McCarthy Hoping Blues Respond to Tough Run Friday, 27th Jan 2017 21:00 Boss Mick McCarthy hopes the current tough run of games will bring the best out of his players, starting tomorrow afternoon at Preston North End. The trip to Deepdale to face the 11th-placed Lilywhites is followed by home games against Derby, who are seventh, and Reading in fourth, and then away matches at Aston Villa and Brighton, a visit from Leeds United - although that game will move if the Whites win at Sutton in the FA Cup on Sunday - and the East Anglian derby at Norwich. “We’ll probably have our best run now because everybody’s looking at us and not expecting us to win, thinking, ‘We’ll not get anything out of that’,” said McCarthy, whose Blues are current 14th in the table nine points from the relegation zone and 11 from the play-offs. “I’m not saying we are but I think my teams have always responded to the tougher games, to be quite honest, the supposedly tougher games.” He says his Town teams having been no different to that during his time at Portman Road. “I’d say so, I think that’s always been the case with the lads,” he added. “I’m hoping that will continue with the run we’ve got.” McCarthy has a lot of time for his Preston counterpart Simon Grayson: “I think he’s done a good job everywhere he’s been, Simon. “He gets the best out of them. I think his teams are very hard-working, pretty resolute and tough and hard to play against. That’s just what they are now and they’re on a good run. I like Simon, he’s a good guy.” One player who is making his mark at Deepdale is winger Daryl Horgan, who joined the Lilywhites on a Bosman from Dundalk earlier in the month having been watched by McCarthy towards the end of last year.
The Town boss says that although he was impressed by the 24-year-old Irishman, the terms which he wanted were beyond what the Blues were willing to offer to someone who probably wouldn’t have been a regular starter this season. “I spoke to the agents and we were never going to get close to what they were talking about for somebody coming in,” McCarthy said. “When all’s said and done, you have to analyse it sometimes. He’s a right footer playing on the left wing. “That would be an interesting one with Tom Lawrence, wouldn’t it? See if he gets in that position. “He never was going to get in that position. We’ve probably got the best one in the league at the moment in Tom. “So taking him in and having him on a first-team wage, it just wasn’t doable for us. There are things we can do and things we can’t and that was one that wasn’t going to happen. “But good luck to Daryl, I quite liked him but he wasn’t going to dislodge Tom Lawrence.” Another Preston player McCarthy rates is striker Jordan Hugill with a £2 million offer - the Blues’ second bid - understood to have been rebuffed. “He's a real competitor, he works hard, he’s quick,” the Blues manager said. “He never gives centre-halves a minute’s peace. We’ll be seeing that on Saturday, no doubt. “And he’s only going to get better. He added his couple of goals at the weekend. He’s somebody who has come into it a little bit later than others, certainly to professional football and he’d be one I like.” But McCarthy wouldn’t comment on whether he had made an offer or confirm his interest in the ex-Port Vale frontman: “I won’t talk about him other than that. As I say, I like him, he’s a good player.” The under-fire Town boss says he’s received support from fellow managers and other people in the game during the Blues’ disappointing season. “I’ve had some nice calls and I make one or two to people who are beneath me,” he continued. “I’ve said ‘I hope your chairman keeps you in a job because your record’s making mine look good!’. I had a bit of fun with one or two of them. “I’ve had lots of calls. I don’t need pick-me-ups or positive mental attitude lessons because I’m pretty good at that but it’s lovely when you get the call, and from your peers as well because they’ve had it and some of them have been the lads I’ve phoned when they’ve lost their jobs or they’ve been struggling. “It just reminds you sometimes that it’s a great community, it’s nice to be involved in it and I don’t want to be going anywhere else.” McCarthy revealed that he has taking part in Dry January but admits he probably didn’t pick the ideal month. “I’m off it this January, I can’t wait until February 1st,” he laughed. “It’s been testing, I have to be honest. “I should have looked at the fixture list, shouldn’t I really? I actually looked at my social diary, not the fixture list, I was being slightly disingenuous in giving it up for January.” Reminded that last season’s game at Preston - a 2-1 fourth-match-of-the-season victory in August - took the Blues briefly to the top of the Championship, McCarthy said: “We had some really good positive results at a lot more places last year than we’ve had this season. It would be lovely to replicate that. But they’re going well.” The Town boss has said Bartosz Bialkowski will return in goal having been ill for last week’s defeat at Huddersfield with Dean Gerken set to drop to the bench, although McCarthy had praise for the ex-Colchester and Bristol City man. “Either one that’s got in has never let us down, they’re both very good goalkeepers but Bart has been that number one goalkeeper all year and that’s still the case for now.” The Blues seem likely to stick with three men at the back with Paul Digby again likely to join skipper Luke Chambers and Christophe Berra. The game will come too soon for new recruit Steven Taylor with international clearance required by midday today as his last club was MLS side the Portland Timbers. The former Newcastle man is also unlikely to be available for Tuesday's home game with Derby. Jonas Knudsen will be at left wing-back, while McCarthy says he has made up his mind whether to start with recent signing Jordan Spence or youngster Josh Emmanuel on the right with the former West Ham and MK Dons man seeming likely to get the nod. “I know who is playing already,” the Town boss said. “The decision’s not too hard and, to be fair to them, they have to work hard up and down up and down that side. “It’s nice that I’ve got a couple of options that I can play and we’re going Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday which is not going to be easy, they’re all tough games. “Preston are flying, Derby are flying even more and Reading are flying even higher still. I’m going to need all the help I can get over the next week.” In midfield, new signing Toumani Diagouraga is likely to join Cole Skuse in the centre with Andre Dozzell, Kevin Bru or perhaps Teddy Bishop in the more advanced position of the three. Bishop is more likely to be a substitute having only played one U23s game since returning from an ankle injury. Up front, McCarthy has David McGoldrick available again after his hamstring injury but is likely to start with Tom Lawrence and Brett Pitman with the Ireland international coming off the bench at some stage having been out of action since the QPR game on January 2nd. Preston boss Grayson, after McCarthy the Championship's second-longest-serving manager behind McCarthy, says his Town counterpart will be determined to get the Blues back on the right track. “People are talking about there being a bit of disharmony,” Grayson told the Lancashire Evening Post. “If there is, Mick is going to roll his sleeves up and get his players fired up to get a good result. “We are in for a really tough game, we can’t forget that they have some good players and a really good manager. “Mick has been someone I have grown close to over the years, when I first started out he was there to offer advice and was always on the end of a call if needed. “When I left Leeds, Mick was the first on the phone to say I had done a good job and to carry on going. “It speaks volumes that he is the longest serving manager in the Championship. Where he has worked and what he’s done, I’ve got a huge amount of respect for him. “I know that Mick will have Ipswich organised and disciplined. Last week at Huddersfield there was nothing in the game, they went there and did a very good job on Huddersfield. “But then a decent goal from Izzy Brown opened up the opportunity for Huddersfield to win it.” He added: “We are just above Ipswich in the table, but there are no easy games. People might have talked this way when we played Wolves and Burton a few weeks ago. “We only picked up two points from those games so we have to make sure we work hard and start properly. “If we don’t start properly we will find it hard to pick up the three points. We have to be on the front foot, take the game to them.” Blues target Hugill is a doubt for Preston having missed training this week after being subbed with a knee injury 12 minutes from the end of the Villa game and leaving the ground on crutches. The Lilywhites hope to have him back in training today and available for Saturday. Preston have midfielder Ben Pearson available again after suspension but full-back Greg Cunningham remains banned. Midfielder John Welsh (calf) and defenders Calum Woods (knee) and Alex Baptiste (knee) remain sidelined. Midfielder Ben Pringle joined Preston from Fulham last summer having been on loan with the Blues towards the end of last season, scoring two goals in nine starts and one sub appearance. The Lilywhites have had the better of the Blues historically, winning 13 games (11 in the league) between the sides while Town have been victorious on 11 (10) occasions and eight (seven) matches have ended in draws. In August, with striker Daryl Murphy in the process of travelling to Newcastle to complete his £3 million move to the Magpies, Grant Ward’s fourth goal of the season saw Town to a comfortable 1-0 victory over Preston North End at Portman Road. The former Spurs man smashed home from the edge of the box in the 15th minute. Last time at Deepdale, in August 2016, Brett Pitman and Ryan Fraser netted as the then-top-of-the-table Blues won 2-1 to record their first league win at Preston since January 1966. Pitman put Town in front with a header against the run of play in the 24th minute but Johnson hit back for the home side before Fraser sealed it with a brilliant strike on 65. Saturday’s referee is Stephen Martin from Staffordshire, who has shown 59 yellow cards and two red in 23 games so far this season. Martin’s last Town game was the 1-0 defeat at Leeds in September in which he booked only Christophe Berra and Kevin Bru. He was also in charge of the 2-0 defeat at Brentford the previous month in which he booked only Adam Webster. Prior to that, Martin refereed the 1-0 home defeat to Rotherham in March last year, in which he booked Jonas Knudsen and one Miller. He also took control of the 2-1 home victory over Fulham on the opening day of 2014/15 in which he yellow-carded Tyrone Mings, Berra and Luke Hyam. Before that he refereed the 2-0 home victory over Brighton in September 2013, when he booked only one visiting player, and the 2-1 loss at Bristol City in the January of that year, in which he showed a single yellow card to one of the home side. Squad from: Bialkowski, Gerken, Chambers (c), Knudsen, Emmanuel, Spence, Berra, Digby, Skuse, Diagouraga, Douglas, Bru, Dozzell, Bishop, Ward, Lawrence, Sears, Best, Pitman, McGoldrick, Moore.
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