Interim boss John McGreal says showing patience may be key to success in Wednesday’s live-on-TV FA Cup second-round replay against Barrow at Holker Street (KO 7.45pm, ITV4).
Town and the Bluebirds drew 0-0 at Portman Road a fortnight ago with Blues boss Paul Cook subsequently relieved of his duties within a couple of hours of the final whistle.
McGreal took temporary charge on the Monday and has so far seen Town to one defeat, 2-0 at Charlton last Tuesday, and then Saturday’s 1-1 draw away against high-flying Wigan Athletic.
Asked whether he encourages his players to put the game being on TV to their back of their minds, the former centre-half said: "You know what, it’s on TV, it isn’t on TV. I’m sure in years to come they will be wanting to get the Premier League on TV every day of the week,” he said.
"Where we are now, they’ve got to make the most of it. It’s nice that it’s on TV because sometimes they can show what they’re about.
"They can’t be fearful of TV because football is everywhere at this moment in time, so I think it’s good for the club to do that, it puts the club’s name in lights again, which is great, and all we’ve got to do now is back it up by getting that win. And hopefully, the lads will be professional, and we’ll get that win.
"But listen, there’s a lot of work to be done, let’s not kid ourselves, there’s a lot of work to be done at the moment and that’s our job at this moment in time to try and get the guys up to a certain level and try and win games of football in this closed little couple of weeks that we’ve had.”
He says the Blues need to show the same battling qualities as they did at Wigan against Barrow, who are 19th in League Two.
"Absolutely you do,” he said. "You can’t win the battle early doors. Sometimes it drags out and sometimes it’s a little bit of a chess game.
"A little bit like Saturday, knowing that it’s away from home, sometimes patience is the key and that is what we’re trying to get into the guys.
"Patience at times out of possession and in possession, and then when we do get opportunities, can we then make the most of the opportunities, which again, I don’t think we did at Wigan, especially given the areas we got into.
"But it’s a step forward and that’s the main thing. It’s a big step forward for the guys, some guys now seem to be in a good bit of form and we want to maintain that because if that happens, the team becomes one and they win all together.”
Barrow will hold few surprises for McGreal having faced manager Mark Cooper’s Forest Green Rovers side during his time as boss at Colchester.
"As I said before, I know Coops particularly well and the way he gets him team playing,” he said.
"I think you can see that from the first game that he likes to do things the right way and he always has done, even when we came up against his Forest Green team.
"So we know it’s going to be a good footballing game because of how they do things and we know it’s going to be a big test with the travelling.
"We don’t know what type of conditions we’re going to get up there, but we’ve just got to be thoroughly professional.
"We’ve done our hard work on them, we’ve done the hard yards and now it’s going and putting it into practice in front of a TV audience. So again, it’s up to our guys to deliver, be professional and get the job done.”
Barrow go into the game off the back of an impressive 2-0 home win over seventh-placed Swindon on Saturday, although with both goals penalties, they haven’t scored a goal from opening play in six matches.
"On the other side of it, they’ve kept two clean sheets as well against a League One team — ourselves — and Swindon, who are in the play-off positions in League Two,” McGreal pointed out.
"So you know they’ve got a bit of strength in the backline and throughout the team, and scoring goals on Saturday can give them a huge confidence boost as well.
"As well as the hard work we do with the opposition, it’s going to be all about us. It’s all about what we do as a team, what we do as a collective and actually being professional and getting the job done.
"We know it’s going to be wet, windy and different conditions and it’s another away match. We’ve ticked all the boxes, we’re all prepped well and now we just have to go and deliver and win a game of football.”
He added: "We’ve been fortunate to have a couple of home fixtures [in the FA Cup], but we’ve gone to replays and we’ve gone to another replay now.
"We’re just going to try and do what we can. The boys are prepped well and it’s just now down to delivering.
"We’re looking forward to the game, it’s the FA Cup, it’s on the TV, there’s going to be a little bit of noise surrounding the game, but we’ve just got to get into that focus and that mindset of a job to get done and we move on and recover well.”
McGreal says he has had too many FA Cup highlights over the years, although recalls scoring the decisive goal in a third-round tie involving Town in January 1999.
"You know what, I might struggle to be honest,” he reflected. "It was the other cup when the name used to get changed, that was where the most joy came from.
"I think I actually scored an own goal playing for Tranmere years ago against Ipswich [the match at Prenton Park ended 1-0 to the Blues, who he joined that summer], so that’s going back a while ago. But not too many fond memories.
"At Burnley we beat Liverpool [in the third round in January 2005], I think that was the year they won the Champions League, but I don’t think there are too many fond memories, to be honest. Hopefully, tomorrow night might break that curse for me.”
McGreal says the visit to Barnsley in the next round over the weekend of Saturday 8th January should be a significant carrot with the clubs having some history from his playing days.
"Absolutely. It’s the next round of the cup and it’s already been drawn.” he said. "Obviously, there’s a history with Barnsley and Ipswich with the play-off final going back 21 years ago when we played at Wembley and got us to the Premier League.
"But before that, we’ve got a tough, tough game tomorrow to try and sort out prior to even thinking about Barnsley, which is the first week in January. So that’s obviously on the back burner for a good couple of weeks.
"We’ve got a massive game tomorrow night to try and get together, go as a collective and win a game of football to earn the right to play Barnsley. But we’ve got to earn the right first.”
Turning to his team selection, McGreal was asked how much the Sunderland game on Saturday will be in his thoughts.
"Not at the moment,” he insisted. "We have a big game tomorrow and we’ve got to cover ourselves for the game tomorrow, which we are doing.
"We’ve prepped well, we’re all ready to go, and that is my main focus at this moment in time.
"If it changes, and I’m being kept in the loop day by day, it changes but until then me, Kieron [Dyer] and Reg [Rene Gilmartin] will make sure the lads are ready to go out and compete and try and win a game of football.”
Might one or two players need to be rested to freshen things up after a tough week? "Potentially yes, but again, it’s the job. We’ve got a replay to play and that’s how it is. I said it last week, the fixtures are there to play and until we get told otherwise, the fixtures are there to play.
"We’ve got enough bodies throughout the squad to fill it, the guys are in a good place, so again, we’ll be going there to try and win a game of football.”
McGreal seems likely to field a strong side as he looks to build on the point at Wigan and so may not make too many changes despite the long trip and the match coming not long before the Black Cats’ visit.
Christian Walton seems certain to continue in goal with Kane Vincent-Young and Janoi Donacien again perhaps the full-backs, perhaps starting as they finished Saturday’s match with Vincent-Young on the left and Donacien on the right.
At the heart of the defence, Cameron Burgess could continue alongside George Edmundson.
In midfield, Sam Morsy seems likely to start in the middle but with McGreal having a number of options alongside the skipper, among them Lee Evans, who was in the XI at Wigan, Tom Carroll, Idris El Mizouni and Rekeem Harper.
In the wide roles, McGreal has Kyle Edwards and Scott Fraser to pick from on the left, while it seems likely that youngster Cameron Humphreys will make the trip, with the U23s match at Bristol City yesterday having been called off, and having impressed off the bench in recent games might possibly be handed a second full appearance.
On the right, Sone Aluko could return having made an impression as a sub at Wigan, Conor Chaplin having started.
McGreal seems likely to start with a two-man frontline, as he did at the DW Stadium, and could hand James Norwood a start alongside either Macauley Bonne, who will be looking to end his eight-game goal drought, or Joe Pigott.
The Blues’ temporary boss gave little away when asked whether some youngsters might make the trip with centre-half Albie Armin and forwards Zanda Siziba and Tawanda Chirewa perhaps most likely to be included alongside Humphreys if that is the case.
If the game is level after 90 minutes, it will go to extra-time and then penalties.
If Town win the tie, it will be their first second-round victory since beating Watford 3-1 at Vicarage Road in December 1956.
The first game between the sides at Portman Road ended 0-0. Subs Pigott and Humphreys both hit the woodwork for the Blues in the second half, but overall it was a lacklustre display from Town, who are still without a home FA Cup victory since January 2009. Afterwards, manager Cook was sacked after nine months at the club.
Town and the Bluebirds, who returned to the EFL after an absence of 48 years in 2020/21, had never previously met in any competition prior to this season.
However, they did face one another in a pre-season friendly at Holker Street in August 1966, the game ending in a 1-1 draw.
Wednesday’s referee is James Bell from Sheffield, who has shown 69 yellow cards and no red in 21 games so far this season.
Bell’s only previous Town match was the 3-0 defeat at Northampton in April in which he booked only one home player.
Squad from: Walton, Hladky, Vincent-Young, Donacien, Clements, Penney, Edmundson, Nsiala, Burgess, Woolfenden, Armin, Morsy, Evans, Harper, El Mizouni, Carroll, Fraser, Humphreys, Chaplin, Celina, Edwards, Siziba, Chirewa, Bonne, Pigott, Norwood, Jackson.