?’. Warren Joyce might be up there saying ‘They’re both good players but finding goals hard to come by’. “They’re just a bit the same and, of course, Yanic Wildschut, who came from Middlesbrough, he ripped it up against Huddersfield on TV recently. They’ve got some decent players but they’re like us, they’ll be desperate for a win.” Is it a game Town need to win? “I always say if we’d lost on Saturday and then won the next six it wouldn’t really matter. “But if we lose on Saturday we’re not likely to win the next six, so we could do with a win.” Bartosz Bialkowski will be in goal, while McCarthy has a decision to make at left-back with Jonas Knudsen fit again after missing the Birmingham game with a tight hamstring and Myles Kenlock impressing in his absence. The 20-year-old may well have done enough to keep his place with skipper Luke Chambers at right-back and Christophe Berra and Adam Webster at the heart of the defence. McCarthy has hinted at a change of formation and could switch to a 4-3-3 system, Wigan having tended to play 4-5-1, with Cole Skuse starting in his usual deeper midfield role. Jonathan Douglas could be one of those to make way having played the week's previous two games with Kevin Bru perhaps coming into the side. Andre Dozzell is understood to be set to make his first Championship start of the season, while Jonny Williams could again be among the subs. Lawrence will continue on the left with Freddie Sears vying with Grant Ward for the right-sided role. David McGoldrick could operate down the middle with Luke Varney probably dropping to the bench alongside Brett Pitman, who is perhaps not yet ready to start. Wigan, who have lost their last four at the DW Stadium where they haven’t scored in five, could be without Everton loanee Luke Garbutt (back) and centre-half Craig Morgan (groin), the duo having picked up their injuries in the Newcastle game. Right-back is an area where they are particularly short and left-back Andy Kellett may start if Garbutt and Nathan Byrne, who has an ankle problem, both miss out, while another right-sided full-back, Reece Burke, has gone back to his parent side West Ham to undergo treatment on a hip injury. Another defender Reece James (foot), former Colchester midfielder Alex Gilbey (ankle) and one-time Town target Nick Powell (hamstring) all remain sidelined. The teams last met at a snowy Portman Road in January 2015 with the Latics on their way down to League One when the game ended in a drab 0-0 draw. "Jay Tabb had the best chance for the Blues in the first half, while McGoldrick and sub Sears had opportunities after the break, but overall a goalless draw was a fair result. Last time at the DW Stadium in September 2014, goals from Luke Hyam and Conor Sammon saw the Blues to a 2-1 victory, their first ever win at Wigan’s current home. Hyam turned home the opener on 20 and loanee Sammon netted against his old club in the 63rd minute, before Martyn Waghorn set up a nervy finish for Blues supporters when he pulled one back with eight minutes remaining. Overall, Town have beaten the Latics three times (twice in the league), have lost six times (five) and the teams have drawn once in the league and one League Cup tie. No one in either squad has represented the opposition, but Blues keeper Bialkowski had a trial with the Latics as a teenager prior to joining Southampton, while Town fitness coach Andy Liddell was a Wigan player between 1998 and 2004. Saturday’s referee is Championship stalwart Keith Stroud from Hampshire, who has shown 108 yellow cards and eight red in 23 games so far this season. Stroud’s most recent Town game was the 4-2 victory over Barnsley at Portman Road on the opening day when he awarded the Blues a penalty which was converted by McGoldrick. He booked Bru, Teddy Bishop and three Tykes. He also took control of the 3-2 home victory over the MK Dons in the final home match of last season, in which he booked Tommy Smith and one opposition player and awarded the visitors a spotkick. Prior to that Stroud was in charge of the 1-1 home draw with Birmingham in September last year in which he awarded the Blues a penalty, netted by Pitman, which was bitterly disputed by the visitors when Ainsley Maitland-Niles was felled by Jonathan Spector. He booked Berra, Douglas and two visiting players. A former Premier League referee and one-time FIFA assistant, Stroud also refereed the 3-2 defeat at Brighton in January 2015 in which he booked Bru and Noel Hunt and one Seagull. He also officiated in the 1-0 home derby defeat to Norwich at Portman Road in August 2014 and Town’s 1-0 home victory over Birmingham in March of the same year. Squad from: Bialkowski, Gerken, Chambers (c), Knudsen, Emmanuel, Kenlock, Webster, Berra, Skuse, Douglas, Bru, Dozzell, Williams, Ward, Lawrence, Varney, McGoldrick, Sears, Best, Pitman.
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