Town visit manager Mick McCarthy’s hometown club Barnsley on Saturday looking to end a run of five successive draws by recording their second away win of 2017 and their fifth on the road this season.
The Blues, who are unbeaten in seven although with that January win at Aston Villa their only win in 11 matches in all competitions, previously drew five in a row in 1967, 1987, 1991 and 1992 with their record run of draws a seven-game streak in November and December 1990.
McCarthy says he can’t recall going on a similar run of draws previously in his 25-year career as a manager.
"I don’t know, I don’t think so. But I’ve had a run of seven defeats and I’ll tell you which one I prefer!” he joked.
"We should have won a couple of the games along the way, certainly. I don’t know too many that we should have lost, though.
"Even [the 0-0 draw with Wolves] on Tuesday night they’ve had probably the best of it in the second half, but we’d had the best of the first. It was probably evens.
"But you always remember it coming towards the end of the game, the second half always sticks in your mind more than the first. Nobody mentioned it but I thought we should have had a penalty on Tuesday night [when Tom Lawrence was fouled in the second half].”
McCarthy, who started his playing career with the Tykes, has a lot of time his Barnsley counterpart Paul Heckingbottom, whose team is 11th in the table, six points and five places above the Blues despite having sold a number of players over the course of the season.
The Town boss says Heckingbottom, who was also born in Barnsley, should be a contender for the Championship’s Manager of the Year award.
"He’ll be in the running, I would think,” he said. "And one of the awards is for what you do with limited resources, that’s throughout the leagues, that’s everybody. He’s got to have that as well.
"They came here for the first game of the season and they impressed me then, they’ve sold players on, two to Villa [Conor Hourihane and James Bree], Sam Winnall has gone to Sheffield Wednesday and he’s had to keep turning it over. I think he’s been brilliant and he is a contender for Manager of the Year.
"And they’d be a contender for one of the teams of the year in our division when they’ve come up from League One and done as well as they’ve done. They’ve stuck with 4-4-2, it’s worked for them and they’ve been terrific.”
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Regarding his own side's current system, the 3-5-2 used since the beginning of 2017, he said: "We played it for the first time at QPR and then I changed it to 4-4-2 but we’ve played it pretty much most games since.
"It’s been good, we’ve had lots of chances in games with it as well, although not so much on Tuesday night.
"We’ve looked more solid playing that way. It got us out of a hole playing that way because we were in a bit of trouble at the time.
"I’m pleased with the system and it’s not through playing that and tactics that we’ve had a lack of chances, that was just Tuesday night, in most other games we’ve had chances and could have won them.”"
While the Blues, who are nine points off the relegation zone, still have work to do to guarantee their Championship status for a 16th season, McCarthy has said he’ll involve some of the younger players in his squad towards the end of the campaign.
It has been suggested that he also ought to leave out some of the loan players, such as top scorer Tom Lawrence, who might not be at the club next season, however, he says he’s unlikely to take that approach.
"Like everything else everybody’s got an opinion on what I may or may not do,” he said. "The good thing about football is that we’ve all got opinions. Generally most of them are wrong!
"And I get that, but I also get the first time that I do it and we don’t play well and don’t win that there’ll be ‘Where the f*** is Tom Lawrence, we’ve got Tom Lawrence here on loan, we’re paying him that amount of money!’.
"The same bloke who suggested it will be just whinging like a fool afterwards because we haven’t had Tom on the pitch, and he’s come to watch. So, as usual, I’ll do what I see as fit and right and what I want to do come the time.”
Lawrence and David McGoldrick have recently been McCarthy’s preferred strike partnership which means Brett Pitman hasn’t been involved.
"I haven’t had any handshakes or any hugs off him recently, so that may denote that we’re not friends any more, I don’t know,” McCarthy added wryly.
"He’s part of the squad. We’ve had that discussion before, I’ve got other options and I’ve chosen to go with other options at the minute. Whether that’s worked or not is subjective. He’s always on the bench and he’s there for me if I need him.”
January signing Kieffer Moore has been used from the bench ahead of Pitman in recent matches but McCarthy says these brief run-outs haven’t given the former Forest Green Rovers frontman too much of a chance to show what he can do.
However, he says it wouldn’t be right to drop either Lawrence or McGoldrick in order to give the one-time Yeovil striker a start: "It’s difficult to leave Tom Lawrence and David McGoldrick out. No, not difficult, it would be wrong, they’ve been our two best players, so leaving one of those out to put Kieffer in isn’t going to happen, not this weekend anyway, that’s for sure.”
The Blues boss will start with Bartosz Bialkowski in goal but may make changes at wing-back.
Jordan Spence could return for Josh Emmanuel on the right having been rested on Tuesday, while Myles Kenlock could come back on the left with Jonas Knudsen perhaps moving into the back three alongside Christophe Berra and skipper Luke Chambers, which would see Tommy Smith, who made his first start since September against Wolves, dropping back to the bench.
In midfield, Emyr Huws is expected to be over his hamstring injury and will return with Grant Ward, scorer of a debut hat-trick against the Tykes on the opening day of the season, or Toumani Diagouraga dropping out. Cole Skuse is likely to continue in his usual holding role, while Lawrence and McGoldrick will again be up front.
For Barnsley, right-backs Gethin Jones (toe) and Andy Yiadom (knee) are both expected to be OK, but left-back Aidy White is sidelined having undergone pelvic surgery
Manager Heckingbottom is anticipating a difficult game with the Blues having been difficult to beat in recent weeks.
"They’re a tough, strong side, they’ve not lost for a long time, although they have picked up lots of draws and have changed their shape, and the results picked up significantly straight away,” he told the Barnsley club site.
"That’s coincided with Tom Lawrence scoring every time he touched the ball, but they’re a well-organised side that have been in this division longer than anyone and know how to compete and win games.
"That’s our challenge, we know for a fact they’ll come here with a real mentality and desire to win the game and how they're going to do that. We know we have to be good enough to try and break that down and deal with that, whilst being tight at the other end.
"Mick knows his way round this league better than anyone, he made changes to his team, going to five at the back and the results have picked up straight away and he’s felt he had to make the change and he’s probably made them even tougher.
"It’s going to be a tough game, you only need to look at the results to see that in the way they’ve played, they’ve not lost for a long time, if they’ve gone behind they can come back, if they go ahead they can hold on.
"It’s a real tough game and probably one where we’re competing against not only good players, but a team who have the know-how as well and the experience to win games in lots of different ways.”
Historically, Town have done well against the South Yorkshiremen, winning 22 games between the sides (21 in the league), drawing nine (nine) and losing 13 (11).
Although 11th in the overall Championship table, Barnsley are 21st in the home form table, having won six, drawn six and lost six at Oakwell so far this season.
They are without a win in their last four, losing both their last two away from home - 2-1 at both Derby and QPR - and have won only once in their last eight.
On the opening day of the season at Portman Road in August, half-time sub Ward became the first Town player to score a hat-trick on his debut since Colin Viljoen in March 1967 as the Blues beat Barnsley 4-2.
The summer signing from Spurs netted with his first touch seconds after coming on at the break, made it 2-1 after ex-Blue Conor Hourihane had equalised for the Tykes, then added the fourth to seal it after McGoldrick had converted a penalty and Marley Watkins had added a second for the South Yorkshiremen.
Reflecting on that game McCarthy, who could only recall one other debut hat-trick during his career, scored by David Kelly for Ireland in a friendly against Israel in 1987, added: "I said at the time, and other beers are available, but if Carlsberg did debuts then that was as good as it gets.”
The teams last met at Oakwell in February 2014 when they drew 2-2 with the Tykes on their way to relegation to League One.
Berra and McGoldrick were on target for the Blues in the 81st and 84th minutes as Town came from two goals down.
Chris O’Grady's 12th minute strike saw the Tykes into a half-time lead and sub Tomasz Cywka’s 74th minute freekick added to their advantage before the Blues’ late fightback
Blues boss McCarthy came through the ranks at Oakwell, making his senior debut in 1977 and went on to make 314 appearances, scoring 10 goals, before leaving for Manchester City in 1983, having been part of a side which had climbed from the Fourth to the Second Division.
Defender Paul Digby also came through the youth ranks at Oakwell and made 11 starts and 14 sub appearances before joining Town on loan in January then making his move permanent last summer.
Keeper Bialkowski spent on month on loan at Barnsley from Southampton in September and October 2009, making two appearances.
Blues fitness coach Andy Liddell was a Barnsley player between 1991 and 1998, also having come through the Tykes’ youth system. Town scout Ian 'Taff' Evans played alongside McCarthy at Oakwell from 1979 until 1983.
Former Blues right-back or midfielder Jamie Clapham, a member of the Town side which beat Barnsley 4-2 at Wembley in the 2000 play-off final, is now the first-team coach at Oakwell, having joined them after leaving Coventry in September.
Saturday’s referee is Stephen Martin from Staffordshire, who has shown 75 yellow cards and three red in 31 games so far this season.
Martin’s last Town match was the 1-1 draw at Preston in January in which he booked two home players and no Blues.
He also refereed the 1-0 defeat at Leeds in September in which he booked only Christophe Berra and Kevin Bru.
Before that Martin was in charge of the 2-0 defeat at Brentford the previous month in which he yellow-carded Adam Webster.
Martin also officiated in the 1-0 home defeat to Rotherham in March last year, in which he booked Knudsen and one Miller.
He also took control of the 2-1 home victory over Fulham on the opening day of 2014/15 in which he cautioned Tyrone Mings, Berra and Luke Hyam.
Martin also refereed the 2-0 home victory over Brighton in September 2013, when he booked only one visiting player, and the 2-1 loss at Bristol City in the January of that year, in which he showed a single yellow card to one of the home side.
Squad from: Bialkowski, Gerken, Chambers (c), Knudsen, Kenlock, Emmanuel, Spence, Berra, T Smith, Digby, Skuse, Huws, Diagouraga, Douglas, Bru, Ward, Rowe, McGoldrick, Lawrence, Sears, Pitman, Moore.