McCarthy: Game We Can't Afford to Lose Friday, 6th Mar 2015 16:20 Boss Mick McCarthy believes Saturday’s home game against fellow promotion chasers Brentford is match which the Blues can’t afford to lose. Town dropped to seventh following this week’s back to back away defeats with the Bees one point and one place ahead in sixth. “It’s a really big game for us, vitally important,” McCarthy said. “We certainly can’t afford to lose, if we do we’ll be losing ground on the top six, let alone the top two. A win at home would put us back above them and back in the top six.” The Blues beat Brentford 4-2 at Griffin Park on Boxing Day when they put in one of their best displays of the season. “That was terrific, we got off to a good start and we scored after less than a minute,” the Town manager recalled. “They still showed that they keep the ball, they move it around, they make you work, but it was a terrific performance by us, we were really playing at the top of our game then.” Brentford, promoted from League One at the end of last season, have stayed in the promotion challenge, despite suffering the occasional patch of poor form. “I think that’s been the case for a lot of us in the top seven or eight,” McCarthy added. “You can include Wolves in that. “They won’t lie down. We haven’t downed tools and neither have Derby or Bournemouth or Middlesbrough or Watford, who have all had little dips in form from time to time and all keep coming back. I think that’s shown the measure of the teams and the squads that we’ve got.” He’s been impressed with the job his opposite number Mark Warburton has done and admits it was a shock to learn that he will be moving on at the end of the campaign wherever the Bees end up. “Remarkable,” McCarthy said. “It was a surprise to everybody when we heard he wasn’t going to be staying. “Maybe it’s galvanised the players as opposed to turning them off. They probably want to do it for him even more, and for themselves. “The suggestion that something that happens stops players from wanting to get promoted is nonsense anyway because they carry on regardless. The king is dead, long live the king, whoever gets the job. “For him, I thought the job he’s done anyway has been remarkable and I think it just shows the feeling, the respect and the trust that the players have for him that they’ve continued to do it now. And they’ll be a hard nut to crack tomorrow, they’re a good team.” McCarthy has decisions to make after this season’s first back to back league defeats. The Town boss wouldn’t be drawn on whether he will swap keeper Bartosz Bialkowski for Dean Gerken, the Pole having made an error for the first Leeds goal on Wednesday, after making a couple of mistakes in other recent games. “I wouldn’t be telling you what I’m going to do and have any innuendo or rumours flying around,” he said. “At two o’clock you get the teamsheet.” Gerken, who dropped out of the side after he picked up a groin injury in the warm-up ahead of the Blackpool game in November, may well be in McCarthy’s thoughts for a return. In defence, the Town boss may opt to continue with his preferred back four of skipper Luke Chambers at right-back, Christophe Berra in the centre with Tommy Smith and Tyrone Mings on the left. Or alternatively may look to switch it around, perhaps with Jonny Parr moving to right-back and Chambers into the middle with Tommy Smith dropping out. In midfield, Cole Skuse seems certain to keep his place with Richard Chaplow perhaps joining him in the centre of midfield with McCarthy hinting that Teddy Bishop might not be ready to start after nine days out with an ankle injury. Kevin Bru is sidelined with a knee problem. Jay Tabb could return to the left with Anderson and Parr amongst the options on the right. McCarthy has confirmed that 21-goal top scorer Daryl Murphy and Freddie Sears will be back in his starting line-up. Recent loan signings Chris Wood and Luke Varney, who both impressed McCarthy at Leeds, are likely to play a part from the bench at some stage. Brentford boss Warburton is confident his players have what it takes to still be in the top six at the end of the season. “After Ipswich we are down to the final 10 games so we really are into the home stretch,” he told the London Evening Standard. “There is no need to motivate this group of players. They deserve to be there – now go and finish the job. “Ipswich are an experienced team and have good quality. We have gone to places like Cardiff and Leeds and done well, so we are looking forward to the challenge.” One-time Town target Alan Judge is expected to return to the side after a knee problem, but midfielder Lewis Macleod - signed from Rangers in January - is not yet ready to make his Bees debut having been out with a hamstring injury and then suffering a bizarre setback when he tripped over a twig. Striker Andre Gray could return having been rested in midweek, while another frontman, Scott Hogan, remains on the sidelines with cruciate ligament injury. The teams have only met nine times previously with the Blues having had much the better of the Bees. On Boxing Day at Griffin Park, Daryl Murphy scored twice and Paul Anderson and Tommy Smith once each as Town won 4-2 to briefly hit the top of the Championship for the first time this season. Murphy opened the scoring in the first minute, then added the second on 21 before Anderson made it 3-0 on the half hour. Late on, Bees sub Sam Saunders netted twice either side of Smith’s 82nd minute goal for the Blues. Back in the 1955/56 season with both clubs in Division Three (South) Brentford won the first game between the clubs 3-2 at Griffin Park, while the Portman Road match ended 1-1. The following season, as Town progressed to the Division Three (South) title under Sir Alf Ramsey, the Blues beat the Bees 4-0 at Portman Road in the September, with Wilf Grant scoring twice and Tom Garneys and Ted Phillips once each. In the following February, in the most recent league game between the clubs prior to this season, Phillips was on the scoresheet again as the Griffin Park match ended 1-1. The teams subsequently met in the League Cup on three occasions, in 1966/67 when Town won 4-2 away, in the Blues’ 1999/00 promotion campaign when Town won both games of a two-legged tie 2-0, and in 2004/05 when Tommy Miller and Ian Westlake netted the goals in another 2-0 win at Portman Road when Jay Tabb came on as a second-half sub for the Bees. Overall, the Blues have won six of the games between the sides (two in the league), the Bees one (one) with two (two) ending in draws. Three current Town players have been with Brentford. Tabb was at Griffin Park between August 2000 and June 2006, making 114 starts and 42 sub appearances, scoring 24 goals. Stephen Hunt played alongside him for the Bees and like Tabb joined after leaving Crystal Palace. Hunt signed on at Griffin Park in July 2001 and stayed until June 2005. He made 145 starts and 15 sub appearances, netting 29 times. Centre-half Tommy Smith was on loan at Brentford between January and March 2010, making eight starts. No current Brentford player has played for Town. After the game, the Supporters Club are holding a Legends in Legends event with plenty of former Blues around this weekend with the annual ex-players’ dinner on Friday evening. Saturday’s referee is Scott Duncan from Northumberland, who has shown 70 yellow cards and three red in 28 games so far this season. Duncan’s most recent Town match was the 1-0 win at Charlton in November 2013 in which he booked two Blues and one Addick. Squad from: Bialkowski, Gerken, Chambers (c), Parr, Mings, Berra, Smith, Clarke, Skuse, Chaplow, Tabb, Bishop, Benyu, Anderson, Connolly, Henshall, Stewart, Murphy, Sears, Wood, Varney.
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