 Tuesday, 27th Mar 2012 12:27 Grant Leadbitter will return to the Town midfield for tonight’s restaging of the Middlesbrough home game which was abandoned in February due to a frozen section of pitch (KO 7.45pm). The 26-year-old, back after a one-game ban for his red card against Burnley, looks set to come into Paul Jewell’s side for veteran Lee Bowyer. Looking back to the match which came to an early end after 37 minutes with the score at 0-0, Jewell felt his team were on top but that the right decision was made by referee Dean Whitestone: “I think we were definitely the better team but the pitch down one side was getting unplayable really. I know Sonko nicked a rib that day, but my concern was that we’d lose the game to a mistake, although we could have won it to a mistake. "I thought in fairness, although supporters probably couldn’t see, where we were [in front of the Britannia Stand] was treacherous. The referee probably called it right and in hindsight the game probably shouldn’t have started.” Boro had a number of players out injured for the original game — including skipper and ex-Town loanee Matthew Bates — who are now available, a situation the Blues boss takes in his stride: “That’s life, isn’t it? “They were struggling with injuries at the time but they’ve got a big enough squad and Middlesbrough are a good team. They’re fifth in the league and they’ve got a good away record, so it’s going to be a tough game.” The Liverpudlian isn't expecting a repeat of the scoreline from last season’s corresponding fixture with Boro better defensively than they were a year ago: “We scored and then the next thing we were 3-1 down. “It was like Fred Karno’s [Circus] really, 3-3. They’ve certainly tightened up at the back this year but I’m sure it will be a good football match.” The play-offs now appear out of reach but Jewell says there’ll be no let up in the final weeks of the campaign: “There are 24 points to play for and that’s got to be our goal. “We’ve got eight matches left. I said to the players this morning, we were disappointed to lose on Saturday because we should have been out of sight at half-time. “Three points against Middlesbrough and three points on Saturday, that’s the way it is. We’re going to take each game as it comes and we’ll try and win every game, but that’s no different from the start of the season, we’ve always tried to win every game. “We’ve never gone into a game thinking we can’t win it or trying to draw it. I think you can see from our goals-for and goals-against record that we’re not a team that can sit back. “I think Middlesbrough are a team who can sit back and soak it up and hit you on the break. We, at the moment, and hopefully that will change next year, are a team that’s good going forward but is susceptible to conceding goals.” Jewell is mindful of the Teessiders' counter-attacking threat but says his team’s downfall has generally been of their own making, as it was at Watford at the weekend: “We have to try and be aware of it, but it’s not as if teams have ripped us apart this season, we’ve been making basic errors. If you look through all the goals, there are an awful lot of them that are down to silly mistakes.” The Blues manager is unlikely to make too many changes to his side, which played well in the first half at Vicarage Road before fading after the break. Keeper Alex McCarthy has grown in confidence in recent weeks and will keep his place with Carlos Edwards and Aaron Cresswell the full-backs. Jewell could look at a change at centre-half with Ibrahima Sonko perhaps in line for a recall in place of one of Damien Delaney or Tommy Smith. The former might be more likely to drop out with Smith moving to the left if the Blues manager does decide on a change. In midfield, the Town boss has already confirmed that Leadbitter will start, probably in place of 35-year-old Bowyer, who has started the last two games and would probably struggle to manage a third within a week. Andy Drury will probably continue in the other central role with Jay Emmanuel-Thomas and Daryl Murphy wide and Lee Martin behind lone striker Michael Chopra. Jason Scotland will be back amongst the subs after his adductor strain, while Jimmy Bullard could also be in the 16 for the first time since his two-week club suspension. Middlesbrough, fifth in the table, 10 points and 10 places above the Blues, have Scotland international midfielder Barry Robson back after a three-game suspension for a recent red card. Fellow midfielders Rhys Williams (ankle) and Faris Haroun (hamstring), who was linked with the Blues in the summer, are both out, along with striker Scott McDonald (medial knee ligament) and keeper Danny Coyne (calf). Boro boss Tony Mowbray believes that the erratic form of clubs in and around the top six means that the likes of the Blues still have some chance of gatecrashing the play-offs: "All these results bring in even more teams from beneath them who will genuinely feel they can get into the top six. "Way down beyond the halfway point in the table there will be teams who will think they're only five or six points off a play-off position and only need a bit of a run to get themselves there. "Even Ipswich, who've had a season where they've generally been struggling in the bottom half, if they get a result tonight might they won't be too far behind and will feel they've got a chance." The man known as Mogga says the situations at both clubs are very different from when the game was originally played: "If you look at the squad we took then there have been a lot of changes. “They've won five on the bounce at home and watching them I can see they're playing with a lot of confidence and moving the ball around very well. "It's a difficult time to play them when their confidence is high, but we've been in similar situations several times this season and managed to get a result. "They've invested a fair bit of money and were up there with the favourites at the start of the season. "For whatever reason it didn't work and it took them a while to recover from the 7-1 defeat at Peterborough and the 5-2 defeat at home to Southampton. But they've got some very, very good players and now they've hit form confidence is very, very high. "Michael Chopra is a poacher who can score goals in any game and Lee Martin, Jay Emmanuel-Thomas and Daryl Murphy are all good players and they've got some big lads who come up for set plays." Boro skipper Matthew Bates spent time on loan with Town in the 2006/07 season, making two appearances before a cruciate knee ligament injury saw him return home. Mowbray is a former Town skipper, coach and caretaker-manager. His assistant manager is Mark Venus, who was also part of George Burley’s Blues side. No current member of the Town squad has played for Boro. The Blues have had the better of Middlesbrough over the years, winning 27 games (25 in the league), drawing 13 (13) and losing 16 (15). Boro are without a win in their last four games. In September, Town recorded their first draw of the season as their visit to the Riverside ended scoreless. Jason Scotland went nearest to breaking the deadlock with a shot against the post in the second half, while Michael Chopra and Ibrahima Sonko both went close in the first period. The sides last completed a game at Portman Road in April when they drew 3-3. It was a match which boss Paul Jewell said at the time could have ended 7-7. Grant Leadbitter put the Blues in front early on, but two goals in a minute just before the break from Andy Halliday and Scott McDonald saw the visitors into a surprise lead. The Teessiders extended their lead after the restart via Andrew Taylor but Connor Wickham and then Leadbitter from the spot levelled with both teams having opportunities to win it late on. An online electronic version of this evening's match programme is available here as well as the paper version at the game. Tonight’s referee is Keith Stroud from Hampshire, who has shown 115 yellow and six red cards in 34 games so far this season. Stroud’s last Town match was the 2-1 home defeat to Watford in December in which he awarded the Hornets a penalty and booked three players from the away club as well as then-Blues loanee Keith Andrews. Squad from: McCarthy, Lee-Barrett, Edwards, Cresswell, Smith, Delaney, Sonko, Ainsley, Drury, Hyam, Leadbitter, Bowyer, Stevenson, Emmanuel-Thomas, Murphy, Carson, Bullard, Martin, Chopra, Scotland.
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