Town boss Kieran McKenna says Saturday’s game at Morecambe is a big challenge, despite the Shrimps currently languishing at the bottom of League One.
Morecambe, whose owners recently put them up for sale, have taken only seven points from their 11 games and are yet to win at home this season having lost three and drawn two.
Their only victory in the league this season was a 2-1 win at Forest Green Rovers last month. Since then they have lost their last two League One matches, 2-1 at home to Cambridge and 3-1 at Accrington Stanley last Saturday.
But McKenna says Town, a point behind leaders Plymouth, who host Stanley on Saturday, with a better goal difference, will need to be on their mettle as they come to the end of a period in which fixtures have come thick and fast.
The Northern Irishman says his thoughts turned to the trip to the Mazuma Stadium straight after the 3-0 victory over Cambridge.
"Immediately,” he said. "I think it's a big, big challenge for us because for a number of reasons we've had a few weeks now of a busy schedule, lots of midweek games and even the midweek when we didn't have a game we played Plymouth on the Sunday and you have a long travel back.
"So this feels like the last game of a really busy period and then we have a free week next week to get some training in as a squad and get ready for Lincoln at home.
"It's been a busy period coming off of two home games with 25,000-plus in the crowd and of course the adrenaline, concentration and motivation are extremely high for everyone for those games.
"But we said it really clearly from the start that every three points, especially at this stage of the season, is equal and statistically what is more important to your total is how consistently you perform against the teams who are in the bottom half of the table.
"How many points you can get, how consistent you can be in those games, how ruthless you can be in those games, how concentrated you can be and how many points you get is going to have a really big impact at the end of the season.
"So we know this is a really big game for us. It's a big challenge in terms of travel, in terms of the position they are in, their motivation and their fight for the game is going to be extremely high.
"They've had a full week to prepare and watch us and look at us with no travel, and it's a big challenge that we have to be ready for.”
Does he anticipate a game in which he side might have to be patient, as was the case against Cambridge on Tuesday with the U’s providing stubborn resistance until Tyreece John-Jules opened the scoring in the 72nd minute prior to Kyle Edwards’s two goals.
"I don’t think we can say for sure in terms of what their tactical strategy will be, whether they’ll press a little bit more or sit in a little bit more as Cambridge did,” McKenna reflected.
"But I think we can say for sure that they’re going to try and make it a very difficult game, try and impose themselves physically and try and make it hostile and difficult for us, and they’re not going to turn up and let us do what we want to do.
"We know that mentally we’re going to have to be right first of all, that’s the first challenge. It’s a long, long coach trip at the end of a busy period of games, so we’re going to have to be mentally really ready to get the adrenalin levels and get the focus and the concentration right for the game.
"Physically, it’s going to be a challenge. We don’t have a huge squad at the moment, so how we rotate and how everyone recovers and how everyone gives their all for the minutes on the pitch that they have is going to be important.
"And physically we know we’re going to have to stand up to a robust team, who are going to try and impose themselves on us.
"So we have to be strong, we have to win our challenges, we’re going to have to be strong in both boxes and if we do all those things, of course, we hope that we’ll impose our football on them as we managed to do on Tuesday and as we managed to do against Portsmouth.
"We want to make it our type of game and control good chunks of the game with the ball and make sure we’re creating chances and not giving too many away.
"There’s a lot of different challenges in there, logistical and physical and football, but the biggest one for me is the mentality and making sure that we’re going there with the same levels of focus and commitment as we have to all the games recently.”
Morecambe appear not to have recovered from the summer departures of the likes of Greg Leigh, who joined the Blues, Aaron Wildig, one-time Town loanee Toumani Diagouraga, Jonah Ayunga and Adam Phillips, who joined Barnsley following three loan spells with the Shrimps from Burnley.
"They’ve lost some good players but Derek [Adams] is a very experienced and good manager, who knows the level well and he’ll be working really hard with them this week,” McKenna said.
"They’ve not had a midweek game and they’ll be working really hard with a full week’s preparation to get ready for us.
"They won’t have been too disappointed with their performance away to Accrington last week. I think in the first half they were really solid and then had a red card [Arthur Gnahoua] on half-time that changed the game.
"Sometimes when those are the margins that are going against you that can lead to a bad run of results, but I’m sure they’ll be getting themselves fired up this week and preparing a game plan to make it difficult for us on Saturday.”
Last season Morecambe frustrated the Blues to a 1-1 draw, an illustration of how these games can progress.
"Exactly,” McKenna said. "There are a lot of different players in both teams, so I don't think there's too much bearing on this game.
"But in general it is an example that in games like this against teams who are going to want to defend and make it difficult for you, it's not easy to score. You have to be clinical and you have to try and create and take as many chances as you can.
"But what is really important is that when you don't do that, you don't give away anything cheap or easy at the other end, and we managed to do that against Cambridge the other night.
"And when you do that, you know that you've got 90 minutes to find a winner and we back ourselves to do that most weeks.
"But if you give away cheap or easy goals or lose your concentration, then you make the game doubly hard.
"So, of course, we want to go out and score goals, get an early lead and make it our type of game, but we also really need to have at the front of our mind that defending well, staying concentrated and not giving away counter-attacks, not giving away cheap free-kicks is going to be a big part of the game so we can not make the game any more difficult than it is going to be.”
Morecambe is one of the tighter, more compact grounds Town will travel to in League One and the Blues boss says he and his staff look to making adjustments in training for the conditions they might find on away trips.
"You can adjust the sizes of your training for teams that play on a bigger pitch or a smaller pitch,” he said. "We've got Port Vale in a couple of weeks which is a really big pitch, so in the build-up to that you'll expand your areas a little bit to get them used to it.
"If it's a smaller pitch, you'll bring the pitches in a little bit. If you think the pitch is going to be drier, then we'll not use so much water in preparation for training or if the grass is going to be longer or shorter, we'll adjust things like that.
"Of course, we haven't had so much training time in the build-up to this one, but we'll always make any little alterations that we think will be useful to help the team be ready for the conditions they are going to play in.”
Although it’s another long coach journey, the third in the last month following the visits to Accrington and Plymouth, McKenna is pleased to be getting them out of the way at this time of the year rather than later in the campaign.
"Another long trip and it is a challenge for sure,” he said. "Thankfully we haven't got a 12.30 kick-off [as was the case with Plymouth] because that does make it a big challenge when you have travel. So we have a bit more time on Saturday morning.
"You have a certain number of them over the course of the year and we've had quite a few of them now early in the season, which is good.
"The pitches are generally still in good condition and the weather is thankfully not too bad so far, so I think it's a positive hopefully to get some of these longer away trips in earlier in the season.
"And, of course, they all have to do the return drive at some point later in the year, so it can all even out over the course of the year.”
Regarding his team selection, he says his experienced summer signings, Dominic Ball, who made his full league debut in midfield against the U’s, and Richard Keogh, whose league involvement has been a brief appearance from the bench at Sheffield Wednesday in addition to two Papa Johns Trophy starts, are pushing for more regular involvement.
"Very much so,” he said. "Two very important members of the squad, who I’ve said before are going to have a big role to play for us this year, are already having big roles behind the scenes.
"Even when either of them haven’t been in the team they have had a big contribution to play on improving and helping our culture and develop those around them but can also contribute on the pitch.
"Dominic I thought was very, very good in his 60-plus minutes the other night. Richard’s been very good in his couple of performances for us so far and we know that he’s ready to play whenever I see fit that that would be the best thing for the team.
"We have smaller numbers but actually quite a nice, tight group at the moment where everyone feels very, very close to the team and we’re not having to leave too many or any out of the squad.
"It’s quite a nice way to be but, of course, you don’t have so much margin at the moment until we get some bodies back, so we hope to keep a clean bill of health and part of that is everybody playing their part, using the substitutes well, rotating at the right times to keep the clean bill of health but also very importantly trying to pick up the points as we go along.”
McKenna may well look at some rotation in his starting XI but probably no more than a couple of changes.
Christian Walton seems certain to start in goal behind the back three of Janoi Donacien, Luke Woolfenden and George Edmundson.
Leif Davis and Wes Burns again look set to be the wing-backs, but in central midfield, Lee Evans seems likely to come back in for Ball alongside skipper Sam Morsy.
McKenna might look to switch at least one of his number 10s, Tyreece John-Jules perhaps coming in for Marcus Harness alongside Conor Chaplin with Freddie Ladapo again likely to be the lone central striker.
Assuming they’re not in the XI, Kyle Edwards and Kayden Jackson will be looking to make their mark from the bench in the second half.
Morecambe owners Jason Whittingham and Colin Goldring put the club up for sale last month with the Worcester Warriors rugby union side, which they also own, currently in financial meltdown.
Manager Adams, in his second spell as boss having seen the Shrimps to promotion to League One in 2020/21, has admitted his concerns regarding the club’s immediate future but says he’s sought to shield his players from the off-field situation ahead of this weekend’s match.
"We’re keeping them away from all of the business going on,” he told the Lancaster Guardian.
"We’ve got a good group of players who are working ever so hard. They are showing a positive attitude and are determined to get us up the league.”
Regarding Town, speaking on Tuesday, he said: "They’re a fantastic football club. One of the best teams in the division and we’ve got a really tough task.
"But that’s any Saturday in League One, you come up against really competitive teams. It’s no surprise to us.”
He says his team will have to upset the form book if they’re to get themselves out of their current position.
"We’ve got to win games that shock other teams,” he added. "We did that towards the end of last season and before that as well, and had a number of shocks along the way.”
Adams will be without eight players for the Blues’ visit with Max Melbourne, Ashley Hunter and Courtney Duffus long-term absentees and Caleb Watts, Liam Shaw and Jake Taylor also set to miss out with injury.
Striker Jonathan Obika will also be absent as he has travelled to Nigeria for his father’s funeral.
The Shrimps were unsuccessful in an appeal against Gnahoua’s dismissal against Stanley and so be misses three games.
Last season’s meetings between the clubs, which both ended in draws, were the first in the league, although the Blues previously made the long trip to the North-West for an FA Cup third round tie at the Shrimps’ old ground Christie Park in January 2001, when Town, then fourth in the Premier League, beat the non-league Shrimps 3-0.
The teams also met in the FA Cup at the same stage at Portman Road two years later with Town winning 4-0.
In last season’s League One match at the Mazuma Stadium, Wes Burns scored an 86th-minute equaliser as the sides drew 1-1.
Town dominated throughout but the Shrimps went ahead via Aaron Wildig with their first shot on target in the 59th minute as the Blues once again struggled to turn possession into goals.
At Portman Road on the opening day of last season, debutant sub Macauley Bonne netted an injury-time leveller as the sides drew 2-2 in an entertaining encounter.
Cole Stockton, who ultimately netted 26 times last season but is yet to get off the mark this term, put the visitors ahead on 22 before Scott Fraser levelled for the Blues in the 61st minute.
Stockton was gifted a second on 72 before Bonne spared Town’s blushes right at the death.
The Morecambe squad includes two former Blues. Midfielder Shane McLoughlin moved to the Shrimps in the summer of 2021 from AFC Wimbledon.
The Irishman joined the Town academy at 16 and made one senior start and one sub appearance for the Blues.
Winger Dylan Connolly signed for the Shrimps in January from Northampton. The Dubliner joined the Blues in January 2015 from hometown club Shelbourne but moved on in December of the same year without making a senior appearance, although having been on the first-team bench on a number of occasions.
Left-back Ryan Delaney spent time training with Town during their 2016 summer training camp at Carton House in Ireland before subsequently joining Burton from Wexford Youth.
Currently injured Town left-back Leigh spent last season with Morecambe, making 38 starts and three sub appearances, scoring twice.
Saturday’s referee is Thomas Kirk, who has shown 48 yellow cards and no red in 11 games so far this season.
The Cheshire-based official is in his first season as an EFL referee and has only refereed two previous League One fixtures.
He will be taking control of his first senior Town match, although he did referee the U23s’ Professional Development League Two play-off to Sheffield United in May 2021.
Squad from: Walton, Hladky, Donacien, Woolfenden, Edmundson, Keogh, Burns, Vincent-Young, Davis, Morsy (c), Evans, Ball, Harness, Edwards, Humphreys, Chaplin, John-Jules, Ladapo, Jackson.