Town Face Brentford Looking to Take February Form Into March Friday, 3rd Mar 2017 06:00 Town face Brentford at Portman Road on Saturday looking to take their impressive February form into March. The Blues went through the second month of 2017 unbeaten in all five games picking up seven points after drawing with with three of the Championship's top five teams - Brighton, Leeds and Reading - and eighth-placed Norwich, while inflicting Aston Villa's first home defeat of the season. Manager Mick McCarthy says that while the mood was never too downcast prior to the return to form, morale has certainly improved in recent weeks. “They weren’t too down in the dumps but we weren’t feeling great about ourselves either,” he said. “This is my place of work and it wasn’t going as well as I’d like and it wasn’t going as well as the players liked. “I think the rest of you when you go to work and it’s not going particularly well for you, you probably go home and have a bottle of beer and give out to the wife. It’s no different, it’s a job. “It’s a job that’s viewed by a lot of people and gets a lot of opinion and a lot of comments. It’s a lot better place this weekend than it was five weeks ago.” February’s results have reduced the pressure on the previously under-fire Town boss with large sections of the Blues support booing and jeering during games in December and January. McCarthy has been pleased with the backing his team has received more recently and says it’s important to keep fans onside. “You never want to lose them, you never want to lose the fans and the support,” he added. “I think pretty much the majority have stayed with us and I think the performances and the results over recent weeks, Sunday’s performance and result, certainly help. “But it hasn’t stopped there, we’ve been very mindful of the fact that we’ve got two important home games coming up.” Despite the improved performances the Blues have dropped to 16th, only nine points from the relegation zone - the play-offs are now well out of reach 16 points away - but he says he’s not concerned about getting drawn into the battle at the wrong end of the table. “I’m a lot happier and worry less about things when we’re playing how we’re playing, that’s the thing,” McCarthy continued.
“I’m more confident that we’ll win games and certainly not lose games playing the way we’re playing. I don’t mean the shape, I mean just how well we’re playing, how well the team’s playing. “It’s less of a worry generally, never mind whether you’re going to be in the top 10 or the bottom 10 or the bottom three, which is the worst place to be, of course. “Everybody, I think, is just feeling better about the team and far more confident and we’ve a bit more belief about us that we can win more games than not.” Looking at Brentford, who beat the Blues 2-0 at Griffin Park in August and are three places and one point ahead of Town, McCarthy says there tend to be a lot of goals in their games with their last five having featured 26. “They’ve scored a lot of goals, a bit like Norwich, scored a lot, conceded a lot,” he added. “They play pretty expansive wide football and they can open you up, as we saw when we went down there and played there, certainly in the second half. “But we were hopeless in that game and I’d hope for a much better performance against them than that. They’ve got some good players and they’re very capable.” He says the Bees have coped well with losing many of the key players from their side which reached the play-offs two years ago, including midfielders Toumani Diagouraga and Jonathan Douglas, who are now with the Blues, and striker Andre Gray, who is now in the Premier League with Burnley. “Yes and Scott Hogan [who joined Aston Villa] more recently, of course. They’ve continued to play the way they play. “I guess they’re a smaller club that doesn’t get great gates and I guess they’ve got to take that money when it comes along to regenerate and keep going. But they’ve done fabulously well. “They’re a real threat, they’ve had some strange results. I’ve seen them lose at home and been surprised and then they’ve gone away and beaten someone by four and you think ‘Wow!’. That’s their potential, I guess.” McCarthy seems likely to stick with essentially the side which drew 1-1 at Norwich last Sunday, although with striker Tom Lawrence back from his two-match suspension and joining David McGoldrick up front. Freddie Sears will drop to the bench. In midfield, the Blues boss seems likely to continue with Emyr Huws, Grant Ward and Cole Skuse. However, former Bee Diagouraga could come in for Skuse or perhaps Ward. Jordan Spence and Myles Kenlock are likely to continue as the wing-backs with Jonas Knudsen again set to start in the back three to the left of Christophe Berra and skipper Luke Chambers. As at Carrow Road, Tommy Smith, who McCarthy feels may not yet be ready to start following his long lay-off, could come off the bench at some stage allowing the Danish international to move to left wing-back. Brentford will be without centre-half Harlee Dean as he is banned for two games having amassed 10 bookings. The Bees expect to have striker Lasse Vibe back after a calf injury which saw him miss the 2-1 win at Sheffield Wednesday and last week’s 4-2 home victory over Rotherham United. Another frontman, Philipp Hofmann, is closing in on a return after a back problem but the Town game may come too soon for him, while midfielder Josh McEachran is out having sustained an ankle injury against the Owls. Alan McCormack remains sidelined and Alan Judge, who broke his leg in last season’s corresponding fixture, is back in non-contact training. Head coach Dean Smith believes his side has built up some momentum having won their last two games following a run of only one victory in the previous seven in all competitions. “I feel that we should have had more wins on the spin,” he told Bees Player. “The Reading game [which they lost 3-2] is one that grates at me a little because our performance was more than good enough to win. “It is nice to have followed that up with a good win against Sheffield Wednesday and against Rotherham United. “We have got a run of games where, if we get the performances, then hopefully the results will keep ticking along.” Smith has been impressed with what he has seen of Town of late: “They have been playing very well. I watched a number of their recent games and they have drawn against Brighton and Hove Albion, Leeds United, and Reading. They won at Aston Villa and drew last week against Norwich City. “They have changed their system and it seems to suit them. Tom Lawrence is back and he has been a threat for them. “David McGoldrick, who is always instrumental in how they play, is back from injury so it will be a tough game for us. “However, we feel that we have been good over that same period so it should make for a good game. “Mick McCarthy’s teams are very committed and they will make it difficult for us. If you look at the teams that they have played and the performances they have put in, it will be a tough game.” The sides have only met on 13 previous occasions with the Blues having had much the better of the West Londoners. Overall, Town have won six of the games between the teams (two in the league), the Bees three (three) with four (four) ending in draws. In August at Griffin Park, Brentford defender John Egan scored twice just after the break to consign the Blues to a 2-0 defeat. Egan nodded home a header on 48 and then slammed in a rebound eight minutes later. Last time at Portman Road in April at last year, 10-man Town fell to a 3-1 defeat to Brentford as their all but faded play-off hopes suffered a further setback. After Bees winger Judge had been stretchered off early on with a broken leg, the visitors went ahead through Sam Saunders before the Blues were reduced to 10 men when Luke Hyam, booked for the challenge which led to Judge’s departure, was shown his second yellow card for his clash with Woods just before-half-time. After the break, Vibe sealed the win for the West Londoners with two quick-fire goals with Liam Feeney netting late consolation for the Blues. Three current Town players have previously been with Brentford. Centre-half Tommy Smith was on loan at Brentford between January and March 2010, making eight starts. Former Bees skipper Douglas joined the Blues on a free transfer in the summer of 2015 having made 186 starts and one sub appearance while at Griffin Park, scoring 17 goals. Blues loanee Toumani Diagouraga was with the Bees between January 2010, initially on loan, and January 2016, making 208 starts and 36 sub appearances, scoring seven goals. Brentford winger Judge came close to joining the Blues from Notts County in the summer of 2013 but ended up moving to Blackburn. Saturday’s referee is Scott Duncan, who has shown 82 yellow cards and nine red in 26 games so far this season. Duncan’s most recent Town match was the 3-0 away win at Charlton in November 2015 in which he booked two Addicks and no Blues. The Northumberland-based official, who shares a name with a former Blues manager, also took control of the Blues in the 4-1 after-extra-time win at Doncaster in the Capital One Cup in August of the same year in which he booked Myles Kenlock and two home players. Prior to that Duncan was in charge of the 1-1 home draw with Brentford the previous season and the November 2013 1-0 victory over Charlton at The Valley. Squad from: Bialkowski, Gerken, Chambers (c), Knudsen, Kenlock, Emmanuel, Spence, Berra, T Smith, Digby, Skuse, Huws, Diagouraga, Douglas, Bru, Ward, Hyam, Rowe, McGoldrick, Lawrence, Sears, Pitman, Moore.
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