Town boss Mick McCarthy looks set to bring Daryl Murphy back into his starting line-up for tonight’s home game against Yeovil after the Irishman’s impressive performance as a sub against Middlesbrough on Saturday. The match is the first ever Football League clash between the Blues and the Glovers.
McCarthy says it was a good display from Murphy, who replaced Frank Nouble at half-time, but that he always expects his players to make an impact when coming off the bench: "That’s what he’s supposed to do.
"If anybody in any of my squads comes on and plays like they’re sulking because they’ve gone on as a sub, they might be coming back off and somebody else will be going on.
"I don’t expect that, I don’t understand it and I wouldn’t tolerate it. But they’ve all done it in the correct manner.
"When Murph’s at it he’s a really hard player to play against. He’s quick, he’s powerful and I thought it was an excellent second half performance.”
He says players such as Murphy, Jay Tabb, Carlos Edwards, Elliott Hewitt and Scott Loach who were dropped prior to the Birmingham game have taken their omissions well: "I've explained it to them. I spoke to Tabby this morning, he was so unlucky, as was Carlos. I said that in the four games we’d played well and then I made five changes.
"Playing well and getting beaten is no good to anybody, so I thought I had to make the changes. And what we’ve had since then is a terrific performance at Birmingham and drawn when we should have won the game and a very good performance on Saturday and a good home victory.
"There’s nobody can complain about that. I do think they were unlucky being left out, but as I said, I had to make changes. What is important is that they’ve stuck with it and they’ve supported the lads who are in the team.
"And I’ve said to the lads in the team, ‘Don’t take your foot off the gas, because if you do, those lads are all ready, willing and able to get back in and take your slots from you’. I haven’t got a big squad but I’ve got competition for places.”
Amongst those looking to get into the team is striker Paul Taylor, who McCarthy says has been working on his fitness after his very lengthy spell out: "He’s doing all right.
"He’s had a few 90 minutes in the U21s and he needs that, he really needs to play in the team, I guess, to get him right up to speed, but he can’t do that at the moment because we’re playing well.”
Taylor looks set to be on the bench tonight with Frank Nouble joining him as Murphy starts up front alongside David McGoldrick.
Elsewhere, Town are likely to be unchanged with Luke Hyam and Cole Skuse in the central midfield roles with Paul Anderson on the right and Ryan Tunnicliffe on the left.
At the back, Tommy Smith and Christophe Berra will be at the centre of the defence with Aaron Cresswell on the left and Luke Chambers on the right. Dean Gerken will be in goal.
McCarthy has virtually a fully fit senior squad with Tyrone Mings back in training after his knee injury. Alan Lee is unlikely to be involved having played for the U21s at QPR yesterday.
The Town boss has been impressed with what he's seen of Yeovil since their promotion via the play-offs: "They had a great start beating Millwall away in the first game of the season and then there were a couple of indifferent results for them.
"But it was a great performance on Saturday against Sheffield Wednesday, which I’m going to watch now. I’ve already watched them in the Reading game.
"They had 10 men for 45 minutes against Sheffield Wednesday and they were excellent, the reports on them were all very good.”
McCarthy says the Glovers have had to make the step up without some of the players who helped them to win promotion: "[They’ve had Paddy Madden out injured] and they’ve lost [Dan] Burn, the centre-back, who went up to Birmingham on loan [from Fulham].
"Byron Webster got sent off on Saturday, but then they signed Dan Seaborne and Liam Fontaine [on loan from Bristol City].
"I’ve just watched the game against Reading and to all intents and purposes they’re a really solid, 4-4-2 side, they have a nice balance to them, left-sided and right-sided and the two up front were a bit of a handful. I think they were OK.
"Gary Johnson’s a really experienced manager and I think he’s got a nice, well-balanced team there and like a lot of us hasn’t spent shedloads of money, but they’ll be competitive. They’ll be competitive because of Gary, he knows the league well.”
Centre-back Webster is suspended after being red-carded during the 1-1 draw with the Owls at the weekend.
Keeper Marek Stech is out with a broken finger, while striker Madden is on his way back from a knee problem.
The teams last met in a Carling Cup first round tie at Portman Road in August 2005 when Yeovil added a new chapter to their giant-killing chronicles by beating a woeful Town side 2-0.
The Glovers went ahead on the stroke of half-time through former Norwich trainee Darren Way, now the club’s first-team coach, with sub Kevin Gall adding a second three minutes from the final whistle.
Prior to that, the Blues hadn’t played Yeovil since the teams were in the Southern League back in 1937/38 when the West Country club were known as Yeovil and Petters United.
Town played the Glovers four times in Southern League matches during that period, winning two and drawing two but losing an away 1937/38 FA Cup first round tie 2-1.
Yeovil midfielder Ed Upson is the only player in either squad to have played for tonight’s opposition. Born in Bury St Edmunds, the 23-year-old famously came off the bench to score Town's winning goal in the 2005 FA Youth Cup final while still a schoolboy.
For the senior side, he made two League Cup sub appearances before being released in the summer of 2010, having spent spells on loan at Stevenage and Barnet.
Glovers defender Dan Seaborne was on trial with the Blues in the summer, playing in the friendlies at Shelbourne and Crawley, while keeper Marek Stech spent time on trial with Town in 2011 when a West Ham player.
Winger Joel Grant held talks with Town in the summer before eventually joining the Somerset side after leaving Wycombe.
Blues assistant manager Terry Connor spent 1993/94 playing at Huish Park, while Glovers boss Gary Johnson started his managerial career in Suffolk with Newmarket Town.
Tonight’s referee is Darren Deadman from Cambridgeshire, who has shown 21 yellow cards and one red in seven games so far this season. Deadman’s last Town match was the 1-0 home victory over Leicester in March in which he booked Luke Hyam and two of the visitors.
Squad from: Loach, Gerken, Chambers, Hewitt, Veseli, Cresswell, Smith, Berra, Skuse, Hyam, Wordsworth, Tunnicliffe, Edwards, Anderson, Tabb, Murphy, McGoldrick, Nouble, Taylor.