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Town Unchanged at Bristol City - Ipswich Town News

Town boss Mick McCarthy took the unusual step of revealing that he will field an unchanged side when the Blues visit Bristol City on Saturday at this lunchtime's pre-match press conference.

"I think sometimes it just requires that,” said McCarthy, whose team beat QPR 3-0 at Portman Road last Saturday.

"I don’t normally, I’m not going to try and dress it up. [Robins boss] Lee [Johnson] might be thinking of doing something, they played 3-5-2 in the U23s [when they beat Town’s youngsters 3-1 on Monday].

"He’s played with one up and one in behind, he’s played with Marlon Pack sitting. I’ve watched the last three games they’ve played and if you’re trying to find a formula you do change things around.

"But if, like we did last week, you’ve found a formula that worked and it worked well, and actually it’s not just worked well last week, 4-4-2 has worked well for me all my career really, but certainly in the last four years here, [you tend to stick with it].

"And if we have to tweak it at times to accommodate something we can, but what’s the point of trying to dress it up and do something different? That’s the team, he knows what to expect. It was a good performance, let’s hope it’s the same this week.”

Former Bristol City striker Brett Pitman won’t make the trip, despite having returned to training having been out since suffering an ankle injury at Leeds at the end of September.

"Not because there’s anything wrong with him, he’s trained fully this week, he’s trained really well, but he’s just had 10 or 11 weeks out,” McCarthy added.

"I’d be the last person to think anybody could come back and compete at the level we’re playing at after 10 or 11 weeks out with an injury.

"And it would be wrong anyway. Even if I was struggling for players I don’t think I’d be asking him to do it.

"He’ll be training over the weekend and he’ll play [for the U23s against Huddersfield in the Premier League Cup at Portman Road] on Monday and if he gets through that OK then we’ll be looking at him for Cardiff and beyond.”

The Town manager says no one else has suffered a new problem while Giles Coke, Luke Hyam (both knee) and Tommy Smith (back) are continuing their recoveries after surgery.

"Everyone else is OK, there’s just the long-term lads," he added. "Giles Coke has trained with us for the last couple of weeks, he’s out of the physio room, which gives the physios a break more than anything. Not from him, just from having a body in there, it’s been a long time. He’s a nice lad Giles, there’s no problem with him.

"Tommy and Luke are rehabbing together and I think they’re doing good. They’re bitching at each other, so they’re doing alright, I think they’re getting there.

"They’re just pulling each other along and I think they’re both benefiting from that. It’s great to see Luke Hyam, who is now far more positive about it, because it was such an innocuous injury.

"It was like a little tap against Cambridge [in pre-season] five or six months ago. They’re doing great together. That’s a positive.”

Town: Bialkowski, Chambers (c), Webster, Berra, Knudsen, Skuse, Douglas, Ward, Lawrence, Varney, McGoldrick.

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