Mick McCarthy could name an unchanged side when the Blues take on Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park on Saturday with Jonny Williams having extended his loan from Crystal Palace earlier in the week.

The 20-year-old, who had seemed set to return to Selhurst Park after the final game of his initial month last week, looks set to continue in his role behind main striker Daryl Murphy and ahead of central midfielders Cole Skuse and Luke Hyam.

If McCarthy is looking at making changes of personnel, wide men Paul Anderson and Stephen Hunt could be the ones to drop out. Anderson could make way for Paul Green on the right, while Jay Tabb may come in for Hunt on the left.

The Town boss will stick with his usual back four of skipper Luke Chambers at right-back, Aaron Cresswell on the left and Christophe Berra and Tommy Smith in the centre. Dean Gerken will continue in goal.

Frank Nouble and Sylvan Ebanks-Blake are again likely to play a part from the bench having impressed their manager in the last two games.

Aside from striker David McGoldrick, who is out for the rest of the season with knee ligament damage, Town have a fully fit senior squad.

McCarthy says play-off outsiders Blackburn, who are 11th, five points behind the eighth-placed Blues, have become more stable since Gary Bowyer took over as boss initially on a caretaker basis a year ago: “They’ve got good players, they’ve got a good squad of players.

“We know they’ve had trials and tribulations over the last couple of years but I think Gary Bowyer’s settled all that down and he’s got a nice, steady team that maybe if he’d had it for longer and not had all the problems that have gone on in the past might be better placed and be in the top six.

“It’ll be a hard game, a really tough game. I’ve not had an easy one at Blackburn. I thought they played well down here. I know we beat them [3-1], but I thought they were a good side down here.”

The Blues boss believes that if his side performs as they have done in recent matches then they are well capable of gaining a positive result: “We’re doing OK. I can talk about the opposition all day long until I’m blue in the face, but we’re doing OK and it’s more important to me how we’re doing.

“We always have a look at the opposition, how we can play against them, how they’ll try and play against us. But the reality is that if we play like we did in our last three games, we’ll be OK.”

With a trip to Huddersfield on Tuesday, he says he did consider staying in the north for a few days between the matches before opting against the idea.

“I think it’s counterproductive,” he added. “If you win, Saturday night we can all sit down and have a beer and a chat and then have a cool down the following day and everybody’s feeling good about themselves, it’s not so bad.

“But if you get beaten and you have to stay up there, you’re in the hotel and you’re all looking at each other with sour faces. People miss their kids, they want to come back.

“I think sometimes it can be counterproductive. We’d be away for four nights. I did think about it but we’ll come back.”

Rovers manager Bowyer is frustrated that his side has drawn their last four games: "We've said it a few times now, we aren't far off.

“We ran the league leaders [Leicester] very close, we had the away performance against a Watford side who were in the play-off final last year. Brighton [who they drew 3-3 with on Tuesday] are challenging up there as well.

"So the manner of the performance is almost very pleasing. So we've got to keep that going and channel that frustration straight at Ipswich."

Midfielders Corry Evans and Lee Williamson are expected to be fit despite having picked up knocks against Brighton but Jason Lowe, Ben Marshall and Adam Henley are all out with ankle injuries.

Centre-half and captain Grant Hanley is available having had his red card against Millwall overturned.

Town have had the upper hand on Rovers over the years, winning 17 games (14 in the league), losing 12 (11) and drawing 15 (14).

However, the Blues are without a win at Ewood Park since the 1-0 FA Cup replay victory over the then Premier League champions in 1996. In the league, the Blues haven’t won on Blackburn soil since winning 2-1 in the early stages of the 1991/92 Second Division championship campaign.

In December at Portman Road, Luke Hyam, Carlos Edwards and Frank Nouble were on target as Town beat Blackburn 3-1.

Hyam netted in the fourth minute but former Blue Jordan Rhodes equalised on the half hour, however, Edwards scored three minutes after the break and Nouble added the third four minutes from the end.

Last time the sides met, at Ewood Park in February last year, Rhodes netted his inevitable goal in his first game against his old club just after the hour to see Town to a 1-0 defeat in a scrappy affair.

There was little between the teams in a poor game with the only goal somewhat fortunate, Aaron Cresswell clearing off the line from Grant Hanley and Rhodes stabbing it over the line off Blues keeper Stephen Henderson.

Rhodes, the son of former Town keeper-coach Andy, came through the academy ranks at Playford Road.

The striker made 10 sub appearances and scored one goal for the Blues first team before being controversially sold to Huddersfield by then-manager Roy Keane in the summer of 2009 for a fee which, after top-ups and a sell-on following his £8 million move to Rovers in August 2012, climbed to just over £1 million.

Former Town loanee DJ Campbell joined the Lancashire club on a permanent basis in the summer having been on loan there during the second half of last season but is currently on loan at Millwall.

Another ex-Blues loan player, Bradley Orr, is also still a Blackburn player but is currently on loan at Toronto FC. No one in the current Town squad has played for Rovers.

Saturday’s referee is Keith Stroud from Hampshire, who has shown 144 yellow cards and seven red in 33 games so far this season. Stroud’s most recent Town match was the 1-0 home victory over Birmingham last month.

Squad from: Gerken, Loach, Chambers, Richardson, Cresswell, Mings, Berra, Smith, Skuse, Wordsworth, Hyam, Anderson, Green, Hunt, Tabb, Williams, Murphy, Nouble, Ebanks-Blake, Taylor.

Photo: Action Images

tractorfact added 17:53 - Apr 4 I dont want Hyam in the team if you play Skuse you dont need both Woody was unlucky here Id rather him than Hyam as you have Skuse playing already Mick does have his faves and hyam is one of em but you can say that about most managers I guess remember Burley with Jamma Wright etc yeah give blake a go or bung in big frank or Taylor to help murph up top Williams can play off the big men Im going to Ewood 2moro and cant call it either way that means ive said a draw I guess I dunno cmon TOWN

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bluemagic74 added 18:01 - Apr 4 Never change a winning team but we did last week with woody not playing, like 2 see us play like we have in second half in both halfs and think we can pick up some good points between now and 3rd may, come on town lets be havin ya.. COYB
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BlueMachines added 18:14 - Apr 4 @ blumagic74 The winning team is the one that finished the game not started it. In the last 2 home fixtures at least. So much better with the mid game changes to 443 rather than the 4411
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thebeat added 18:30 - Apr 4 Start with the team that finished but play Wordsworth for Hyam. Fly at them early and try and get a platform to work from, its the last thing they'll expect from a McCarthy team. If we dont score then we can shut up shop 2nd half. Dont be reactive be pro active
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thebeat added 18:40 - Apr 4 Id rather go down fighting than trying to be too clever. Nothing to lose now, nobody expected us to be where we are, if we miss out so what? Atleast we will know we had a good go.
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jas0999 added 19:12 - Apr 4 Would like the Skuse/Hyam partnership split up. Too negative.
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jpring89 added 19:49 - Apr 4 were going to smash them tomorrow 0-4 williams 2 murphy 1 ebanks blake 1. boooom
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TimmyH added 20:34 - Apr 4 Agree with what Keanish has said - more the formation that we're playing is causing concern for the opposition, we have looked far more potent with 433. I still don't buy Hunt and Anderson both starting as they've looked relatively poor over the last week or so and a bit of a question mark over Williams tucked in behind Murphy (he needs to be the chief play maker in midfield.

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itfchorry added 20:39 - Apr 4 Totally agree with you John B 13 in relation to your SEB comment - He is definitely getting sharper with each game and fancy him opening his account tomorrow. Heading up tomorrow - let's make sure that The Boys know we are there ! COYB
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billlm added 21:09 - Apr 4 maybe a blessing seb being a slow burner makes it easier for us to compete for him in the summer I agree hes very close to his first town goal looking a lot sharper,now on to nouble yes played a lot better since his injury all from the bench sorry guys that's whered I leave him use him as an impact player think hes better that way at the moment
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BlueandTruesince82 added 21:47 - Apr 4 It depends on what they do. If Dunn starts then we need to mark him out of the game ala utd on Robben on Tues thereby cutting of service to JR. Then as soon as Dunn is out of puff get at them, maybe with fresh legs. If Dunn dosnt start then get at them early doors and a couple of early goals might produce a goal difference enhancing collapse
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blueboy1981 added 23:06 - Apr 4 ......... the mission from MM tomorrow will be to preserve 'the point we start with' - anything more will be more by accident than design. Let's hope our man Jordan is not on top form - what an absolutely astronomical loss he was to our Club. Worse still - he never wanted to leave or play for anyone else, and he still states just that.
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Fat_Boy_Tim added 23:35 - Apr 4 @blueboy do pipe down, are you seriously saying that town are 2pts off the playoffs this season from being bottom of the league last by luck not design. That is so negative it's absurd and please stop bleating on about Rhodes! Utter tosh about MM's tactics, in order to have the best chance of winning we need to take the sting out of them then go for it later in the game. Are they, with their astronomically good striker, not just 5 points behind us and playing at home? We have no right to win it tomorrow but if we do it would be an excellent result. They haven't lost for quite a while so even a draw would be a good result in the game if not in our season as a whole.

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ITFCRealist added 00:08 - Apr 5 Green and Tabb? The last 3 games has made me warm a little to hoofball Mick. If he picks Green and Tabb I will pay for the 'Wrong One - Mick Out' plane myself/
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pazelle added 00:33 - Apr 5 I'd go: Gerken Chambers, Berra, Smith, Cresswell Hyam, Skuse, Wordsworth Taylor, Murphy, Williams But to be fair I'd be happy with any team that doesn't contain Tabb or Green - surely they haven't been getting the '7 out of 10's from TC? Wordsworth and Hyam W2 D0 L0 - not good enough.
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blue added 02:12 - Apr 5 MM if u pick a team and we win your god :) if we draw or lose you didn't pick right team, simple that's that. Town kick ass plz.
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bring_back_Wickham added 06:33 - Apr 5 Why don't we try a 4-3-1-2 ? Green Chambers Smith Berra Cresswell Hyam Skuse Wordsworth Williams Ebanks-blake Murphy Then bring on Big Frank on 60 mins when their legs are tired
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essexboy added 07:00 - Apr 5 They seem happy playing in this formation,so why change it.! I don't care if we don't score many goals or how we play at the moment as long as we get results.Have you not noticed that since JW has been here we play a little more on the ground now than the big boot.Lets be patient and leave it to MM.COYB
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Bradley19ITFC added 09:45 - Apr 5 Anyone know any websites where I can stream today's game from?
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jonnysuave added 09:49 - Apr 5 Excited to hear Paul Green is close to making the side. Very much the Robin Turner of the current side.
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Fat_Boy_Tim added 09:49 - Apr 5 Little off topic but still could be good news for Town: Stuart Pearce taking over at Forrest from thet start of NEXT season tottaly undermines the caretaker Gary Brazil for this. If he'd come in now, they might be competing for the last playoff spot but it's got to be a bit weird for the players there now and hard to buy into what they're being told.
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BuckieBlue added 11:35 - Apr 5 There is always hope (in life; in football)- Mcg g INJURED WE THOUGHT gooifesysw
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TimmyH added 11:36 - Apr 5 According to the EADT Mick dropped Wordsworth as he says in his words 'he's loyal to his players' and bar 2 games Skuse had been good all season and the reason he didn't even have him on the bench was that he needed 'fresh' legs...I find this most strange surely logic tells you if you have a player who has performed fairly well the last 2 games in midfield and might be a bit tired as he's played 2 games in a few days you at least put him on the bench and possibly bring him on second half if the game isn't going to plan. Glad Mick came out and explained this but you do have to query it! P.S. for today's game Mick said Wordsworth will be in the squad and he 'might even get a game' - not sure what that means? 10 minutes or starting, all the same I bet Hyam & Skuse start.

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BuckieBlue added 11:42 - Apr 5 Sorry messed up above! There is always hope (in life, in football) i.e. McG injured- end of our season many of us thought; Williams in, few others step up to plate (Frank, Seb) suddenly we've got a season again, even a game in South London went our way last week so it turns out. Re Rhodes, going by Harry from Bath's insight this week, if JR is all about goals but no team contribution, couldn't see him as being in MM's current thinking, so maybe he can be finally forgotten about?

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TimmyH added 11:51 - Apr 5 * should also mention the 2 games relating to Skuse were the one's he was injured and missed.
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