Camara and Leigh Set to Feature as Pompey Visit in Papa Johns Trophy Monday, 21st Nov 2022 16:13 Panutche Camara could make his first Town start and Greg Leigh is set to be involved at some stage as the Blues host Portsmouth in the Papa Johns Trophy round of 32 on Tuesday (KO 7.45pm). The Blues topped their group after victories over Northampton, 6-0, Arsenal’s U21s, 2-0, and a 1-0 loss at Cambridge United. That handed them a home tie in the first knockout round against Pompey, who were second in their group following a 2-2 draw at Crawley in which the Red Devils won the penalty shootout 6-5, a 5-0 win against Aston Villa’s U21s and a 3-1 on-penalties win at home to AFC Wimbledon following a 1-1 draw. Town boss Kieran McKenna has fielded changed but still strong teams in the tournament, giving his fringe players and those coming back from injury minutes. Midfielder Camara looks set to make his first start having joined the club from Plymouth with a groin problem and having made three sub appearances over the last month or so, scoring his first goal in the FA Cup tie at Bracknell. Quizzed on whether the Guinea-Bissau international would make his full debut against Pompey following Saturday’s 2-0 win at Exeter, McKenna admitted that at that point he hadn’t given the match too much thought. “I haven’t pencilled too much in yet, to be honest,” he said. “With the bodies that we have at the moment, it was 100 per cent all eyes on this game, I hadn’t mentioned one single word about the EFL Trophy to the players before the dressing room there now because when the draw was made I didn’t want any focus on anything other than the league games ahead. “We’ll start to plan now and we’ll look at who is fit and available on Monday and pick a team from there.”
Left-back Greg Leigh made the trip to St James Park and spent much of the match watching from the stand talking with on-loan Town midfielder Rekeem Harper. McKenna confirmed that the Jamaica international, who has been out since the Sheffield Wednesday match in mid-September due to a compression fracture to his leg, would play some part. “He’ll be involved, I’m not sure how many minutes,” he said. “He’s only trained for one and a half days really, but we wanted him to be come and travel and be around the group today and, touch wood, he’ll be in the squad for Tuesday.” McKenna, speaking this lunchtime, says there are a few knocks and niggles from Saturday’s win at Exeter. “We’re still working through that recovery process,” he told iFollow Ipswich. “We had quite a few knocks and niggles after the game. Leif [Davis] going off, Conor [Chaplin] going off and JD [Janoi Donacien] with an issue as well, amongst a few others. “We’re still working through that. We’ve not been able to train much, of course, so it’s just been about recovery and we’re going to have to make late decisions on availability for the game. “It’s a game in a different competition that we’d like to do well in, but we have to prioritise the squad and the big fixtures and the big competitions we have coming up. “The boys are all in, all in good spirits, of course everyone enjoyed the result and lots of aspects of the performance on Saturday and it’s just been recovering people and we’ll make some decisions on Tuesday.” Pompey are similarly likely to make changes to their team but McKenna anticipates a tough game whoever Danny Cowley fields. “It’s a knockout game so both teams will want to win,” he continued. “Portsmouth have a really strong squad as well, so whether they make changes or don’t make changes we know it will be a good team, a competitive fixture. Both teams will want to win the game. “That’s settled on the night, 90 minutes and/or penalties. We’ll recover today and tomorrow we look forward to the game and it should be a good competitive fixture between two good teams and hopefully we’ll try to go through to the next round.” Reflecting on the competition, McKenna feels it has been useful for Town this season, having been seen as something of an imposition by previous managers. “It has, especially the early games when you’ve got everybody fit and available,” he said. “It’s a balancing act because we don’t have that and we need to manage the bodies in the squad in the appropriate way. “On the other hand, of course, it’s a cup competition against a good team and we’re in the knockout rounds, so we want to win but we have to make sensible decisions about availability and we’ll assess how everyone is.” In addition to the injuries, striker Gassan Ahadme is ineligible having appeared for Burton earlier in the competition, while Kyle Edwards is suspended following his red card at Cambridge. With Town not having another league game until Fleetwood’s visit to Portman Road on December 2nd, McKenna is likely to want to give most of his regulars at least one of this week’s two cup games with National League North Buxton in Suffolk on Sunday. The Blues boss is likely to start Vaclav Hladky in goal against Pompey, although there is an outside chance that recent signing Joel Coleman might be handed his debut. At the back, Richard Keogh may well come in, perhaps alongside Cameron Burgess, who made his first league start since mid-September on Saturday and was among Town's stand-out performers. With Donacien appearing certain to be rested having been a doubt ahead of the Grecians game, Edwin Agbaje could be handed his second start in the competition on the right of the defence with Kane Vincent-Young probably needed on the left with Leigh unlikely to be considered for a start. Kayden Jackson could be wide on the right. In central midfield, Camara may be joined by skipper Sam Morsy with Town short on options with Dominic Ball and Lee Evans currently sidelined and Cameron Humphreys perhaps being rested and involved on Sunday. In the number 10 roles, Chaplin, assuming he’s fit, and Marcus Harness could start against their old club with the Blues also short of experienced options in that area of the field. Up front, Freddie Ladapo seems the likely starter with Ahadme perhaps being given the nod against Buxton, while Gerrard Buabo may be among the subs having featured from the bench in the cup games at Cambridge and Buxton. Other youngsters such as central defender Albie Armin and forwards Tawanda Chirewa, Zanda Siziba and Matt Ward could also be included on the bench. Pompey will be without on-loan Town striker Joe Pigott under the terms of his temporary move, while Ipswich-born midfielder Joe Morrell is at the World Cup with Wales. One-time Town target Michael Jacobs (hamstring), Tom Lowery (hamstring), Joe Rafferty (stomach), Jayden Reid (knee) and Louis Thompson (leg) are all sidelined with injury. The rules of the competition oblige League One and Two clubs to field four qualifying outfield players in their starting XI. A qualifying outfield player is someone who started the club's previous match, starts the following first-team game, someone in the top 10 players at the club in terms starting appearances in league and domestic cup competitions in the season up to this point, a player with 40 or more first-team appearances over their career or a player on loan from a Premier League or category one EFL side. If clubs transgress that rule they face a £5,000 fine. The Blues should have no trouble in meeting the requirements for tomorrow's match. Should the tie remain level at full-time, it goes straight to a penalty shootout with the winners going into the round of 16, the final round split on a north/south basis. Historically, the Blues have won 21 games against Portsmouth (20 in the league), 13 have been draws (12) and Pompey have won 16 (12). The teams last met in October at Portman Road when goals from Harness, Ladapo and Wes Burns saw Town to a dramatic 3-2 victory over previously unbeaten Portsmouth, who had twice levelled from the penalty spot. Harness netted against his old club on 25 but Colby Bishop converted the first of two spot-kicks for Pompey seven minutes later. In the second half the game was settled after three goals in seven minutes, sub Ladapo put the Blues back in front in the 74th minute with his first touch but Bishop again equalised from the spot on 79, however, straight from the kick-off Town won it through Burns. Last season at Portman Road, in March, Macauley Bonne saw a late goal disallowed as Town and Portsmouth drew 0-0. The Blues had been the better side for the most part against a frustrating and determined Pompey team and thought Bonne had won it in the 88th minute only for a linesman to incorrectly raise a flag. In October last year at Fratton Park, Bonne, Chaplin, Sone Aluko and Burns were on target in a 4-0 Blues win. Bonne gave Town the lead with his 10th goal of the season four minutes before the break when he embarrassed home keeper Gavin Bazunu, then Chaplin netted against his old side on 54 and Aluko made it 3-0 four minutes later, before Burns added the fourth in the 75th to complete the rout. Blues forward Chaplin joined Pompey as a six-year-old and progressed through their youth ranks into the first team before leaving to join Coventry in January 2019. He made 36 starts and 86 sub appearances, scoring 25 times. Fellow forward Harness was with Pompey from July 2019 until this summer when he joined the Blues, making 117 starts and 17 sub appearances, scoring 31 times. Recent signing Gassan Ahadme, who is ineligible in the competition, spent the first half of last season on loan with Portsmouth, scoring once in six starts and four sub appearances. Town striker Pigott is on loan at Fratton Park for the season but is ineligible against the Blues. Portsmouth winger Jacobs came close to joining Town in the summer of 2021 but, having passed a medical and with personal terms agreed, the Blues pulled the plug on the deal and opted to sign Kyle Edwards instead. Portsmouth midfielder Ryan Tunnicliffe spent 2013/14 on loan at Town from Manchester United, making 24 starts and five sub appearances without scoring. Tuesday’s referee is Tom Nield from West Yorkshire, who has shown 40 yellow cards and no red in 15 games so far this season. Nield’s last Town match was the 2-0 defeat at Sunderland a year ago this week in which he awarded the Black Cats a late penalty for handball after a Ross Stewart shot struck Toto Nsiala, who was standing just in front of him which Aiden McGeady converted. In addition, he booked Bersant Celina and four home players. Before that, he refereed the 0-0 home draw with the MK Dons in March in which he booked only Flynn Downes and Armando Dobra. Prior to that Nield, who is a senior nurse/matron with the Acute & Emergency Service at the Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, officiated in the Blues’ 1-0 win at Hull City in February 2021 in which he yellow-carded Nsiala, Myles Kenlock, Keanan Bennetts and two Tigers. He also took control of the 0-0 draw with Oxford at the Kassam Stadium in 2019/20 when he took the players off for 15 minutes due to monsoon conditions and cautione Gwion Edwards and one home player. Nield’s only other Blues match was the 4-0 Leasing.com Trophy victory over Gillingham at Portman Road in October 2019 in which he yellow-carded Emyr Huws and two Gills. Squad from: Hladky, Coleman, Walton, Donacien, Woolfenden, Edmundson, Keogh, Burgess, Armin, Burns, Vincent-Young, Leigh, Agbaje, Morsy, Camara, Humphreys, Harness, Chaplin, Ladapo, Jackson, Buabo, Chirewa, Siziba, Ward.
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