McCarthy: Important to Sign Off Positively Friday, 29th Apr 2016 16:50 Town boss Mick McCarthy says it’s important for the Blues to sign off their home campaign with a good performance and result against the already-relegated MK Dons, admitting that Town have been under par at Portman Road during 2015/16. Having had a home record matched only by Middlesbrough last season when they won 15 of their 23 games on Suffolk soil, drawing five and losing only three, this year the Blues have recorded only eight victories at Portman Road, drawing eight and losing six. McCarthy is determined to end this season’s home fixtures on a winning note: “It’s really important, especially as we’ve not been great at home. Performances haven’t been particularly good and results have been poor. “For the last home game, everybody comes along and it renews people’s faith and optimism if you have a good result and a good performance, and that’s just what we’ll be looking for.” He says that if you end a season positively that momentum can be taken into the following campaign. “We did it last year, we took it into the start of this season, momentum was carried on,” he added. “We had a great start and then we had a bit of a stop-start finish but nobody can deny the fact that we started really well and continued the momentum that we started with the play-offs and our top-six finish last season.” MK, who will be at Portman Road for the first time, were promoted last season having finished second in League One but despite gaining plaudits for their stylish football languish in 22nd place, nine points from safety with their relegation having been confirmed last week. “They’re a good football team, getting relegated,” McCarthy said. “They certainly came up really well and they’ve had some really good games. “I’ve just had a look and I think they’ve won nine and lost 23. There are a few teams in our league which would swap places with us. “I don’t know whether they’re well equipped [to bounce back next season], I don’t know what players they’re going to lose. “I think in Karl Robinson they’ve got a good manager, a good coach, they do play nice football and they were a real style icon in League One. “They had Dele Alli playing for them as well, so they had some good players, and they had a great season. “They’ll be going away and reflecting, thinking that this hasn’t been a great season because a great season is staying in the league. And unfortunately for them they haven’t managed it.” McCarthy, whose side remain eighth but could still move up to seventh or drop down to 11th depending on results during the final two weekends, has said that Josh Emmanuel and Myles Kenlock will start at right-back and left-back respectively with skipper Luke Chambers (ankle) and Jonas Knudsen (knee) set to be left out due to minor niggles. Given the inexperience at full-back, the Town boss is likely to start with senior centre-backs Tommy Smith and Christophe Berra, who is OK after missing the Middlesbrough game with a knee injury. Paul Digby is set to return to the bench, while Bartosz Bialkowski will continue in goal. In midfield, Cole Skuse and either Jonathan Douglas or Luke Hyam will be in the deeper lying central roles. McCarthy has confirmed that Teddy Bishop will make his first start of the season, probably in the more advanced midfield position. The Town boss has confirmed that Adam McDonnell will be in the squad and the Irish U18 international could take over from Bishop, who is unlikely to play the full 90 minutes, at some stage and make his league debut. Andre Dozzell is away with the England U17s ahead of the European Championships in Azerbaijan. Up front, David McGoldrick again looks set to take the central role - Daryl Murphy remains sidelined with his calf injury and is unlikely to play for Town again this season - with Liam Feeney and Freddie Sears in the wide positions. The game will be followed by the annual lap of appreciation by the players and management staff. MK Dons boss Karl Robinson says that with relegation confirmed, he is targeting hitting the 40 points mark - they’re currently on 39 - in the remaining two matches: ”I know what I want to do so we need to play for the shirt for the next couple of games. "They need to get into the 40s and they have to have a challenge otherwise there's no point playing football.” Robinson is weighing-up whether to field centre-half Kyle McFadzean and midfielder Samir Carruthers in the last two fixtures as the pair are both on 14 yellow cards and a further caution would lead to a three-match ban which will carry through into next season. He says players who won’t be at the club next season won’t be involved and that some of the club’s youngsters will make the trip: ”We have to approach the last two games reflecting on the future of the football club, not just the immediate future, and there are a few young players we're going to draft in. “There are some kids I'm really interested in. There's an U16 who will be travelling with us, hopefully, on Saturday and there will also be an U17 on the bench.” Keeper David Martin remains sidelined with a broken hand, while Ben Reeves is out with a calf problem and on-loan Bolton striker Rob Hall with a serious knee injury. On-loan Brighton midfielder Jake Forster-Caskey has also picked up a knock. No current Town player has been with Saturday’s opposition but the Dons’ squad includes a number of players and one member of coaching staff with connections to the Blues. Town academy product Bowditch, now 29, made 35 starts and 47 sub appearances for the Blues having joined the club at 10, scoring nine goals before moving on to Yeovil following his release in the summer of 2009. After two years with the Glovers, he joined MK. Jay Emmanuel-Thomas is currently on loan with MK from QPR. The wideman or striker joined the Blues from Arsenal for a fee understood to be in the region of £2 million in the summer of 2011. The 25-year-old went on to make 43 starts and 32 sub appearances for Town, scoring nine goals before departing for Bristol City in July 2013 in a deal which saw Paul Anderson move the other way. US U20 and U23 international keeper Cropper, 23, was with the Town academy and was on the first-team bench on a number of occasions without making his senior debut. He moved on to Southampton in August 2012 having been released by the Blues and then joined the Dons last summer. He has made 11 starts and one sub appearance. Veteran former England central defender Matthew Upson, 37, was born in Hartismere near Eye and was with Town’s Centre of Excellence as a schoolboy. He joined the Dons in the summer after leaving Leicester. Midfielder Jake Forster-Caskey, who is on loan from Brighton and Hove Albion, is the stepson of former Blue Nicky Forster. Ex-Town loanee Keith Andrews is now the first-team coach with MK, having finished his career with the Dons. The 35-year-old former Irish international scored nine goals in 19 starts and one sub appearance during a spell which ran from August 2011 to January 2012. Ex-Blues loanee Jonny Williams has returned to his parent club Crystal Palace at the conclusion of his 93-day loan at MK. In December, in the first ever league game between the sides, Town claimed their third successive win on the road as Brett Pitman’s 10th minute goal saw the Blues to a 1-0 victory at Stadium MK. Town ought to have won the game by a greater margin with the Blues failing to take a number of good chances. The only other previous game between the teams came in the first round of the Carling Cup at Stadium MK back in August 2007 when the Blues were beaten 5-3 in a penalty shoot-out following a 3-3 draw after extra-time. Leon Knight put the home side ahead on 16 then four minutes later Alex Bruce netted an own goal to make it 2-0. Alan Lee pulled one back from the penalty spot just prior to half-time before a Kieron Murphy own goal levelled the scores seven minutes after the restart. Owen Garvan gave the Blues the lead eight minutes into extra-time, but Kevin Gallen netted from the spot after the Dons were controversially awarded a penalty in the final minute. In the shoot-out Lloyd Dyer, Mark Wright, Gallen, Jude Sterling and Sean O'Hanlon all scored for the home side, while Billy Clarke, Jon Walters and Jason De Vos were successful for the Blues. However, Dan Harding’s fourth for Town was stopped by one-time Blues reserves keeper Nathan Abbey. Saturday's referee is Keith Stroud from Hampshire, who has shown 185 yellow cards and 11 red in 43 games so far this season. Stroud’s most recent Town match was the 1-1 home draw with Birmingham in September in which he awarded the Blues a penalty, netted by Brett Pitman, which was bitterly disputed by the visitors when Ainsley Maitland-Niles was felled by Jonathan Spector. He booked Christophe Berra, Jonathan Douglas and two visiting players. Prior to that he was in charge of the 3-2 defeat at Brighton in January 2015 in which he booked Kevin Bru and Noel Hunt and one Seagull. Prior to that he took control of the 1-0 home derby defeat to Norwich at Portman Road in August 2014 and Town’s 1-0 home victory over Birmingham in March of the same year. Squad from: Bialkowski, Gerken, Chambers (c), Knudsen, Foley, Emmanuel, Kenlock, Berra, Smith, Digby, Skuse, Hyam, Douglas, McDonnell, Bru, Bishop, Feeney, Maitland-Niles, Sears, Pitman, McGoldrick.
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