Town boss Paul Jewell will be weighing up whether to make changes to his side for tonight’s Capital One Cup second round tie against League One Carlisle United at Brunton Park (KO 7.45pm). The Blues manager will be looking for his team to get back to winning ways immediately in the wake of Saturday’s 6-0 defeat at Blackpool.
Jewell was yet to consider his team for this evening's tie when speaking after Saturday’s heavy loss at Bloomfield Road: "I haven’t thought about the Carlisle game.
"After tonight we’ll obviously be thinking about it. But I haven’t given it a second's thought yet. We’ll speak about that tonight.”
On Thursday, he said the Cumbrians had been watched and were due to be looked at again during Saturday’s 4-2 victory over Portsmouth: "The scouts have been watching them.
"We’ve already seen them once since the draw and we’ll have them watched on Saturday. We’ll treat that game with the utmost respect.”
The Blues squad remained in the North-West over the weekend with Jewell feeling the travelling home from Bloomfield Road and then back to Carlisle would be too much: "We worked it out, if we went up to Blackpool, came back and went to Carlisle it would be 24 hours on the bus, so we’re staying up north.
"We trained at Stoke on the way up there, which we’re grateful to Tony Pulis for letting us do, and then we’re training at Fleetwood on Monday.”
Given the heavy defeat on Saturday and the relatively small size of his squad, Jewell is unlikely to rest too many senior players, although he may make the odd change with matches having come thick and fast in the opening weeks of the season.
Scott Loach will probably continue in goal with skipper Carlos Edwards and Aaron Cresswell the full-backs. Luke Chambers is likely be partnered by Tommy Smith, although Damien Delaney may be in with a chance of a recall.
In the centre of midfield, Massimo Luongo and Luke Hyam have started up to now but Andy Drury could be moved into the middle, perhaps for Hyam, having returned to the starting line-up in a wide role on Saturday. Ryan Stevenson may also be in with a chance of a start.
Josh Carson could come back into the team on the left with Jay Emmanuel-Thomas on the right, unless Jewell decides to switch to 4-4-2, in which case one of those two will miss out, Lee Martin will switch wide and Jason Scotland will join Michael Chopra up front. If the Town boss sticks with his 4-2-3-1 formation, Martin will start behind lone frontman Chopra.
Byron Lawrence has travelled with the squad but was left out of the 18 at Blackpool.The 16-year-old could be on the bench at Brunton Park and may well be given a run-out if the Blues are comfortably in front at any stage.
New loan signing Guirane N’Daw is yet to meet up with his new team-mates having returned to France for a few days after completing his move from St Etienne on Friday.
Right-back Elliott Hewitt remains the only Town player injured having undergone hip impingement operations while with Macclesfield but has said on Twitter that he’s making progress: "Not too far off full training.”
Carlisle will be without on-loan Birmingham striker Jake Jervis, who hasn’t been given permission to play in the Capital One Cup, while another frontman, former Aberdeen and Middlesbrough man Lee Miller, is sidelined for a month with an ankle injury.
Ex-Everton and Bradford striker Danny Cadamarteri was replaced at the weekend and may be a doubt. Fellow frontman Rory Loy, a player Paul Jewell denied having any interest in after links last season, is out with a broken leg.
No member of either squad has played for tonight’s opposition, while Blues boss Paul Jewell and Carlisle manager Greg Abbott are good friends from their time as players at Bradford together.
Abbott says he and Jewell need to win tonight for different reasons: "I’m not sure who needs the result more. We do need to progress, because of the finances involved, and he will need to progress because of the poor result on Saturday. We will just lock horns and see how it goes.
"We will probably go into the game in better heart than Ipswich because of the weekend’s results, but you know there will be a reaction and they will be really upset with the performances and result.
"I expect an absolutely fierce response, like we gave against Portsmouth. We go into it in a better state of mind, and we have to go with the same determination that we can put them under pressure and cause them problems.”
The Blues last faced Carlisle, who beat Accrington Stanley 1-0 in the first round, in the 1978/79 season when they ran out 3-2 victors in an FA Cup third round tie at Portman Road.
Kevin Beattie was amongst the scorers against his hometown club, along with John Wark and Arnold Muhren.
Overall, the clubs have only met 10 times in total, the teams winning five games apiece. The clubs have not previously met in the League Cup.
Town were last at Brunton Park in the Cumbrians' only season in the top flight, 1974/75, when the Blues were defeated 2-1 with Trevor Whymark on the scoresheet. Blues legend Beattie was made captain for the day and should have scored an equaliser.
This evening’s referee is Scott Mathieson from Cheshire, who has shown eight yellow cards and no red in his three games so far this season. Mathieson’s most recent Town match was the 3-2 victory at Doncaster on the final day of last season in which he booked only Lee Martin and one-time Blues target George Friend.
Squad from: Loach, Lee-Barrett, Edwards, Cresswell, Ainsley, Chambers, Smith, Delaney, Luongo, Hyam, Drury, Carson, Emmanuel-Thomas, Martin, Stevenson, Lawrence, Chopra, Scotland, Murray.