Blues Host Barnsley Aiming For Five in a Row Friday, 26th Aug 2022 17:04 Top-of-the-table Town host Barnsley at Portman Road on Saturday aiming to record five league wins in a row for the first time in nearly two decades. The Blues last won five league games on the trot in October 2003 during Joe Royle’s time as manager. Barnsley, relegated from the Championship at the end of 2021/22, have made a slow start to the campaign and currently sit in 16th having won twice and drawn once at home and lost both their away games. Blues boss Kieran McKenna says that may not be a surprise after a summer of change in which a number of players have moved on and Michael Duff has come in as boss. “I think you can quite often see it when a team’s dropped down a division,” he said. “Sometimes they can keep the whole squad together and bounce straight away with good form like other teams have done, but other teams there’s a little bit of an adjustment, and I think Ipswich certainly know about that it’s not an easy adjustment to make, coming from the Championship to League One. “But they still have a very good squad, they have a lot of players who performed very well for them at the top end of the Championship two years ago and were in the play-offs, in the team which Conor Chaplin played in, so there’s still a good part of that group around as well. “So we know they have good quality, we know that they’re still finding their way a little bit as a team but we know they can be a big threat. “They’ve had very difficult games so far, so I haven’t read too much into their results, more the fact that we know they’re a good team, we’ve studied very hard how they’ve played in their early games, we generally think we know what to expect and it’s about being ready mentally and physically for that challenge that’s coming.” McKenna, whose side are unbeaten in the league having won four following a 1-1 home draw with Bolton on the opening day, faced Duff last season during his time at Cheltenham - the Robins held the Blues to a frustrating 0-0 draw at Portman Road in February - and the Town manager says there are things you can learn from having faced a boss’s previous club. “There’s some aspects that you can see,” he said. “I think with all managers you can see what’s really important to them and you can understand by watching a team play what they do in training at times. “And there are certain aspects to Barnsley in which we can see a correlation with Cheltenham. “Things that Michael coached his team very well on at Cheltenham and you can see that they’re doing the same work at Barnsley because you can see it in the habits of the players. “So, we’re aware of what their principles are on and off the ball. We haven’t looked back at the Cheltenham game as a reference or anything like that but I can see some correlation. “Obviously at Barnsley they probably have more players of a higher experience level, a lot of players who have come from Championship level, whereas Cheltenham were newly promoted to League One, so I’d imagine it’ll be a different challenge, a different dressing room, a different expectation, but there’s certainly tactical elements that I can see across the two teams.”
McKenna has plenty of options at his disposal having made five changes for last week’s win at Shrewsbury. Christian Walton will be in goal with George Edmundson perhaps returning to the back three for Cameron Burgess on the left alongside Luke Woolfenden and Janoi Donacien. Leif Davis will continue as the left wing-back and Kane Vincent-Young will probably be on the right with Wes Burns having only returned to training on Friday after his groin strain. In central midfield, skipper Sam Morsy will be joined by Lee Evans with Dominic Ball likely to be on the bench and hoping to make his Blues debut in the second half. Chaplin, facing his old club, and Marcus Harness are likely to be the number 10s with Tyreece John-Jules perhaps again getting the nod as the central striker following his goalscoring performance against the Shrews. As is becoming familiar, the likes of Kayden Jackson, another ex-Barnsley man, Freddie Ladapo, Sone Aluko, Kyle Edwards and Greg Leigh will come off the bench to freshen things up in the last half hour.
Barnsley boss Duff says his squad suffered no new injury issues during Wednesday's 3-1 Carabao Cup defeat to Leeds. “Everyone came through the game. Obviously, bumps and bruises. We had them in yesterday for a recovery day. Today they're still a little bit sore with the second day recovery, the travel added to that as well,” he told his club's official website. “There's lots of factors, but there can't be excuses. We'll deal with it today, but once the players run out tomorrow it's 11 v 11 for 90 minutes against a very good team.” Regarding Town, he added: “They play some really good football. Everyone will talk about the football and the points they've collected, but in the 30 games Kieran has been in charge I think they've kept 15 clean sheets. That tells you how hard they are to break down, never mind all the good stuff that comes with it. “Everyone knows they've had a go, they've spent money, but there's a definite clear structure to what they're doing now as well. It's a tough, tough game.” Barnsley have made seven signings so far this summer with more expected before the window closes next Thursday. As well as ex-Blues frontman James Norwood joining on a free, central defenders Conor McCarthy and Robbie Cundy came in on the same basis from St Mirren and Bristol City respectively, as did winger Nicky Cadden from Forest Green Rovers, keeper Jamie Searle from Swansea and midfielder Luca Connell from Celtic. Striker Slobodan Tedic has joined on loan from Manchester City. Among those to have moved on are strike pair Carlton Morris and Cauley Woodrow, who both joined Luton with the Blues having shown interest in the latter, Victor Adeboyego, who faced Town for Burton Albion recently, Romal Palmer, who departed for Turkish side Goztepe, and Callum Brittain, who is now with Blackburn. Historically, Town have done well against the South Yorkshiremen, winning 24 games between the sides (23 in the league), drawing 10 (10) and losing 13 (11). The teams last met in April 2018 at Portman Road when Jonas Knudsen nodded home the only goal as Town beat the relegation-threatened Tykes 1-0 in what turned out to be manager Mick McCarthy’s last game in charge of the Blues. The Danish international headed Mustapha Carayol’s corner past keeper Adam Davies in the 54th minute. McCarthy ended a brief post-match press conference by announcing it was his final match with the Blues before walking out. When the teams met at Oakwell in August the previous year, half-time subs David McGoldrick and Martyn Waghorn scored the goals which saw Town come from a goal behind to win 2-1. Tom Bradshaw put the Tykes in front in the 15th minute but after a reshuffle at the break, McGoldrick volleyed home an equaliser on 53 and league debutant Waghorn sealed the three points in the 70th minute as Town recorded three wins in their opening three games of a season for the first time since 2002/03. The teams most famously met at Wembley in the 2000 play-off final when the Blues won 4-2 to claim a place in the Premier League with Tony Mowbray, Richard Naylor, Marcus Stewart and Martijn Reuser the scorers. Earlier that season, Barnsley visited Portman Road for August’s final fixture - as they do on Saturday - and were hammered 6-1, David Johnson netting twice and Naylor, Mark Venus, James Scowcroft and Jim Magilton once each. Striker Norwood joined the Tykes having been released by the Blues after three years in the summer. Norwood, who moved to Town on a free transfer from Tranmere in the summer of 2019, scored 28 goals in 57 starts and 29 sub appearances while with the Blues. Winger Luke Thomas was on loan with Town from Barnsley in the second half of 2019/20 but made only four starts and one sub appearance before taking some time away from the game for the sake of his “mental and physical health”. Forward Chaplin joined Town from the Tykes in the summer of 2021 following two years at Oakwell in which he made 73 starts and 13 sub appearances, scoring 17 times. Blues skipper Sam Morsy was on loan with the Tykes during the first half of 2016/17, making 12 starts and two sub appearances. Town frontman Kayden Jackson spent the whole of 2016/17 at Barnsley without making a senior appearance. Saturday’s referee is Stephen Martin from Staffordshire, who has shown seven yellow cards and no red in three games so far this season. Martin’s most recent Town match was the 1-0 win against Gillingham at Portman Road in February in which he cautioned only one of the visitors. Prior to that, he was in charge of the 2-1 home victory over Bristol Rovers in April last year in which he yellow-carded Tomas Holy, Aaron Drinan and one Pirate. He previously refereed the 2-2 home draw with Blackpool in November 2019 in which he booked two of the visitors and no Blues. Before that he was in charge of the 4-0 defeat at Preston in April 2019 in which he yellow-carded only Myles Kenlock. He also refereed the 3-2 home defeat to Millwall on New Year’s Day the same year in which he booked just Lions sub Steve Morison and the 0-0 home draw with Bolton in September 2018 in which he red-carded Trotters’ defender Marc Wilson and booked Tayo Edun and Trevoh Chalobah. Martin was at Portman Road for the 2-2 draw with Millwall in April 2018 in which he booked Mustapha Carayol, Jordan Spence, Stephen Gleeson and Martyn Waghorn and no Lions. Previously he was in control of the 1-1 draw at Barnsley in March 2017 when Cole Skuse was shown the game’s only yellow card. Two months earlier he had been in charge of the 1-1 draw at Preston in which he cautioned two home players and no Blues. Martin also refereed the 1-0 defeat at Leeds in September 2016, in which he booked only Christophe Berra and Kevin Bru, and the 2-0 defeat at Brentford the previous month in which he yellow-carded Adam Webster. He also officiated in the 1-0 home defeat to Rotherham in March that year, in which he booked Knudsen and one Miller, as well as the 2-1 home victory over Fulham on the opening day of 2014/15 in which he cautioned Berra, Tyrone Mings and Luke Hyam. Martin refereed the 2-0 home victory over Brighton in September 2013, when he booked only one visiting player, and 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: Walton, Hladky, Donacien, Woolfenden, Edmundson, Keogh, Burgess, Burns, Vincent-Young, Leigh, Davis, Morsy (c), Evans, Ball, Humphreys, Aluko, Harness, Edwards, Chaplin, John-Jules, Ladapo, Jackson.
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