McCarthy Wants Strong Finish to Season Friday, 22nd Apr 2016 06:00 Town visit Middlesbrough on Saturday with manager Mick McCarthy determined that his side should finish their season strongly, despite now having no realistic chance of making the play-offs. The Blues, who are without a win in six, are eighth in the table, eight points from the play-offs with just three games left to play. “I’m bitterly disappointed [not to have made the play-offs], we all are,” McCarthy said. “But being disappointed is one thing, we’ve still got three games to play, so we have to try and achieve as much as we can in the next three games. “And they’re three really tough ones. Let’s not underestimate the MK Dons, they went to Sheffield Wednesday the other night and got a draw, and Middlesbrough away and Derby away, they couldn’t be any tougher than that.” The Town boss has said he won’t go to the Riverside and field a team of youngsters - although he is considering playing one - as he believes it’s important to be fair to all the clubs in the promotion race and because he wants to win the match. “I wouldn’t do that, firstly to us, go up there and get a good hiding by changing a load and putting kids in,” he continued. “And I wouldn’t do it to the others. I’ve no loyalty to anybody else, but there’s the integrity of the competition, of course. “We want to win, we want to try and finish as high as we can with as many points as we can and not finish badly. “We’ve had a tough old time in the last four-to-six weeks, so we’d like to finish strongly.” He admits that with nothing left to play for the atmosphere around the training ground isn’t what it might have been. “It’s not as exciting as last season, we went to the last minute of the last game last year,” he said. “Of course it changes the atmosphere, it’s not the same. “I guess the motivation is different. Winning games, our fans are travelling, we want to win, we want to play well, all that remains the same, but if you’re going to get in the play-offs or you’re trying to avoid relegation - thank God that’s not the case - then there’s that added incentive that makes it nerve-wracking, anxious. I guess it takes that away.
“But unfortunately taking that away, that’s the thing that makes it exciting. That’s what keeps you on edge, that’s what makes you do great things and bonkers things at times so you can go on to greatness or you can bomb in any season, in any club. “I’ve always said the play-offs have made it so mid-season mediocrity doesn’t come until at least three games before the end of the season. But we don’t want to drift into that, we want to try and win the games and play well.” McCarthy isn’t shocked to see the Teessiders - who dropped to second in the Championship by a point following Burnley's 1-0 win at Preston on Friday night - in the running for automatic promotion given the money they’ve spent. “I can’t be surprised when they’ve signed David Nugent for zillions, Jordan Rhodes for £9 million, they’ve got Gaston Ramirez [on loan from Southampton]. “I can’t be surprised just because of the quality that they’ve got in the team and how much they’ve spent on doing it. “For long parts of the season we’ve competed with them, and we did last year. They had the manager [Aitor Karanka] do one for a game, I went to that game at Charlton and they were beaten and well beaten by Charlton in the end. “So that’s been a remarkable turnaround and I think Steve Gibson, whose owned that club, run it, managed it from top to bottom, coped with that very well. “He kept calm and got Karanka back in the building and they’ve gone on and won games since. “And I forgot Stewart Downing, who was £6 million from West Ham and 50 grand a week or whatever. They’re entitled to be a good team, that’s my point, and they’re proving to be.” He added: “The two lads that play in midfield [Grant Leadbitter and Adam Clayton] are very, very good. “They’re a good team. The longer they keep the ball, if you’ve got those kind of players, you can protect the back four, but they work very hard, there’s no question that they deserve to be where they are. “And the whole team, they’ve got good players, good Championship players and I think a lot of them will be able to go and play in the Premier League.” McCarthy has said he may play one youngster, who is likely to be one of Myles Kenlock, Josh Emmanuel, Paul Digby or Adam McDonnell, with the latter appearing the most likely to be handed his league debut in midfield. Bartosz Bialkowski will be in goal with skipper Luke Chambers probably at right-back, Jonas Knudsen at left-back and Tommy Smith and Christophe Berra at the centre of the defence. The Town boss is again likely to start with two holding midfielders, matching Boro’s system, with Luke Hyam perhaps coming back into the team alongside Cole Skuse, while Jonathan Douglas could drop to the bench. McDonnell, if he is given the nod, seems likely to play in the role occupied by Andre Dozzell against Fulham with the 16-year-old probably amongst the subs. If the 18-year-old Irishman isn’t the youngster McCarthy is considering fielding or he decides not to take that option, then Kevin Bru or Ben Pringle could come back into the starting line-up. Teddy Bishop is expected to travel and if he does will probably be a sub, having played his first full 90 minutes of the season for the U21s at Sheffield United on Monday. Up front, the Blues boss may again decide to start with Liam Feeney on one flank and Freddie Sears on the other with David McGoldrick or Brett Pitman in the centre. Daryl Murphy (calf), Luke Varney (hamstring), Larsen Touré (groin) and Giles Coke (knee surgery) remain sidelined. Boro head coach Karanka says his club’s supporters will have a big part to play against the Blues with a close-to-capacity crowd expected at the Riverside. “I just want to thank the fans again and to transmit that I’m happy and proud of these players,” he told the Middlesbrough official site, speaking on Thursday prior to Burnley climbing above his side. “We are top of the table and we’re there because we have an amazing squad, amazing players and an amazing crowd so we should all be proud. At home we are really confident and have won the last three in the space of a week. “Ipswich is going to be a difficult game so I’m asking for the supporters help — we’re going to need that at this stage of the season because every point is golden.” Boro, two points ahead of Burnley and Brighton in second and third with three to play, have doubts over full-back George Friend (hamstring) and midfielder Ramirez (calf) and Karanka says they won’t be risked if not fully fit. Cristhian Stuani is back after a three-game ban. "We have to play with players who are 100 per cent. If they are then they’ll play, if they aren’t then we have other players,” he added. Town nemesis David Nugent, who has scored 15 goals in 14 games against the Blues, seems set to be on the bench with Jordan Rhodes - who has netted six in six against his old club only failing to score in one match - currently ahead of him in the pecking order and likely to start, having scored three goals in the last two matches, five since his move to Boro and 16 in total this season. Former Blues skipper Grant Leadbitter joined the Teessiders on a Bosman transfer in the summer of 2012 after turning down a contract at after three years at Portman Road. 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 Blackburn Rovers in August 2012, climbed to just over £1 million. The Blues are understood to have received a further £20,000 when Rhodes joined Boro from Rovers for £9 million in January. During his time at Ewood Park, former Kesgrave High School pupil Rhodes scored all of his six goals in six games against the Blues, the team he still supports. Town have had the better of Middlesbrough over the years, winning 30 games (28 in the league), drawing 14 (14) and losing 20 (19). In December, Cristhian Stuani and - inevitably - Nugent were on target in the second half as Middlesbrough climbed to the top of the Championship via a 2-0 victory over Town at Portman Road. After the Blues had had the better of the first half, Stuani headed the opener on 54, then 20 minutes later Nugent - who both Jim Magilton and Paul Jewell tried to sign when Blues managers - scored his 15th goal in 14 games against Town and his 10th in eight at Portman Road. The teams most recently met at the Riverside in March last year when Boro won 4-1 to leave Town’s hopes of winning automatic promotion hanging by a thread. The Teessiders went in front through Daniel Ayala in the fourth minute in an incident which saw Blues keeper Dean Gerken stretchered off. Daryl Murphy equalised with his 23rd goal of the season on 11 but Albert Adomah restored the home side’s lead on the half hour, before on-loan Chelsea frontman Patrick Bamford sealed the victory after the break with goals on 64 and 79. Saturday’s referee is Darren Bond from Lancashire, who has shown 99 yellow cards and three red cards in 32 games so far this season. Bond’s most recent Town match was the 1-0 win at Huddersfield in February in which he booked Luke Chambers, Brett Pitman and Ainsley Maitland-Niles as well as one home player. Prior to that he was in charge of the dramatic last-gasp 1-0 victory at Charlton in November 2014 in which he kept his cards in his pocket throughout. Two months earlier he took control of the 1-1 draw at Sheffield Wednesday when he booked only two home players, while his only other match involving the Blues was the 2-2 draw at Barnsley in February of the same year in which he again showed no cards. Squad from: Bialkowski, Gerken, Chambers (c), Knudsen, Foley, Emmanuel, Kenlock, Berra, Smith, Digby, Dozzell, Skuse, Hyam, Douglas, McDonnell, Bru, Bishop, Feeney, Maitland-Niles, Sears, Pitman, McGoldrick.
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