McCarthy Expecting a Different Performance From Town Tuesday, 17th Jan 2017 06:00 Town visit Vanarama National League leaders Lincoln City this evening looking to avoid an embarrassing FA Cup third round replay defeat in front of a nationwide and global TV audience (BBC One 8pm, kick-off 8.05pm). Manager Mick McCarthy is anticipating a “different performance” from his side, admitting that the Imps should have won the first match at Portman Road, Tom Lawrence having netted an 86th minute equaliser to see Town to a 2-2 draw. The Blues’ only FA Cup defeat by a non-league club since they entered the Football League came back in January 1960 when they lost 3-2 at home to Peterborough United, while they will be looking to progress to the fourth round - and a home tie against Brighton - for the first time since 2010. Lincoln most recently reached the last 32 back in 1976. “I thought they were excellent here,” McCarthy said. “They were the better team, they were more aggressive than us. “Strange that, isn’t it? In an FA Cup tie that tends to happen, we saw some silly results and silly performances from teams who perhaps should have won. “They made six changes at the weekend at Gateshead [in the FA Trophy] and still managed to win [3-1]. I think they’re fully up for it but I think our lads are as well. We want to go through.” Does he see Town as the favourites at Sincil Bank? “Not on the way the game went here but if you think about the positions in the league we are and everybody would put us up for favourites. “But I think they fancy it. I think they probably think they’re favourites [or they] might still be putting up us favourites, I don’t know. “It doesn’t really matter. If we go and play as well as we can and perform like we did at the weekend, and as we did against QPR and Bristol City, then it’s going to be a damned sight tougher game for them. “I think it’ll be a different performance and it’ll certainly be a different result as somebody will win.” Big Imps striker Matt Rhead caused the Town backline problems in the first match but McCarthy says his players will be more aware of what they’re up against in tonight’s game. “They’ll deal with him better, I hope,” he said. “They’ve seen him. As much as we showed our players their team, their players and how they’re playing, I don’t think any of them had seen too much of Lincoln playing at all, so it was a bit of a surprise to them. “A bit of a shock to them and that is very much the case when you play a team and you don’t know a lot about them, as much as we try to put as much information into them as we can. “It’s never quite the same looking at it on the TV. It was a bit of a rude awakening for all of us. I think they’ll want to deal with him far better.” He added: “It was the first FA Cup tie, the first game of what’s turned out to be a two-legged cup tie and it was probably a bit of a shock to everybody. “I thought they were more aggressive than us, they got about the pitch, that’s the underdog tag playing its part. We have to match that and if we do I’d expect a different result.” He says skipper Luke Chambers and linchpin midfielder Cole Skuse were missed in the first match, the pair having sat out with knee problems. “Chambo and Skusey are big players for us," he continued. "Since I’ve been here in the last four years they’ve played pretty much every game when they’ve been fit. So it’s nice to have them back, it’ll make a difference.” He hopes his players will thrive in the atmosphere at what will be a sell-out home crowd at Sincil Bank. “Absolutely,” he continued. “They had their chance, they should have won the game here in reality. So, for how buoyant they were, they were very good here, it’s different. “They’ve got us coming up there and a lot of people are thinking [there’s a chance of an upset]. I think the BBC have taken the game thinking it’s going to be a big upset. Well we’ll see. “We’ve had the first game, we’ve had a look at each other, we’ve done the dancing round the handbags, haven’t we? We can get on with it now. “It’s a tougher game for us because we’re there. Or is it slightly tougher for them because they’re at home, probably fancied to win and the Beeb are there? Let’s wait and see.” He says he didn’t get much of chance to speak to Lincoln boss Danny Cowley and his assistant, his younger brother Nicky, after the Portman Road match. “I spoke to them before, I went in with the teamsheet,” he said. “Waited a long time in our coaches’ room and nobody had come in, I think that was down to them doing their press and they were in demand, so I get that. “I went in and said I was leaving with Fiona, my wife, I said I’d been in there half an hour and I’m not staying any longer I’d got to go, so that’s what happened. “The team impressed me, that’s how I judge their coaches and their management team. I spoke to them beforehand and they seemed OK. We’ll see, I’ll think a lot more of them if we beat them on Tuesday!” McCarthy recalls being in the opposite camp in David and Goliath battles during his playing career while with Barnsley, most notably during a League Cup run back in the 1981/82 season when they reached the quarter-finals. “We had a good cup run with Barnsley and beat Brighton, they were in the First Division. We beat Swansea, we beat Manchester City, they were all First Division teams. “We went to Liverpool and we drew there. It nearly got called off for fog. I remember some of our fans running up, who had missed 85 minutes of the game, telling us they were running up in the stand behind the goal and they’d only seen five minutes, it was 0-0, and they said ‘Blow the f***ing whistle ref, for Christ’s sake!’ “That was funny, I thought. Five minutes, ran into the stand and wanted the game to end. That was some of my mates who did that. “We had good times, good cup runs there and it’s easy to be motivated for those games and it’s easy to be wound up because there’s everything to gain and absolutely nothing to lose by being beaten by what would be a Premier League team now. “Whatever it gives you, I don’t know, you’d have to ask somebody else, a psychologist, somebody who knows a lot more about it. All I know is that when I played in those games I really wanted to upset the applecart, I really wanted to rub their noses in it, I really wanted to hurt them with the result and physically. I was unbelievably motivated to win those games.” He recalled standing in the tunnel with household names: “Phil Thompson, Graeme Souness, all the others. I don’t know if Rushy was playing, I can’t remember. “But they were great times and the buzz the crowd got off them, I had 24,000 Barnsley fans tell me they wanted tickets because they’d been to games all season long and we’d been playing in front of 4,000 in the league, I think! “But they were queueing up the road to get in, it was incredible. We were in the Second Division and we were doing well at the time and there was just an unbelievable buzz in the town. “It was fab and everybody was confident and buoyant, a bit like Lincoln now, top of the league, bringing 5,000 fans here, can afford to make six changes at Gateshead and still win the game, and are probably expecting to beat us on Tuesday night.” The match has to end on the night with extra time and penalties following if the game is level at 90 minutes. McCarthy says there has been no practising spotkicks. “No, we haven’t,” he said. “I see it on the training ground out here and it has no bearing whatsoever when you go on the pitch. You take a couple of penalties here and that’s it, suddenly you’ve practised it. Golfers roll a thousand putts a day. “I honestly believe it’s a case of pick a spot, hit the ball cleanly and you’ve got a better chance. And who knows who will be on the pitch at that stage anyway. “I’ve been involved in it with Ireland. We weren’t practising penalties and we got through to the quarter-final of the World Cup and there weren’t any penalties practised. “It was a question of who fancied it. And I’m not sure everybody did fancy it at the time, but they took them. “It was a big game. I expect players [step up], they can all hit the ball, they can all shoot. It’s when you’re stood with the keeper in front it depends what you do, whether you crumble or not.” McCarthy is pleased with the way the 3-5-2 system has worked out, having started in that system at QPR before switching at half-time and then moving back to it again for Saturday’s 3-2 victory over Blackburn Rovers. “There are upsides to it, there are downsides to it, but if you win there are no downsides to it," he said. “There are in terms of how things can affect you on the pitch but if you win games playing it, it doesn’t really matter. It enables us to get Dozzer [Andre Dozzell] in the team, it’s difficult for him in a 4-4-2. “Physically it’s very demanding, you’ve got to get up and down, you’re man for man. He’s better when he’s got a bit more freedom, and it suits us more. “He’s got a bit more freedom to do the things that he’s exceptionally good at, which is getting it and passing it, and he doesn’t have the responsibility of doing the things he’s still learning to do. “He’ll pick that up and having company in there, a couple of them, we benefit from that.” McCarthy says Dozzell has improved as a player since making his senior debut at the end of 2015/16. “He wouldn’t be playing if he hadn’t learnt anything from the start of the season,” he said. “I know he got in and he scored at Sheffield Wednesday, but he’s made huge leaps and strides forward when he’s training with us and with his strength and conditioning, the work he does in the gym with [fitness coach] Andy Liddell.” Does he believe the prospect of the winners facing a home tie against Brighton will have much impact on the replay? “No, I want to win the game, I want to beat Lincoln. Whatever else, whatever affects the game, we just want to win. “I think we’ve played well over the last few games, Lincoln apart in the FA Cup tie, but in the league games we have. “We’ve had six points out of nine, we want to build on the back of that. Losing the FA Cup tie is one thing and losing it on television in front of everybody else to a National League team, who are very good by the way, I don’t want that to happen.” The Blues boss has confirmed that Dean Gerken will start in goal, as he did in the first match. McCarthy will probably stick with the 3-5-2 system which saw his side to the weekend win against Blackburn with skipper Luke Chambers again set to start in the middle of the back three with Christophe Berra to the left and Adam Webster to the right. Josh Emmanuel and Jonas Knudsen will be the wing-backs with Cole Skuse, Andre Dozzell and Kevin Bru or Jonathan Douglas the central midfield trio. Top scorer Tom Lawrence will be up front with either Freddie Sears or Leon Best, who missed the first game as he was unwell. Young strikers Ben Morris, 17, and Shane McLoughlin, 19, midfielder Adam McDonnell, 19, left-back Pat Webber, 17 and 19-year-old central defender or right-back George Fowler weren’t included in the U23s at Cardiff last night so are likely to have travelled and a number of them could be on the bench, having been among the subs for the first game. New signings Kieffer Moore and Jordan Spence are both ineligible for this evening's match. Imps boss Cowley says everyone at his club thoroughly deserves an occasion like this evening’s replay. "I don't know, as a manager, if I can look forward to it but it's a great night for the club," Cowley told Lincolnshire Live. "I'm delighted that everyone connected with the club is looking forward to it. I really want them to because they deserve this night. "The fact the BBC is there, we're on in front of the cameras after Eastenders, Holby has been moved — my mum will be fuming! — is brilliant for everyone associated with the club. "There are so many people here who work tirelessly behind the scenes and get very little recognition. I'm pleased for them. "It's great that the city has bought into it. The scenes at the club last week were frightening. The club probably hasn't had scenes like that for an awfully long time. It's a good time for the club and a great game to look forward to." Cowley had praise for the Town support - which includes a number of his relatives - for the way the ovation they gave his team after the first match. ”Ipswich is a fantastic club with a great support,” he added. “We were really appreciative of their supporters and the fact they gave us a standing ovation as we left the field. "That meant a lot to us. They're a really good club and we look forward to hosting them on Tuesday." Cowley is expecting a much-improved Town performance: "There's no doubt we are going to see a better version of Ipswich, you will see a more focused Ipswich. "We are very respectful of them. They have got some fantastic players. It was a pleasure to compete against them and we look forward to doing it again. "We probably out-performed ourselves in the first game and got to levels we weren't sure we were capable of. "The boys played like Championship players. That doesn't mean they are Championship players, because to be that you would have to play at that level game in, game out. But we showed we are capable of going toe-to-toe with a Championship team. "It's a huge challenge for the group to do that again. It is going to test us physically and mentally but it gives us an opportunity to show the club in a good light again. "To have this nationwide exposure is great for everybody. We are in front of the cameras, it will be a great night for the club and we want to make the most of it.” Cowley is set to recall the players rested for Saturday’s FA Trophy victory over Gateshead, skipper Luke Waterfall, Bradley Wood, Alex Woodyard, Nathan Arnold, Matt Rhead and Theo Robinson.
Former Town academy defender Lee Beevers is currently sidelined with a serious knee injury. Beevers came through the Town academy and was a young pro at Portman Road before being released in the summer of 2003 without making a senior appearance. The 33-year-old was previously with the Imps between 2005 and 2009 before rejoining them after leaving Mansfield in the summer of 2015. In the first match at Portman Road, Tom Lawrence saved Town’s blushes with an 86th minute equaliser, his second goal of the game, as Lincoln came within four minutes of a famous third round FA Cup upset at Portman Road but had to be content with a 2-2 draw. The Imps went ahead through Robinson in the seventh minute, Lawrence levelled four minutes later before the Lincoln striker netted his second on 65 and the Imps looked destined to win it until Lawrence’s late goal rescued Town. Prior to that, the Blues and Lincoln had never previously met in the FA Cup. They had previously played one another in the league in Town's 1960/61 Division Two championship season when Sir Alf Ramsey's side ran out 3-1 winners at home and 4-1 away. Overall, Town have won five of the league games between the sides, all of which have been in the second tier, and Lincoln three with two ending in draws. The Blues have won their last two matches at Sincil Bank, that 4-1 win in 1960/61 when second half goals from Ray Crawford, Jimmy Leadbetter, Ted Phillips and Roy Stephenson saw Town come from a goal behind at half-time - an own goal by skipper Andy Nelson - to win. In the January of the previous year Sir Alf Ramsey’s side ran out 1-0 winners on Lincoln's home turf with Leadbetter scoring the only goal in the 24th minute. Lincoln’s last victory over the Blues came at Sincil Bank in January 1959 when they defeated Ramsey’s side 3-1 with Derek Rees on target for the Blues. Lincoln have beaten three sides in earlier rounds of this season's FA Cup. The Imps defeated fellow National League team Guiseley 2-1 away in a replay in the fourth qualifying round following a 0-0 home draw, then beat National League North side Altrincham 2-1 at Sincil Bank in the first round, before setting up their tie with Town with a 3-2 home victory over League One strugglers Oldham Athletic in round two. Tonight’s referee will be Ben Toner from Lancashire, who has shown 78 yellow cards and three red in 24 games so far this season. Toner has never previously taken control of Town match and is yet to referee a Championship game having officiated in League One and League Two for the last two seasons and the National League during the year prior to that. Squad from: Gerken, Bialkowski, Chambers (c), Knudsen, Emmanuel, Webber, Webster, Berra, Digby, Fowler, Skuse, Douglas, Bru, Dozzell, McDonnell, Ward, Lawrence, Sears, Best, Morris, McLoughlin.
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