Blues boss Paul Jewell goes into Saturday’s game against Championship leaders Blackpool looking for his side to continue their positive start to the season. Although delighted with his team’s performance in Tuesday’s 1-0 victory at Watford, he wants them to give opposition keepers busier games.
The Town squad travel today and will train at Stoke City this afternoon at the start of five days away, with the Capital One Cup match at Carlisle on Tuesday. The Blues will train at Football League new boys Fleetwood on Monday.
Despite the good start to the campaign, Jewell says that this doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll go into the visit to Bloomfield Road with precisely the same approach as at Watford on Tuesday: "I think every game you have to respect the opposition and take every game on its own merits. Just because you win a game doesn’t always mean you’re going to play exactly the same way.
"What we’re trying to do is play with that freedom expressing ourselves, passing the ball in the right areas at the right time.
"The only thing where I thought we let ourselves down on the other night was that we didn’t work the goalkeeper hard enough for all the possession and quality situations we got in.
"Our shots ratio was high, but on target it wasn’t good enough. So, that’s an area where we need to improve.”
Blackpool lost last season’s Championship play-off final 2-1 to West Ham and Jewell sees parallels with his Wigan side’s experience at the end of the 2003/04 season: "I remember when we were at Wigan we got knocked out of the play-off places with the last kick of the game against West Ham.
"We used that disappointment and the emptiness that we felt after that last game of the season in a positive way to bounce back and got promoted the next year.
"It can work both ways and I’m sure Ian Holloway has worked exceptionally hard on the mental side with the players.”
He says stability and Holloway’s ability to replace the players who have moved on have been key factors in the Seasiders’ success in recent years: "You look at their team, they’ve got really good players and most of them have been together for a long time, three or four seasons — the goalkeeper, the right-back, the left-back, the centre-halves. Tom Ince has done terrifically well, Matt Phillips out wide as well. They’re a really good, expansive team.
"What he’s done well is he’s lost Charlie Adam and DJ Campbell and he’s replaced them without any problems. They’ve continued to improve. They’re a really good footballing side, they’ve a way of playing that’s really difficult to play against.”
Despite taking each game on its merits, it would be a surprise if Jewell doesn’t name the same team which started at Vicarage Road with Scott Loach in goal, skipper Carlos Edwards at right-back, Aaron Cresswell on the left and Tommy Smith and Luke Chambers in the centre.
In midfield, Massimo Luongo and Luke Hyam will be behind Lee Martin with Jay Emmanuel-Thomas on the right and Josh Carson on the left. Michael Chopra will be the lone striker.
Guirane N'Daw, whose season-long loan signing from St Etienne is expected to be confirmed this afternoon, has not made the trip and won't be involved.
Blackpool, who lead the table with a 100% record so far this season, will have centre-half Ian Evatt, who has had a foot injury, and midfielder Barry Ferguson, who has had a gluteal problem, available again after the pair missed the 2-1 midweek victory over Leeds. Right-back Neal Eardley might miss the game if his partner goes into labour.
Holloway says the return of Evatt and Ferguson means he has decisions to make: "I'm going to have a headache.
"All I will say, whatever I do and however I do it, I'll try and pick the right team to try and put a performance on against Ipswich."
Jay Emmanuel-Thomas was on loan at Bloomfield Road between August and December of 2009, making seven starts and five sub appearances, scoring once.
The Seasiders tried to sign Jason Scotland last summer and Blackpool veterans Kevin Phillips and Barry Ferguson were both Blues targets early in their careers, as well as a year ago in the striker’s case.
Historically, Town have won eight games between the sides (seven in the league), eight have been drawn (eight) and Blackpool have won four (three).
In January, Blackpool came from two goals behind to peg the Blues back to a 2-2 draw at Portman Road.
Town looked to have had the game won via a first half own goal by Angel Martinez and a Tommy Smith header after the break, but subs Elliot Grandin and Kevin Phillips — who rarely fails to score against the Blues - claimed a point for the Seasiders.
At Bloomfield Road in September last year, second half goals from Gary Taylor-Fletcher and Barry Ferguson saw Blackpool to a comfortable 2-0 victory over the Blues.
Town never looked like getting back into the game after Taylor-Fletcher’s 49th minute opener, Ferguson adding the second 11 minutes later.
Fans travelling by road should give themselves extra time as there is likely to be congestion in Blackpool as it’s a Bank Holiday weekend, while Leeds fans report that the Seasiders had a strict policy regarding fans who they felt appeared drunk at their game at Bloomfield Road on Tuesday.
Saturday’s referee is Nigel Miller from County Durham, who showed 104 yellow and three red cards in 42 games last season. Miller’s most recent Town match was the 3-2 win at Coventry in February in which he booked only one player, a Sky Blue, and awarded a penalty to each side, Michael Chopra following up to score for the Blues after Lee Martin’s spotkick was saved.
Probable Town squad: Loach, Lee-Barrett, Edwards, Cresswell, Ainsley, Smith, Chambers, Delaney, Luongo, Hyam, Drury, Emmanuel-Thomas, Carson, Martin, Stevenson, Chopra, Scotland, Murray.