 Tuesday, 16th Feb 2010 08:20 Boss Roy Keane says he will make changes to his team ahead of tonight’s trip to bottom-of-the-table Peterborough despite the Blues defeating QPR 2-1 at Loftus Road in their last game. Keane says he picked that side — with Jack Colback and Jaime Peters surprisingly but successfully used at full-back — purely for the Rangers match. The Town manager says he is unlikely to stick with the same starting XI for the second of the four away games on the trot: “That was on the night, horses for courses, as they say. “Don’t think for one minute it will be the same team on Tuesday night. I’m sure you’ll have a good guess but I bet you get it wrong. I usually get it wrong!” joked Keane at Monday’s pre-match press conference. “Last week it was just my gut feeling, what we thought we could add bringing Garvs into the team and weighing up the way the players had been training. But, as I say, if people think that’s going to be the starting line-up on Tuesday night, I’d be surprised.” Keane wasn’t convinced that last week’s second away win of the season was down to his side’s good first half performance or instead was due to QPR’s lacklustre display: “I’m not necessarily sure whether we played well or QPR were poor on the night. We certainly should have finished the game off a lot earlier than we did. “Instead of enjoying the first half or the first hour, I focus on the disappointment of the last 20-25 minutes when the game should have been dead and buried. “But I’ve spoken about us not winning games and playing well and sometimes you have to take it the other way, the 2-1 victory without playing well in the last half an hour when we made hard work of it.” The Blues boss says that despite the division continuing to be very tight, suggestions of a play-off push are a long way from his mind: “We really can’t be thinking of the play-offs at this moment in time. You say the gap’s only 13 points, but 13 points is a lot when you’ve only won five or six games all season. “It’s not as if we’re a free-scoring team where we can go on one of those runs. We showed that again last week, missing opportunities. What we need to do over the next few weeks is roll our sleeves up, get a few victories under our belts, get away from the bottom and we’ll see where that takes us. “We’re certainly not looking beyond Tuesday night’s game at Peterborough.” It’s Town’s third game against the Posh during 2009/10 with the Blues yet to win any of them, something Keane hopes his side can put right on Tuesday: “We’re playing them for the third time this season and we’ve lost one and drawn one, so we know we’re in for a tough game. “Having said that, Peterborough should expect a tough game from us. We’ve not lost too many games over the last few months, but our biggest problem is that we’ve not won enough. So, it should be an intriguing game.” Town are facing their third different Peterborough manager of the season, Darren Ferguson and Mark Cooper having been succeeded by Jim Gannon. The Blues boss doesn’t know Gannon but says he has earned his new role: “He’s got a decent track record. He’s taken on a big job at Peterborough. “With the number of victories we have this season, we respect everybody we play and that will be the same at Peterborough, especially away from home where we’ve only had two victories. “Looking at the players over the last few days, with one or two coming back from injury, we’re in decent shape ourselves and are looking forward to it. “We want to make up for the two results we’ve had against Peterborough already this season, although having said that I think we were very unlucky not to beat them at our place when Stern John scored a goal and I still can’t get my head round why it was disallowed.” Keane says Brian Murphy is now fighting Arran Lee-Barrett for his place in goal having overcome his knee injury: “He’s very close. He’s pushing Arran, as you’d expect. He had the reserve game at Norwich last Wednesday and it was good for him to get a game under his belt. “For all the training, these keepers need a few games. Wrighty will get a game [in the reserves at home to Wycombe] next week and we’ll play Ian McLoughlin [in the reserves at Southend] on Wednesday. “I’m pleased with the keepers, there’s competition and we’ve missed that. It’s been a strange year for keepers what with retirements, bad injuries or loan players being called back. That certainly hasn’t helped the back four. “Obviously, Arran has the jersey at the moment, but he knows it’s on a game-to-game basis, but he’s done the business so far for us.” Lee-Barrett is likely to keep his place at London Road, but Keane may well change his full-backs. Liam Rosenior will probably return on the right with Jaime Peters perhaps switching to the left, although Jack Colback could keep his place after impressing in what is an unfamiliar role at QPR. Damien Delaney and Gareth McAuley will continue in the centre of the defence with David Norris and Grant Leadbitter in the middle of the midfield. Keane says he has been delighted with Norris’s displays since he returned from injury: “There are lots of things I like about David, his energy, his enthusiasm, his tenacity, he can tackle. I think potentially he can score more goals for us, but David ticks a lot of the boxes for midfielder, particularly in the middle of the park. “I ought to go easy as he’ll be in for a new contract soon, but he does a lot of good stuff that you’d expect from a midfielder, the ugly side of the game. “It’s no coincidence that our results have picked up since he’s come back into the team, none whatsoever.” Owen Garvan is likely to take the left-sided role unless Colback is moved back into midfield, while skipper Jon Walters will be on the right. Pablo Couñago will probably keep his place in the starting line-up up front alongside Daryl Murphy with David Healy not yet fully match fit. The Northern Irishman will play some part from the bench. Connor Wickham and Lee Martin are likely to be amongst the subs having returned from hamstring injuries. New Peterborough boss Jim Gannon has signed striker Liam Dickinson on loan from Brighton, a player he is familiar with from their time together at Stockport: “Liam is a player that I know well. He can run the channels and although he isn't a target man as such, he is good in the air and has good physical strength to hold the ball up. ”He has good Championship experience and he started really well at Blackpool [when on loan there last season], scoring plenty of goals. I am sure the moves have benefited him and we are delighted to have him available for us. He will be in the squad against Ipswich Town on Tuesday evening. After Saturday’s 1-0 loss at Middlesbrough, Gannon said his side are improving despite the result: "We have proved we can come to difficult places like Boro and compete so now we have to push on again and get at teams like Ipswich at home. "We are definitely stronger and more resilient. We must now try and find that extra bit of technical quality up front." On the way out of London Road is defender Tom Williams, who has joined Preston on loan with a view to a permanent move. Centre-half Gabriel Zakuani is the only absentee with injury due to a groin problem. Posh remain bottom of the Championship, 12 points from the 33-point mark which would take them to the 20th or 21st positions currently occupied by the Blues and Scunthorpe. Their home record is won four, drawn five and lost six. Tuesday’s game is the first ever league meeting between the sides at London Road, the 0-0 draw at Portman Road earlier in the season having been the inaugural league match at any venue. In cups, the teams have met on five occasions with Posh winning three times, the Blues once and one game ending in a draw. The most recent of those matches came in August in the second round of the Carling Cup at London Road when Peterborough came from behind to win 2-1 after Tamás Priskin had netted his first goal for Town and also missed a penalty. Lee Frecklington and George Boyd scored for the home side. Town keeper Brian Murphy made one appearance for Peterborough in 2003, his senior debut, while on loan from Manchester City but no other current Town player has appeared for the Posh. No member of the Peterborough squad has played a first team game for the Blues, although defender Ryan Bennett was released at 16 by the Town academy and Josh Simpson and Chris Whelpdale were also schoolboys at Playford Road. The Blues were keeping a regular watch on left-back Scott Griffiths earlier on in the season before he joined Peterborough from Dagenham and Redbridge. Keeper-coach James Hollman worked with Posh glovesman Joe Lewis during their time together at Norwich. Town have confirmed that cash turnstiles will be open to Blues supporters. Tuesday’s referee is James Linington from the Isle of Wight, who has shown 47 yellow and five red cards in 21 games so far this season. Linington is most famous for red-carding three Swansea players in their Carling Cup defeat to Scunthorpe earlier in the season, a match which was almost abandoned due to injuries to further Swans players. Linington will be refereeing his first Town game. Squad from: Lee-Barrett, B Murphy, Rosenior, Colback, Peters, D Wright, Delaney, McAuley, Balkestein, Leadbitter, Norris, Garvan, Walters, Edwards, Quinn, Martin, Couñago, D Murphy, Healy, Wickham.
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