Town Out to End Goalless and Winless Run as Burton Visit for First Time Tuesday, 18th Oct 2016 06:00 Town go into tonight’s home match against Burton Albion - the first competitive match between the sides - looking to bring their run of five games without either a win or a goal to an end. The Blues, down to 17th in the table following Saturday's 0-0 draw at Blackburn, last scored in the 1-0 victory at Derby on September 13th, eight hours and seven minutes of football ago. Town’s record goalless run is seven games between February and April of the 1994/95 Premier League relegation season - which included the 9-0 loss at Manchester United and was part of a run of eight successive league defeats - while the current spell is the longest since a barren streak of six matches - one in the FA Cup - in January and February of the 2006/07 campaign. Manager Mick McCarthy hopes his side will finally get the monkey off their backs against the Brewers, who like the Blues are on 14 points but with a goal difference better by one. “It’s a worry,” he admitted. “If we go past the next one without scoring, it becomes a real concern, so I’m hoping we’ll take care of that against Burton and score.” Are Town doing anything different to try to end the barren run? “It’s an interesting question, I’ve just been having that discussion on a couple of fronts, that you try something radical and that doesn’t work, then you go back to Plan A. “Well, Plan A, in terms of how we’re playing, is not the worst. We’ve not created that many chances some weeks, but we’ve not conceded. “I was asked last week, ‘Do Blackburn suffer because Jordan Rhodes has gone, somebody else has gone and somebody else has gone?’. “Well, the answer to that is yes and that’s similar to us. Murph’s gone, he’s not fit, he’s not playing, he’s got a calf strain up at Newcastle, and I’ve had David McGoldrick out, I’ve had Brett Pitman out, I’ve had Reg Varney out and Besty’s come from right field somewhere and hasn’t done a full pre-season. “The same with Jonny Williams, same with Bish, who’s been injured. I’d never every use that as an excuse and I’m not going to start now but as they gradually come back and get better, then I think the goals will come, and I’ve got to believe that.” The Blues boss, who is still looking for his first October win with Town, was pleased with the performance at Ewood Park on Saturday having switched his system to 4-4-2, although he says that was due to the home side's formation. “When I saw Blackburn play I knew they’d be playing 4-4-2-ish, Marvin Emnes drops in, and I just thought that we’d be better than them at that, and we were,” he added. “But that’s not the case in every game, games are few and far between now where teams play that. What you don’t want to be is wide open and get done. It worked on Saturday, we created chances and we should have won the game.” McCarthy has a lot of time for his opposite number at Burton, Nigel Clough, who is in his second spell at the Pirelli Stadium and who saw the Staffordshire side to their second successive promotion last season and into the Championship for the first time in their 66-year history. “He has done well,” McCarthy said. “When he was at Burton before he did a fantastic job. “Do you have a spiritual home? I’m not so sure whether you do, but if you have then it looks like he’s got one because he’s doing well again in the Championship.” Did McCarthy ever face Clough as a player? “I played against him at Manchester City because his father wasn’t too happy when I kicked him, to be honest. I remember having an argument with his father. “He probably deserved kicking because he’d gone past me enough and done all his bits. There’d be no surprises if I’d put him on his bum, to be fair. “I get on well with Nigel, he’s a really good guy, he’s a proper football fella. He’s steeped in the history of it and he’s a really good football man. I like him.” Although Burton will be an unfamiliar team to many Town supporters their squad features plenty of regulars at this level, McCarthy says. “They’ll know some of the players when they see them, they’re Championship players, and I think he’s adopted a system of 3-5-2 so out of possession they’re very hard to break down, in possession he gets numbers forward. “They’ve got some players who have sort of been discarded from elsewhere. I guess there’ll be a bit of a siege mentality, I know it’s a proper little football club which has got great support and a great feel for it and everybody’s wanting them to do well. “And yet they’re the underdog in the league every time they play, but that’s not how they are in terms of how they play and how they’re playing, and they’ve had a bit of success already this season, he’s got them playing. “And we saw that with Barnsley as well, who also got promoted, how well they’ve been doing. It’s a tough assignment, a tough game.” The Town boss says the momentum promoted sides is not to be underestimated: “It’s to be respected and be concerned about, we’ve seen it with Barnsley. “They came up and they’ve had a couple of bad results since, but they had a great start to their season when people were talking about them being relegated. “The same with Burton, I guess. It shows if you get promoted and you’re on the up the difference it can make when you’ve been winning a lot of games - you’re used to winning games and you can take it into the new league. Then it’s maintaining that all through the season, but they’ve started well.” McCarthy says the Blues have had success against a team playing 3-5-2 already this season: “Preston played it and we beat them 1-0, so I’d settle for similar.” He added: “They’ll be working on trying to stop us and likewise we’ll be doing exactly the same. “If the three at the back aren’t playing well and there are huge gaps between them that can cause them a problem. “We’ve talked about that and worked on that in terms of in front of goal against their back three. “But you still have to stop them playing. Playing that system they get to play two up front. It’s always risk against reward the system that you’re playing.” Does he believe it’s up to his team to get their currently frustrated fans back on side? “It’s up to us win, entertain, play football, have chances, get them excited, get them on the edge of their seats. That’s up to us. “That’s what we’re attempting every week, it’s not happening at the minute. Let’s go all radical and throw it all open and change and suddenly find that doesn’t work. “Well actually, not everything is wrong. We’ve had four clean sheets in six. I hear people screaming, ‘I don’t want to see clean sheets’, well there’ll be a few teams in the league who would like to see a clean sheet and in the meantime we’ll keep working to get everybody fit and try and score a goal. “But I’ve been there before and I’ve seen other teams have spells where they just can’t score. I think Saturday gave us a bit more food for thought, we created chances.” Is tonight’s match a must-win game for the Blues? “I’d like to, I’ve just been asked about my job and all the pressure I’m under and whether the trigger might be pulled. “Unless you know any different to me, I’m going into it with the same confidence I do with every game and the belief that we’ll win it and we’ll try and do it.” Bartosz Bialkowski will be in goal with the back four also unlikely to be changed, Town having recorded six clean sheets in their last 10 games, with skipper Luke Chambers at right-back, Jonas Knudsen at left-back and Adam Webster and Christophe Berra at the heart of the defence. McCarthy seems likely to play 4-3-3 as he did against Preston, which is likely to see Cole Skuse and Jonathan Douglas continue in central midfield. Teddy Bishop could come in for his third start of the season in the more advanced midfield role with Jonny Williams likely to play a part from the bench at some stage. Leon Best will take the central striking role with Grant Ward on the right and Tom Lawrence or Freddie Sears on the left. Burton boss Clough has a fully fit squad from which to select their first ever XI at Portman Road. The Brewers are yet to lose this season after netting first and Clough believes opening the scoring could prove crucial this evening. “If we could get it [the first goal] then it will increase the pressure on them a little bit," he told the Albion official site. "But on the other side of it, if we conceded it you would expect them to be filled with confidence, so it will be very important not to concede, and especially early on because you’d expect them to come out of the traps at you. “When the crowd get behind them it’s quite an intimidating place to go, one of the old stadiums where the crowd is close still but it’s always a good place to go and play football.” The Brewers have recorded successive clean sheets in their last two games and their manager is keen for them to continue that defensive form against the Blues. "We've conceded one in three games now in the Championship and that's a great little record of defending," Clough added. "We want to keep it going at Ipswich and it has settled down. Once you get Ben Turner, Kyle McFadzean and John Brayford or John Mousinho there, plus Lucas Akins and Lloyd Dyer in their positions, it's why we look so solid and so good going forward." Although the teams have never previously met in a competitive fixture, they did face one another in a pre-season friendly at the then-new Pirelli Stadium in July 2007. Town ran out 3-0 victors over the then-non-league side with Matt Richards and Alan Lee (2, 1 pen) on the scoresheet. No member of the Town squad has played for Burton, but former Blues loan keeper Stephen Bywater joined the Brewers from Doncaster in January. The 35-year-old, who made 17 appearances for the Blues in a half-season spell in 2008, has so far made only one EFL Cup appearance for his current club. Winger Lloyd Dyer, 34, moved to the Pirelli Stadium in the summer after a spell with Burnley at the end of last season having turned down a contract with Town in February following a successful trial. Brewers frontman Stuart Beavon had a trial with the Town academy towards the end of the 2000/01 season. Burton left-back Ryan Delaney spent time with the Blues during their summer training camp at Carton House in Ireland before subsequently joining the Brewers from Wexford Youth at the end of July. The 20-year-old is yet to make his debut for the Staffordshire club. Town are running a ticket promotion ahead of the match with season ticket and Silver Card holders able to buy additional adult tickets for £10. Tickets at the promotional prices can only be purchased in advance of the match, not on the turnstiles. The Fanzone on the FieldTurf will be open from 6pm with the marquee having been doubled in size and now featuring heaters. Tonight’s referee is Oliver Langford from the West Midlands, who has shown 11 yellow cards and no red in 40 games so far this season. Langford’s most recent Town game was the 0-0 home draw with Charlton in April in which he yellow-carded Jonas Knudsen and two Addicks. Prior to that he was in charge of the 2-1 home defeat to Leicester in November 2013, in which he booked only Luke Chambers. The only other Town game he has taken control of was the 2-0 defeat at Leeds in April of the same year when David Norris, by then with the Whites, was the only player cautioned. Squad from: Bialkowski, Gerken, Chambers (c), Emmanuel, Knudsen, Kenlock, Berra, Webster, Digby, Skuse, Douglas, Bru, Williams, Bishop, Grant, Dozzell, Ward, Lawrence, Sears, Best.
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