Town Start Run of Five Games in 15 Days at Hull City Thursday, 16th Nov 2017 20:18 Town visit Hull City on Saturday afternoon as they go into a tough run of five games in just 15 days. Following the trip to the KCOM Stadium, Sheffield Wednesday are at Portman Road on Wednesday for a live Sky game before the Blues travel to Aston Villa and then Derby - a match rearranged from earlier in the season - and then start December with a home fixture against Nottingham Forest. Manager Mick McCarthy says that with so many games in such a short period he’ll have to make full use of his squad. “I’m certain I will,” he said. “We do nothing for two weeks, then we get five games in two weeks, which is always the same. “But we’ll concentrate on Hull first and let’s see if we can get something there. It always makes the rest of them slightly easier if you get something in the first game.” The Town boss says that while players will be rested where possible during the spell some will be involved throughout all five matches, which he says will be a test of stamina and durability among other qualities. “Some will have to play in them all, there’s no doubt about that,” he said. “And [it’ll be about] standing up to that test, because it is a test, physically and mentally. “We’re up to Hull and then we’ve got Sheffield Wednesday on Wednesday, we’ve an extra day there but then we lose a day to travel up to Villa and then we’re at Derby. It’s a bit of a grind and you’ve got to have players who can cope with it.”
He added: “For me personally, for the team, for the club, it will tell us a lot of about us over the next five games. “The games that we’ve got, looking at them on the fixture list, there’s never an easy game, we know that, but they’re tough fixtures that we’ve got coming up, and travelling as well. “I’d settle for the performance that we had against Preston and the goals that we got. I know the first half wasn’t great but they never really caused us any problems. We looked more solid and then we got our chances and we scored three good goals.” McCarthy has always recruited players based on their character as well as their ability, something he says comes to the fore during spells such as the one the Blues are about to enter. “I hope that’s evident all season long and it remains in these next five games because it’s going to be tough,” he said. “I go back to the end of last season when it got tough, we could have blinked and we could have been out of the league, to be honest with you. “But we didn’t, we stuck with it, we got the results we needed, but the next five games are going to be a test for us, definitely.” The Town manager says the spirit and character of his squad have been illustrated by the way players have happily filled in in unfamiliar roles when injuries have hit - earlier on in the season largely to centre-halves and now primarily to central midfielders - with on-loan Everton defender Callum Connolly having started in the middle of midfield against Preston. “Nothing changes, does it?” he reflected. “It’ll be like the rest of the season when we had Jordan Spence at centre-half, Jonas Knudsen at centre-half. “But haven’t they done great? Isn’t it lovely when players go and do it and do it willingly. Not everybody does that, you know. You ask some over your career and they say they don’t want to play there because it’s not suiting them. But our lads just go and play and they’ve been terrific, it’s great.” In February Town went into a similarly difficult-looking group of games and came through the month unbeaten, winning at Aston Villa and drawing with Reading, Brighton, Leeds and Norwich. “Nobody’s looking at the fixtures and wincing,” McCarthy said, considering the run ahead. “I think we’re looking at them and embracing them and looking forward to playing them because they are good games. “But it’s a long season and there’ll be tough times when things seem to go against you and you have to rally round and keep playing, keep scrapping away, all those things. “Fortunately, in terms of that, we might not be the best, most efficient football team in this league, but, wow, you don’t half have to batter us down to beat us. “And make sure you do because if you don’t we’ll keep going and, as we saw two weeks ago, we’ve got quality when it counts. I like the qualities that my team has got.” The Blues return to action after the international break in eighth, two points off the play-offs with a match in hand. That’s better than most fans would have expected at around a third of the way through the season and McCarthy says he would have been happy with the current situation if it had been put to him back in August: “I would.” Conversely, Hull have struggled to settle back into life in the Championship following their relegation from the Premier League in May. The Tigers are 20th, having won only four league games, and lost three on the trot prior to the break. “I’m never really surprised by what happens to the teams that come down,” McCarthy continued. “You look at the players and then you think, ‘Wow!’ because they have got a squad full of good players.
“So that’s the surprising element, but in terms of a club and a team coming down and how they react, it doesn’t surprise me. Sunderland are in the bottom and Hull also. “It’s difficult. It’s a hard turnaround for people and I’ve just seen a colleague and a pretty good mate of mine, Simon Grayson, who I thought would be nailed on to be the right fit for Sunderland, out on his earhole after 16 games and they’re looking for somebody else. “It’s not easy to turn those big juggernaut clubs around once they start going, as we saw with Wolves when they were relegated.” Hull have scored 28 goals, the second-most in the division behind leaders Wolves, who have netted 29, but only Sunderland and Burton have conceded more than their total of 30, 10 of them in the three defeats before the break. “They’ve scored more goals than anybody else [other than Wolves],” McCarthy continued. “If they are scoring that many goals, maybe they are leaving themselves a bit open. “I guess that could have been levelled at us over the course of the season, we’ve been scoring and letting them in at the other end. Thankfully two weeks ago we didn’t.” Town’s 4-2-3-1 formation, featuring eight-goal top scorer Martyn Waghorn, David McGoldrick, who has netted seven times, and Bersant Celina, scorer of six, behind four-goal Joe Garner, has started to become their established system in recent weeks. Are the games ahead ones in which McCarthy can continue with that approach? “I’ve just been asked about them conceding goals and also scoring goals, so have they got an Achilles’ heel at the back and if I play all my strikers will be score?” he responded. “Will I leave myself open, will they score? “I don’t know. That’s what it’s about, isn’t it? We’ve been a real threat with our players on the pitch. “And it’s always open then to scrutiny and criticism if you play your front four and they win and they play well and then you change it and you don’t. Be there at 2pm on Saturday and you’ll know all about it.” He added: “If they’re playing well and all scoring goals and all being a threat, then quite clearly it’s a real asset to have on the pitch and somebody’s got to stop you scoring, no matter what they’re doing, they’ve got to stop our threat. “But if one of them suddenly dried up or wasn’t playing well or we stop scoring goals, it might become more important that we have to be solid. At the moment it’s working, but I am prepared to change it if it’s not working, of course.” While McCarthy’s main focus is on his own team’s assets, he says you need to keep half an eye on the opposition’s strengths. “You have to,” he said. “You can’t think every week you’re going to just go out and play, unless you’re absolutely the best team by a stretch. “But even then, I thought Newcastle were the best team last year, but I bet Rafa Benitez was looking at the opposition and making sure that they didn’t hurt them too much, so that’s got to be taken care of. “You’re naive and bonkers if you think you can just go out and play every week and you’re going to be the best team. “So we’ll be taking care of them, but equally I would imagine they’ll be looking at us and will be thinking we’ve got threats on the pitch.” Bartosz Bialkowski will continue in goal with McCarthy appearing likely to stick largely with the team which defeated Preston 3-0 a fortnight ago. That would see Jordan Spence at right-back, Jonas Knudsen at left-back and skipper Luke Chambers and Adam Webster at the heart of the defence. Cole Skuse - who is over the injury which forced him off against the Lilywhites - will be joined in the deeper-lying midfield roles by Kevin Bru or Connolly, with Celina, McGoldrick and Waghorn again set to be behind Garner. Emyr Huws is in the squad for the first time this season but is likely to be among the substitutes. Jon Toral (hamstring), Abel Hernández (achilles) Stephen Kingsley (groin), Ryan Mason (fractured skull), Will Keane and Moses Odubajo (both knee) are all injury absentees for the Tigers. Defender Michael Hector is back having been suspended for the 4-1 defeat at Sheffield United before the break but striker Fraizer Campbell is banned for Saturday’s match having picked up his fifth booking of the season. Midfielder Evandro and defender Ondrej Mazuch are likely to return to the squad after hamstring injuries, while another midfield player, Jackson Irvine, is expected back late in the week having helped Australia to reach the World Cup finals. Striker Nouha Dicko will be fit despite missing Mali's international with Gabon during the break due to a back injury. Manager Leonid Slutsky admits his squad is short on self-belief after a tough opening few months of the season. "We lack confidence but we've played together for only three months and we had a lot of unlucky moments and we conceded a lot of goals at the end of the match. "Each situation is difficult for a new team because only time can fix it. I hope we change this situation and we play with stability all match and it doesn’t depend on conceding a goal." Regarding Town, he added: "Ipswich are a traditional team, very direct, very tough and it is a serious test for our character because you can’t win these matches if you don’t fight. "We have to be more versatile in attack because the traditional method is not working for us. The style of Ipswich is always the same." Historically, Hull just have the edge on the Blues having won 15 of the games between the teams (14 in the league), while Town have been victorious eight times (eight) and a further 10 (10) matches have been draws. The Blues are without a win in nine games against the Tigers in all competitions, the East Yorkshire side having won seven of them. The teams last met in February 2016 at Portman Road with the visitors on their way to the Premier League via the play-offs. Mohamed Diamé’s goal three minutes after the restart was enough to see Hull, who were then the division’s leaders, to a 1-0 victory. Town went closest to scoring before the break when Daryl Murphy hit the post, but having gone in front the Tigers dominated the second half. In October 2015 at what’s now the KCOM Stadium, goals from former Blue Alex Bruce, Chuba Akpom and David Meyler saw Hull to a comfortable victory. Sub Bruce headed the opener in the 36th minute, Akpom made it 2-0 seven minutes later and Meyler volleyed home a brilliant third on 58. Blues top scorer Waghorn spent a month on loan with the Tigers early in the 2011/12 season, scoring once in five starts. No one in the Hull squad has played for the Blues but ex-Town frontman Richard Naylor coaches the U18s at their academy. Saturday’s match is the Tigers’ closest home game to Remembrance Sunday so there will be a guard of honour formed by members of The Royal British Legion as the players come out, the Last Post will be played and there will be a minute’s silence prior to kick-off along with other tributes. Saturday’s referee is David Coote from Nottinghamshire, who has shown 31 yellow cards and no red in eight games so far this season. Coote’s most recent Town match was the 1-0 home defeat to Sheffield Wednesday in April in which he booked only Skuse. Prior to that he took charge of the December 2016 2-1 victory over Bristol City at Portman Road in which he yellow-carded Brett Pitman, Tom Lawrence and two of the visitors. In August of last year he refereed the 1-1 home draw with Norwich City in which he booked only one Canary and also ruled out what replays showed as a perfectly good Jonathan Douglas goal, his linesman having wrongly flagged for offside. Before that he was in charge of the 2-2 FA Cup draw at home to Portsmouth in January 2016, in which he yellow-carded Skuse and one visiting player. He also took control of the 0-0 home draw with Cardiff in October 2015 in which he cautioned eight players, Tommy Smith, Skuse and Kevin Bru as well as five Bluebirds. Coote was the man in the middle for the 2-2 draw with Brentford on the opening day of 2015/16 when he booked only Bees' midfielder Jota. Earlier, he refereed the 3-1 defeat at Cardiff in October 2014, in which he yellow-carded Tyrone Mings and two home players, the 2-1 defeat at Reading on the opening day of the 2013/14 season and the 3-1 home loss to Wigan later that campaign. During the season prior to that he took control of Town’s 2-1 defeat away against the Tigers which turned out to be Paul Jewell’s penultimate game in charge of the Blues - booking Stephen Henderson, Richie Wellens, Daryl Murphy and Andy Drury and no home players - and the 3-0 home victory over Millwall. Squad from: Bialkowski, Gerken, Spence, Iorfa, Connolly, Knudsen, Kenlock, Chambers, Webster, Woolfenden, Skuse, Bru, Huws, Nydam, Downes, Ward, Celina, Rowe, Garner, Sears, McGoldrick, Waghorn.
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