Blues boss Mick McCarthy says winger Tommy Oar deserves his chance to start in this afternoon’s FA Cup third round tie against Portsmouth, having impressed when coming on as a sub at Burnley last week. McCarthy says he needs the likes of Oar, centre-half Piotr Malarczyk and striker Luke Varney to be up to match speed in case they are required in the weeks and months to come.
The 24-year-old Australian, who signed on a free transfer having left FC Utrecht in Holland in the summer, has made only two previous Town starts, in the Capital One Cup tie at Manchester United and the Championship match against Huddersfield at Portman Road in October, in which he was forced off at half-time having suffered a concussion.
"I thought Tommy Oar did really well in his little cameo appearance against Burnley.” McCarthy said.
"He put two really good corners in, one that Tommy Smith thought he should have scored off, he got his head on it.
"And he does the dirty work, gets back and tackles. I think he’ll be a pleasant surprise to all of us when we see him play because the last time he did he was concussed after five minutes and we didn’t realise that until half-time.”
Oar is part of a starting XI which shows seven changes from the team which drew 0-0 at Turf Moor a week ago, but he says it's a side well capable of beating Pompey and progressing to round four for the first time since 2010.
"There’s no doubt about that," he insisted. "There’s only Paul Digby and Peter [Malarczyk, who haven't played much].
"[Peter] played at Manchester United. All right, he got done a bit for the goal but it was Wayne Rooney, for heaven’s sake, the England team’s record goalscorer.
"But other than that he did OK in the game, so there’s only that pairing and I’ve been impressed with the pair of them in training. I think Peter has really come on.”"
He added: "He’s has got to have a game because if I need him to play for five or six games if one of the centre-backs gets injury, I don’t want to be putting him in and he hasn’t had a game.
"He’s trained every week since he’s been here and he’s got better and better. Ainsley’s been playing, Tommy Oar’s been on the cusp of it all the time, Pits has been playing.
"There’s only Reg [Varney] and he’s come back and he’s been on the bench and he came on in the last few games. It’s hardly like there are loads of them coming in together that haven’t been playing.”
McCarthy says although not his regular side is still a strong team: "Daryl Murphy isn’t fit, Dougie has trained for the first time since the Brighton game, so there are two I had to replace.
"Kevin Bru had a hamstring and has only trained today. I think it’s wise to make sure that they’re all fit for the games coming up.
"It’s far from a reserve team. Freddie Sears has played ever minute of every game almost and been great.
"And I need Reg ready to play and I need Pits ready to play and I also need Peter Malarczyk ready to play and all the rest of them have been playing, just about.”