Blues Visit McCarthy's Old Club Wolves Looking to Return to Form Tuesday, 16th Aug 2016 06:00 Boss Mick McCarthy returns to his old club Wolves this evening looking to continue an unbeaten record at Molineux as Town boss and end the Blues' current two-game run of defeats. After a comfortable 2-0 victory on his first visit to his previous club in December 2012 as the Midlanders dropped towards League One, the Blues have drawn 1-1 and 0-0 since the Wanderers’ return to the Championship. While the summer saw Wolves taken over by new Chinese owners Fosun International and Walter Zenga replace Kenny Jackett as manager, McCarthy says the team the Blues will face tonight won’t be too far removed from the side they took on in that goalless draw in April. “I’ve seen both their [Championship] games,” the Town manager said. “They played against Rotherham, they were 2-0 down and came back with a man short and drew two-all. “I watched the game against Reading this morning. It’s not suddenly changed, they’ve not got loads of new players in. They’ve got two or three but it’s predominantly the players we played against last season. “So there’s not been that many changes, I think it’s hard to just turn it around and just put all new players in, that would be a recipe for disaster. “We’re seeing that up at Newcastle, I guess, with the best Championship players, seven or eight of them have gone in and they’ve lost two games, which seems incredible. “Wolves have had a good start, I thought they played well against Reading, but somebody said they’ve made a bid of £16 million for somebody from Portugal [Benfica’s Anderson Talisca]. “If that’s true, I don’t recognise that one. Even in the Premier League that money wasn’t there when I was manager!” McCarthy and Zenga previously faced one another as players at the 1990 World Cup for the Republic of Ireland and hosts Italy respectively. “That was a great tournament, wonderful and our paths did cross but I can’t say I’ve ever spoken to him or had any conversation with him,” McCarthy continued. “I think the only bloke I had any conversation with was Toto Schillaci and that wasn’t pleasant. “He was a top, top class goalkeeper. He’s had a lot of jobs in management and I think he’s got a great job there, a great club. “I thought it was a great club and a great job when I had it and if he’s in the Championship and has a pot of money to spend, if he can get that place going again it’s a fabulous club.” McCarthy says there he’ll see plenty of familiar faces this evening: “I’ve got a lot of friends still there. But I’ll most be looking forward to seeing my team in the dressing room afterwards if we’ve won or we’ve got something out of the game.” Wolves are one of a number of Championship clubs to have received an injection of cash following a takeover, in addition to the teams with Premier League parachute payments.
McCarthy says what was always a tough league is getting even harder: “It’s never been easy, it wasn’t easy when there wasn’t all the money coming in. But that’s the league we’re in. “I accept that and we do as well as we can. There are some teams who are going to spend a lot of money who are going to still be in this division. There’s only three going up, there’s more than three spending a lot of money.” The Blues manager seems certain to stick with Bartosz Bialkowski in goal and seems unlikely to make any changes to his back four, despite having been less than impressed by the two goals conceded at Brentford. That would see skipper Luke Chambers continue at right-back, Jonas Knudsen on the left and Adam Webster and Christophe Berra in the centre. McCarthy may opt to match Wolves’ usual 4-3-3 system which could see Cole Skuse and Jonathan Douglas sitting deeper behind Teddy Bishop. Kevin Bru and Andre Dozzell are other options for the more advanced role but seem more likely to be on the bench. Daryl Murphy is set to start as the central striker with Freddie Sears and Grant Ward on either side of him. Conor Grant (groin), David McGoldrick (ankle), Brett Pitman (thigh), Luke Hyam and Giles Coke (both knee) all miss out. Striker Nouha Dicko is back in U23s action but is not yet ready to return to the first team after a year out due a knee injury, while defender Mike Williamson (glute), midfielder Michal Zyro and one-time Blues loanee Jordan Graham (both knee) also remain on the sidelines. The teams are fairly evenly matched over the years, Town winning 29 times (28 in the league), Wolves 27 times (24) and with 23 games (20) ending in draws. The teams last met at Molineux in April when the game ended 0-0. Liam Feeney struck the post, Brett Pitman saw an effort cleared off the line and forced Wolves keeper Carl Ikeme into a superb second-half save but the match remained goalless. In November last year at Portman Road, Jonathan Douglas and Daryl Murphy put Blues in front in either half but Wolves equalised twice via James Henry and Benik 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. 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. Town’s director of football Dave Bowman and scout Ian Evans were also both at Molineux until they followed McCarthy and Connor at Portman Road. Blues defender Christophe Berra 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. Tonight’s referee is Peter Bankes from Liverpool, who showed 153 yellow cards and and five red in 38 games last season. This evening’s match is his first of 2016/17. Bankes, who is in his third season as an EFL referee, has taken charge of two previous Town games, January’s 0-0 draw at Burnley, in which he cautioned two Clarets, and the 2-2 home draw with Bristol City in September last year in which he booked three of the visitors. Town squad from: Bialkowski, Gerken, Chambers (c), Emmanuel, Knudsen, Kenlock, Berra, Webster, T Smith, Digby, Skuse, Douglas, Bru, Bishop, Dozzell, Ward, Sears, Murphy, Varney.
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