Town Enter Final Straight at Wolves Friday, 1st Apr 2016 06:00 Town travel to manager Mick McCarthy’s former club Wolverhampton Wanderers as they move into the final eight games of the season in eighth place in the Championship, four points plus goal difference from the play-offs. McCarthy admits that he doesn’t know how many points will be required to make the top six, Town having needed 78 last season, while in 2012/13 Leicester finished sixth with as few as 68. The Blues currently have 58 while Sheffield Wednesday in sixth have 62. “I’ve no idea, I haven’t got a clue,” the Town boss admitted. “But we’re going to have to pick some points up pretty soon if we’re going to be in them.” With the Blues’ other away games against Wednesday, third-placed Middlesbrough and Derby, who are fifth, the trip to Molineux looks like Town's best chance to pick up vital points on the road with Wolves currently 12th and their season effectively already over. McCarthy is looking forward to returning to the club where he spent five and a half years as manager, but also to picking up three points on his old stamping ground. “There are a lot of friendly faces there,” he said. “I left on very good terms but I’d like to go and beat them and stay on good terms.” Wolves finished seventh behind the Blues last season and missed out on the play-offs by goal difference but this year only fleetingly looked like challenging for the top six. However, McCarthy says there are mitigating factors with a number of key men having moved on or been injured. “Despite the fact that they’ve spent some money on Adam Le Fondre and Joe Mason, I remember going there and playing against Benik Afobe [now at Bournemouth] and Nouha Dicko [out with a knee injury] at the end of last season and they were a real threat, and with Bakary Sako [now at Crystal Palace] as well. “To lose those three players would be akin to us losing Ryan Fraser, Bish and Didz. It makes your team a worse team, or your squad a worse squad. “I feel for their manager Kenny Jackett a bit because he did really well the season before getting them promoted, last season we nicked it on goal difference by one goal. “And this year he’s having a tough time, but they’re still a capable team. I watched them at Burnley recently, they drew 1-1 and they played well.” While McCarthy seems likely to make changes to his team following the disappointing 1-0 home defeat to Rotherham a fortnight ago, the Blues boss is likely to stick with goalkeeper Bartosz Bialkowski and his regular back four of skipper Luke Chambers on the right, Jonas Knudsen on the left and Tommy Smith and Christophe Berra in the centre. The Town manager will have to decide whether he plays a three or four-man midfield, but may opt to match Wolves’ usual 4-3-3 system. That could see Cole Skuse joined by Jonathan Douglas and Ben Pringle in the midfield three with Luke Hyam and Kevin Bru also options.
Up front, Freddie Sears and Liam Feeney, who would be making his full debut, or Luke Varney could start either side of Brett Pitman with Daryl Murphy out with a calf injury. David McGoldrick is likely to be amongst the subs and may make his first appearance since mid-December, while Teddy Bishop, yet to appear at all this season, could also make the trip and take a place on the bench. For Wolves, keeper Carl Ikeme is expected to be over a stomach bug he picked up while away with Nigeria and winger James Henry is closing in on a return from a hamstring injury. Defender Mike Williamson and midfielder Dave Edwards both remain sidelined. Striker Dicko is a long-term absentee with a knee injury, as is one-time Town loanee Jordan Graham, while defender Ethan Ebanks-Landell (foot) and winger Jed Wallace (thigh) are both also sidelined. The sides are fairly evenly matched over the years, Town winning 29 times (28 in the league), Wolves 27 times (24) and with 22 games (19) ending in draws. In November at Portman Road, Douglas and Murphy put Blues in front in either half but Wolves equalised twice via Henry and Afobe as the game ended in a 2-2 draw. Douglas opened the scoring in the 16th minute, Henry levelled seven minutes before the break, prior to Murphy regaining Town’s lead on 54, but Afobe hit back with a header 15 minutes from time. The teams last met at Molineux in April last year when former Blues loanee Richard Stearman headed a first-half own goal but Afobe equalised five minutes after the break as the game ended 1-1. Blues manager McCarthy was the Wolves boss between July 2006 and February of 2012, helping them to the Championship title in 2008/09. Town assistant boss Terry Connor fulfilled a similar role during McCarthy’s time at Molineux — having joined the club in 1999 under John Ward’s management - before briefly taking over as manager after McCarthy’s departure. After a similarly short spell as his successor StÃ¥le Solbakken’s assistant, he left Molineux four games into the 2012/13 season, rejoining McCarthy at Town in the November. Blues U21s coach Mark Kennedy wore the old gold from 2001 until 2006, while Town’s director of football Dave Bowman and scout Ian Evans were both at Molineux until they followed McCarthy and Connor at Portman Road. Town defenders Christophe Berra and Kevin Foley both played under McCarthy and Connor at Molineux. Currently injured Wolves winger Jordan Graham was on loan with the Blues from Aston Villa between November and December 2013, making two sub appearances. The designated pub for travelling Town fans is The Bluebrick in Sun Street, WV1 1AA. Saturday’s referee is Rob Lewis from Shrewsbury, who has shown 70 yellow cards and three red in 22 games so far this season. Lewis has only previously refereed two Town games and in the most recent, in a 2-1 defeat at Birmingham in January 2012, the Blues were denied what was widely regarded as a stonewall penalty when Lee Martin was felled by Steven Caldwell in the closing stages. While Lewis wasn’t well sighted, assistant Amy Fearn was better placed to see the incident. Then-Blues boss Paul Jewell’s criticism of Fearn in his post-match press conference was misquoted in some quarters and led to accusations of sexism but with the FA later confirming that they wouldn’t be taking any action. Lewis, who booked only Grant Leadbitter in that game, was also in charge of the 2-1 home victory against QPR in March 2007 when he yellow-carded Dan Harding and two visiting players. Squad from: Bialkowski, Gerken, Chambers (c), Knudsen, Foley, Berra, Smith, Digby, Hyam, Douglas, Skuse, Tabb, Bru, Bishop, Pringle, Feeney, Maitland-Niles, Touré, Sears, Pitman, Murphy, Varney, McGoldrick.
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