Town Look to Match 1999 Start as Brentford Visit Friday, 18th Aug 2017 17:13 Town go into Saturday’s home game against Brentford looking to win their opening five matches in all competitions at the start of the season for the first time since the 1999/00 promotion campaign and with a chance of topping the fledgling Championship table. The Blues are currently third on goal difference behind Cardiff and Wolves - who play one another at Molineux - the only other teams with 100 per cent Championship records after three matches. Coincidentally, the run at the start of the 1999/00 season - which ultimately ended in promotion to the Premier League via the play-offs at Wembley - included 2-0 home and away League Cup victories over the Bees. The early season form, which also included a 2-0 Carabao Cup victory at Luton, has transformed the mood among fans, who in many cases were fearful for the campaign ahead after a 6-1 hammering in the final pre-season friendly at Charlton followed a fractious and less than enthralling 2016/17 in which the Blues finished 16th, their worst position for 58 years. Quizzed on what’s changed in the months since then, manager Mick McCarthy said: “Somebody else asked me that and I said I didn’t have a clue how the hell that’s happened, where that’s come from I've no idea. “Maybe it was the work we did in pre-season and maybe it’s the signings that I’ve made as well. “Joe Garner’s been a huge difference, Waggy [Martyn Waghorn] has. I’ve had to change the shape a few times, the lads have all bought into it. “And sometimes the youngsters that come in give everybody a bit of a buzz. It’s great when somebody like Flynn Downes or Tristan Nydam comes in and plays well and gives everybody a lift. We did a lot of work in pre-season and it’s paying off at the moment.” After such a positive start to the season and three away wins on the trot in addition to the opening day home win against Birmingham, McCarthy is anticipating a big Portman Road crowd on Saturday. “I hope so," he said. “Somebody asked me my ambition and I said to them that it would be to get back to winning ways and recapture hearts and minds and belief and confidence in players, and the club. “I’m not bothered about me, to be honest, I’m not fussed at all. It just really upset me that the club which is really such a good club and has got a good following was just down in the dumps and I don’t like that, I feel bad about it.” Did he become ground down by the derogatory chants aimed in his direction from the Portman Road terraces during much of last season? “And if we lose two it’ll be back to that again, I’ve no doubt so, no, it didn’t bother me at all,” he added. “It’s not self-interest for me, it really did hurt me that the club that I’m in charge of - so I know it’s me, it’s directed at me - [was down in the dumps]. “I just prefer it when the players are getting applauded and the club’s in a good place, like it is this week. So let’s hope we can have a good performance and a win and keep it that way.” Town’s start to the campaign has been all the more impressive given the lengthy injury list with skipper Luke Chambers the latest to join the ranks of those on the sidelines having sustained an ankle injury during the 4-3 win at Millwall on Tuesday. Chambers’s absence along with that of Tommy Smith (hamstring) and Adam Webster (ankle) means the Blues are without any out-and-out senior centre-halves going into Saturday’s game. With matches coming thick and fast McCarthy says it’s not really been possible to spend too much additional time out on the training field. “Extra work after playing Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday? It’s been R and R as much as anything,” he said. “They all came in on Thursday having had the day off on Wednesday. It’s been making sure they’re right, certainly not working them hard and getting them in defensive shape. “They all know their jobs. It’s making sure they’re full of energy and are ready to go on Saturday.” He joked: “We had an old versus young game this morning and it was the FA Youth Cup team versus the remnants of the first team!” No thoughts of putting his own boots back on given the dearth of central defenders? “The mind’s willing, the body isn’t. I’ve packed that game in altogether,” he joked ruefully.
While the loss of Chambers, Smith and Webster has been a blow, McCarthy’s squad is full of players who can play a number of roles. Jordan Spence, Jonas Knudsen and Dominic Iorfa can all operate at centre-half even if they're primarily full-backs, while Grant Ward revealed he played virtually everywhere during his time as a youngster at Spurs - including centre-half - earlier in the week and Cole Skuse was regularly a full-back earlier in his career at Bristol City. “If they’ve got a bit of versatility then they’ve got more chance of playing,” McCarthy continued. “If you say you play in behind the front two and that’s all, well you’re pretty much never going to get a game in my team anyway. “But if you say you can play right-back or are asked to fill in at left-back and say ‘No problem, gaffer, I’ll do that for you, I’m right-footed but it’s no problem’, he’s going to get a game. The one that goes, ‘I’m not so sure’, he’s on his pedaler.” Brentford are currently fourth bottom of the table having taken only a point from their first three league games, which McCarthy says isn’t a fair reflection of their performances. “I can’t believe they’re on one point,” he said. “I’ve seen bits of all their games, but I watched them play Bristol City on Tuesday and they absolutely bashed them, they were camped in their half for most of the time and the Bristol City keeper made some great saves. “It ended up two-all in the eighth minute of injury time. They must be scratching their heads. “But I don’t think [manager Dean Smith will] be worried, I think he’ll be saying if we keep playing like that [then they’ll be OK]. “And it concerns me because I think they’re a really good side. I think they’re bright, they’ve got good movement, they certainly get the ball down and pass it as we’ve seen in the past. “It’ll be a different game in terms of it being mentally tough with the movement that they have and the rotation that they have, as opposed to the game on Tuesday night which was a real scrap. But you’ve got to play all sorts of different ways.” Is McCarthy hoping for a game which is somewhat tighter than Tuesday’s match at the Den? “Not if we win 4-3, not at all,” he laughed. “Of course I’d like to see that but that was hard to deal with, I’m not bothered who you’re playing with, they put good balls in the box, they’ve got good guys who can do that and they made us suffer at times with that. “But I’d also say we stood up to it as well, we handled a lot more balls that came into the box and I thought our front four or five were great and we scored four good goals. “I said before that the irony was that we scored with a freekick, it was a great delivery and Jordan got the winner. But I don’t want to be conceding three goals, you’re not going to score four every week.” Bartosz Bialkowski will continue in goal, while McCarthy will have to decide whether to go with a three or four-man backline. He could opt to start with Iorfa and Knudsen either side of Spence with Myles Kenlock at left wing-back and Ward at right wing-back, which would probably see Cole Skuse joined in midfield by Downes, who is back after missing the Millwall match with a calf knock, and Waghorn, who scored twice at the Den to take his total to three in his last two games, or perhaps Nydam. However, even if Waghorn started in the advanced central midfield role that system would mean McCarthy would have to drop one of Freddie Sears, David McGoldrick or Garner, which he may be loath to do with the Irish international having scored three times and the June signing from Rangers twice so far. Town's conversion of their Championship shots on target this season is a remarkable 88 per cent, both their attempts on goal having been scored in the 2-1 win at Barnsley last week and all four in the 4-3 victory at the Den. Their three against Birmingham yielded only Garner's winning goal. Although Sears is yet to join his fellow frontmen in finding the net, McCarthy has been delighted with the former Colchester man’s displays so far. “Of course he [needs a goal] but Freddie is so selfless,” the Blues boss said. “I’m sure he wants a goal. “But I know with Freddie that whenever the team’s playing well and he’s playing well and we’re winning, it’s not going to bother him. It’s not going to bother me either because I’ll leave him in the team as I’ve done in the past.” Despite the open nature of the Millwall game and his lack of central defensive options, McCarthy looks likely to stick with 4-4-2, which would see Knudsen partner Spence at the heart of the defence with Myles Kenlock - or perhaps Ward - on the left and Dominic Iorfa on the right. Downes may well come into the middle if Ward switches to full-back with Sears on the left, Waghorn on the right and McGoldrick and Garner up front. Bees boss Smith says he believes his team’s displays have been worth more than the single point. "It could so easily be nine points out of three games, so I'm not too despondent,” he told the official Brentford website. "Obviously I would like a lot more points but I've always said that it's about performances and usually the performances will bring you results. "It was very disappointing that we conceded in the 98th minute [at home to Bristol City on Tuesday]. I was very calm after the game as I went into the dressing room and I enjoyed watching us play on Tuesday night. "I thought we played some terrific stuff, they had to defend tremendously well because on another day we could have scored five or six.” Looking ahead to Saturday’s game, the one-time Walsall boss added: "It's always a tough test against one of Mick's team's anyway and they've started the season really well. They've won all four games, played well and it's going to be a test for us. "They've got good players there, they have a management team that has been there and done it, and got teams out of this league. We have to concentrate on ourselves, we'll pay them the full respect they deserve but the important thing is how we approach the game. "One of my big things this week is to make sure the lads still believe in what they are doing because it can be easy when you're not picking up points to lose focus and not believe in what's happening. The performances have inspired me to believe we are on the right track to where we want to get to.” Midfielder Josh McEachran misses out with a leg injury he picked up during Tuesday’s game, while full-back Rico Henry was absent for the draw with the Robins but is expected to be OK to face the Blues. Winger Sergi Canos isn’t yet ready to make his return from an ankle problem. Alan Judge has still not returned from the broken leg he suffered at Portman Road in April 2016. Midfielder Ryan Woods has missed the last two matches and remains on compassionate leave after he and his partner suffered the loss of their unborn baby. The sides have only met on 14 previous occasions with the Blues having had the better of the West Londoners overall, although not in league competition. Town have won six of the games between the teams (two in the league), the Bees three (three) with five (five) ending in draws. Last time the teams face one another, at Portman Road in March, Emyr Huws gave Town a 26th minute lead and Nico Yennaris equalised a minute before half-time for Brentford as the Blues and Bees drew 1-1. The visitors came closest to winning it in the second half when Kenlock cleared a Canos effort off the line, while Skuse had the Blues’ best chance. In August last year 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. Currently injured Town centre-half Tommy Smith was on loan at Brentford between January and March 2010, making eight starts. 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 Oliver Langford from the West Midlands, who has shown six yellow cards and no red in three games so far this season. Langford’s most recent Town match was the 2-1 win at Burton at Easter in which he booked only Sears. He also refereed the 1-1 East Anglian derby draw at Carrow Road in February in which he again booked Sears as well as Spence. Prior to that he was in charge of the 2-0 home defeat to Fulham on Boxing Day in which he booked Tom Lawrence, McGoldrick and one Cottager. Langford also took control of the 2-0 home victory over Burton Albion last October in which he booked Skuse and two Brewers. Before that he refereed the 0-0 home draw with Charlton in April last year, in which he yellow-carded Knudsen and two Addicks, and the 2-1 home defeat to Leicester in November 2013, in which he booked only Chambers. The only other Town game he has officiated in was the 2-0 defeat at Leeds in April of the same year when David Norris, by then with the Whites, was the only player cautioned. Squad from: Bialkowski, Gerken, Spence, Iorfa, Knudsen, Kenlock, Woolfenden, C Smith, Skuse, Downes, Nydam, Ward, McDonnell, Celina, Rowe, Garner, Sears, McGoldrick, Waghorn, Morris.
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