Blues boss Mick McCarthy has revealed that he was a big fan of today’s opponents Leeds United as a boy growing up in Barnsley.
He says he never saw the Tykes and Whites as rivals during his childhood: "We were in the Fourth Division and Leeds were rampaging through Europe and doing all that stuff!
"I was a Leeds fan - Gary Sprake, Paul Reaney, Terry Cooper, Norman Hunter, Jack Charlton, Lorimer, Gray, Giles, Bremner, Clarke, Jones, Madeley. That was the team, that was my team, 67/68 when I was just a young boy.
"I was always a Barnsley fan, but Leeds were the top team and they were in Yorkshire. But I’m not a fan any more.”
Did he dream of playing for them? "Oh yes, blooming heck, yes! When I was at Barnsley, I had ambitions as a kid. There was a programme on and they were showing them training. Don Revie was the manager and Leeds were the top team.
"They were the best side. I seem to go everywhere else bar Yorkshire for my living, except Barnsley.”
McCarthy’s assistant Terry Connor is from Leeds, supports his hometown club and played for them between 1979 and 1983.
The Blues boss said he crossed swords with his future assistant when he was at Elland Road: "I played against him when he was at Leeds, Terry. He still has the marks apparently.”
In addition to McCarthy and Connor, Town fitness coach Andy Liddell is from Leeds and also supports the club, his father Gary having played for the Elland Road outfit.