McCarthy: Blackburn Better Than Their League Position Friday, 2nd Oct 2015 06:00 Town boss Mick McCarthy believes Saturday’s opponents Blackburn Rovers are a better team than their current position suggests. The Lancastrians are 18th in the Championship having won only once so far this season, while the Blues are eighth behind third-placed Reading on goal difference alone. “They’ve got good players,” McCarthy said. “I like the striker that they signed, [Fodé] Koita, the big tall lad who was injured [for last week’s 1-1 draw at Hull]. “They’ve got Tom Lawrence on loan from Leicester, who is a real talent whether he plays wide left [or elsewhere], he’s a right footer. “The wingers, Craig Conway and Ben Marshall. They murdered us for a period there last year, murdered us in the game. We set off well, but they really took the game to us. "They did it against Fulham recently as well, I thought they were outstanding and they are just better than their league position suggests. “We’ve seen it before. Rotherham have been struggling but they had two wins on the bounce. It’s just the way the league is, I don’t think there’s that much difference between any of us.” He added: “I watched them against Fulham on TV and in the first half Fulham set off and were two up. I only caught the second half because we’d been training and Blackburn battered them, absolutely battered them. “They had one of those ghost goals that should have been a goal but wasn’t given because they couldn’t see that it was over the line - why we haven’t got Hawkeye in our league is beyond me - and it should have been a goal. “They pushed and pushed and pushed and I thought they were outstanding [despite ultimately losing 2-1]. They’re a good side with good players. And, of course, they’ve got Jordan Rhodes who always manages to score.” Ex-Blue Rhodes, whose five goals this season have come in his last four games, has been tipped for a move away from Ewood Park for several transfer windows now and McCarthy admits he thought the 25-year-old would have departed before now. “I’m surprised he’s still at Blackburn because I thought Middlesbrough would have taken him,” he added. “I think they were trying desperately to take him - if all the rumours and our sources were correct, of course - for that final push towards the end of last season. “There were a couple it was suggested had gone in for him but they wouldn’t sell him to a Championship club. I guess that would have been seen as a lack of ambition on their part. Maybe if it had been Premier League sides he would have gone. “So I am a little bit surprised, but I think he has a nice contract there and he keeps scoring goals there and he’s their star man. To prise somebody like that away from a football club is difficult.” Having taken 10 points in August the Blues managed only five in September, which McCarthy says is typical of the division: “Championship football. I think we got off to a flyer, maybe one or two have looked at us and thought they’d have to give us a bit more respect, knowing what’s coming. “When we made a great start I didn’t think we were that much better than everybody else and I don’t think we’re that much worse now. “I watched the Bristol City game again on Monday and I saw the stats and we actually played well in that game. It was a real turgid, tough first half. “We got the goal, we should have gone on and won it but we gave two goals away and even then we had enough chances to win that game. I thought we played well in the second half and created enough chances, but it wasn’t to be. “But did Bristol City look like the team who are bottom of the league on Saturday? No they didn’t. And this’ll be the same on Saturday with Blackburn because they’re better than their league position suggests.” The Blues, who will wear their Barcelona-style away kit for the first time on Saturday, have kept only two clean sheets in the last 21 games in all competitions and only four teams in the Championship have conceded more this season. McCarthy says the squad have worked on defending at Playford Road during the week, the first for a while when there’s not been a midweek game. “It’s very difficult to do that when we’ve had matches on the Friday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Tuesday and then Saturday. “Why’s it difficult? It’s difficult because you have go at full tilt to defend. You can work on a bit of shape but if you’re actually doing defending it’s got to be done aggressively and at full speed and done properly. “And this is the first week that we’ve had for a while where we could do a bit of coaching. So we’ve had a couple of good sessions and enjoyed it.” Town were most recently at Ewood Park on the final day of last season when they lost their fourth successive match on Blackburn territory - they are without a win there in eight - but ended the afternoon celebrating finishing sixth and reaching the play-offs for the first time in a decade. “It was surreal, wasn’t it, having lost 3-2,” he recalled. “We were pushing to try and get back and we just couldn’t do it. But it was a party atmosphere on the pitch having lost, it was barmy, it was bonkers. “But it was great because we got in the play-offs and I’ve always said it’s what you end up with not what you get on any given day, and we ended up with enough points to finish sixth. “We’ve not done really well at Blackburn, so it’s about time we did. The only silver lining on that cloud that I can see is that it’s about time we turned that around and got a result there.” McCarthy seems unlikely to make too many changes to the side which drew 2-2 with Bristol City last week. Dean Gerken is set to stay in goal with skipper Luke Chambers likely to be at right-back, Jonas Knudsen on the left and Tommy Smith and Christophe Berra in the centre of the defence. In central midfield, McCarthy could opt to bring Kevin Bru back into the side alongside Cole Skuse, although he says he’s been happy enough with the pairing of the former Bristol City man and ex-Rover Jonathan Douglas in recent matches. “I’ve no complaints about the two lads who have been playing, I think they’ve been different class, Skusey and Dougie,” he added. Ryan Fraser and Ainsley Maitland-Niles look set to continue in the wide roles, while the Blues boss faces his usual decisions up front. McCarthy may well start with Daryl Murphy as last season’s 27-goal Championship top scorer looks to get back to the top of his game with David McGoldrick perhaps alongside him. If they don’t start, Freddie Sears and Brett Pitman are likely to be involved from the bench at some stage. Blackburn, who have drawn four of their nine Championship games this season in addition to their single win, a 3-0 home triumph against Charlton, will have winger Chris Taylor back in the squad for the first time after six months out with a groin problem. MIdfielder or right-back Jason Lowe is sidelined having undergone surgery for a foot injury, while striker Koita and centre-half Matt Kilgallon (both hamstring) and midfielder Danny Guthrie (thigh) are expected to miss out. Manager Gary Bowyer, whose club is subject to a transfer embargo for transgressing the Championship’s Financial Fair Play rules, believes his team should have more than their current total of eight points. “I think the performances first and foremost in September have been very good,” he told the Lancashire Telegraph. “The fixture list wasn’t kind to us with three of them being away from home. “But we’re disappointed with the points tally. That’s a sign of the potential that this group has got because to have three games away from home and to be disappointed not to have more points just shows the progress that we’re making.” Town have had the upper hand on Rovers over the years, winning 17 games (14 in the league), losing 14 (13) and drawing 16 (15). The Blues’ last win at Ewood Park was the 1-0 FA Cup third round replay victory back in January 1996. The last league triumph there was in the August of the 1991/92 Second Division championship season. Home and away, the Blues have won just one of their last 10 games against Rovers, drawing five and losing four. On the final day of last season’s Championship back in May, Rovers beat Town 3-2 at Ewood Park, a result which saw the Blues finish sixth and face Norwich in the play-offs. Daryl Murphy put Town ahead in the second minute but goals from Jordan Rhodes, Craig Conway and Rudy Gestede saw the home side into a 3-1 lead before Murphy netted a late penalty. In October at Portman Road, Ben Marshall netted an injury time freekick as 10-man Rovers grabbed a 1-1 draw. David McGoldrick curled home a freekick in the 65th minute after Matt Kilgallon had been dismissed having picked up two yellow cards and the Blues looked well on their way to their fourth successive home win until Marshall’s late sucker punch. Rhodes came through the academy ranks at Playford Road having moved to the Blues’ youth set-up in March 2005 for £5,000 from Barnsley after his father Andy joined the club as goalkeeper-coach. The striker made 10 sub appearances and scored one goal for the Town 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. Since moving to Ewood Park, Rhodes has scored four goals in five games against the Blues, only failing to find the net in one match. Midfielder Jonathan Douglas joined Blackburn from hometown club Monaghan United as an 18-year-old in 2000 but spent much of his time with Rovers out on loan and made only 16 starts and eight sub appearances in six years at Ewood Park, scoring once. Luke Varney is currently a free agent but is set to be offered terms with Town once he is over the achilles injury he sustained in the play-offs while on loan with the Blues from Blackburn last season. The 33-year-old is undergoing his rehab at Playford Road. Saturday’s referee is Andre Marriner from the West Midlands, who has shown 23 yellow cards and one red in six games so far this season. A Select Group and FIFA referee who primarily takes control of Premier League matches, Marriner’s most recent Town game was the 1-0 home victory over Hull City on the final day of the 2007/08 season in which he booked Pablo Couñago and Danny Haynes and four Tigers. Prior to that he was in charge of the 2-0 friendly defeat to Lazio at Portman Road in the summer of 2006 - Jim Magilton’s first home game as manager - and the 2-1 league defeat at Cardiff in November 2005, as well as both legs of the the Blues’ FA Youth Cup final victory over Southampton in May 2005. Town squad from: Gerken, Bialkowski, Chambers (c), Knudsen, Parr, Berra, Smith, Malarczyk, Skuse, Douglas, Bru, Fraser, Maitland-Niles, Touré, Oar, Tabb, Sears, Pitman, Murphy, McGoldrick.
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