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Blues Out to Continue Impressive Away Form at Bristol City Thursday, 15th Mar 2018 18:56
Town will look to put their home woes behind them when they travel to take on Bristol City at Ashton Gate on Saturday and continue an impressive recent run of form on the road.
While the Blues have failed to score in their last five home games - a first in the club’s history - and have won just once in their last nine matches at Portman Road in all competitions, they are unbeaten in five away fixtures and recorded back-to-back wins at Preston, 1-0, and Sheffield Wednesday, 2-1, in their two most recent excursions.
Asked whether it’s better that his side are away from home this weekend after the fractiousness of Tuesday’s night’s 3-0 home defeat to Hull and with the Blues in impressive away form, McCarthy said: “I think our record recently has been very good, actually. It’s been all right.
“I was watching the news last night and I saw my ugly kipper come up on TV and I thought, ‘I’ll turn that up and see what they’re saying’.
“So I listened to that, and then I listened to it afterwards where Norwich had had one shot and equalised and they’ve won one in seven and they’re three points beneath us.
“I don’t see any hue and cry, I don’t know if they’re shouting for the manager to get out, I’ve no idea.
McCarthy has been impressed with Bristol City, who go into the game eighth, three points off the play-offs and six ahead of 12th-placed Town.
“They’ve had a great season,” he reflected. “They’ve been one of the better sides all season, just dropped out of that top six, which I think shows you how top six is when Bristol City are outside it and Sheffield United are outside of it.
“They’ve done well. They’ve invested in their team, they went out and spent a few quid on Famara Diedhiou and they’ve got some good players.
"They managed to keep hold of Aden Flint which I think was a really big thing for them when there were lots of people trying to sign him. They’ve done well, they’ve been a good team this season.”
BRISTOL CITY: We have been informed that @bcfctweets will NOT be selling to #ITFC fans on the day. Tickets on sale online until 3:00pm today, or in-store to 12:00pm tomorrow. 1,033 sold so far. pic.twitter.com/k1fGXszZmx– ITFC_PlanetBlue (@ITFC_PlanetBlue) March 15, 2018
Bartosz Bialkowski will take his usual place in goal with the Blues probably returning to the back three which brought them the away wins at Deepdale and Hillsborough and ought to have yielded a further win at Norwich.
That would see Adam Webster return to the team on the left of the trio with skipper Luke Chambers in the middle and Cameron Carter-Vickers on the right.
Jordan Spence and Jonas Knudsen will be the wing-backs with Bristol-born former Robin Cole Skuse likely to return in the centre of midfield along with Callum Connolly with Luke Hyam, Stephen Gleeson or Grant Ward ahead of them
Martyn Waghorn is likely to return in the central striker’s role - Town having passed the 37-game mark where he and Connolly would have received two-match bans had they picked up their 10th bookings - alongside Freddie Sears or Bersant Celina.
The Robins will be without suspended centre-half Flint and full-back Joe Bryan, while another central defender, Nathan Baker, is a doubt with a groin problem suffered in last Saturday’s 0-0 draw at Burton, their most recent game.
Historically, Town have the edge, winning 29 (27 in the league), losing 21 (21) and drawing 13 (13).
At Portman Road in September, goals from Josh Brownhill, Diedhiou and Bobby Reid saw Bristol City to a 3-1 victory, their first win on Town turf in 39 years, while Waghorn netted for the Blues.
Brownhill’s deflected goal put the visitors in front in the second minute, Diedhiou doubled the lead on 31, before Waghorn pulled a goal back four minutes prior to half-time. However, there was to be no second half comeback from Town and Reid sealed the three points eight minutes from the end.
At Ashton Gate in December 2016, a Lee Tomlin penalty and a goal of the season contender from Luke Freeman saw Bristol City to a 2-0 victory over the Blues.
Tomlin converted from the spot after Bialkowski had been adjudged to have fouled Tammy Abraham in the 31st minute, then Freeman smashed home a volley on 72 to seal the three points with David McGoldrick having come closest for Town when he hit the post earlier in the second half.
Skuse moved to the Blues from his hometown club, who he had joined as a schoolboy, following their relegation in the summer of 2013 after making 245 starts and 62 sub appearances, and scoring nine times.
Currently injured keeper Dean Gerken also left Ashton Gate the same summer, joining the Blues after a trial during pre-season ahead of 2013/14, having made 60 appearances for the Robins after signing from Colchester in July 2009.
Blues defender Spence spent two spells on loan with the Robins, a two-month stint at the end of the 2010/11 season and then the whole of the following campaign at Ashton Gate. In total he made 21 starts and one sub appearance without scoring.
Town assistant manager Terry Connor played for the Robins between 1991 and 1993.
City boss Johnson, a close friend of Skuse from their playing days together at Ashton Gate, was born in Suffolk during his father Gary’s time as a player with Newmarket Town.
Saturday’s referee is Darren England from South Yorkshire, who has shown 120 yellow cards and two red in 31 games so far this season.
England, who is in his second season as a Championship official having taken control of 24 matches at that level, has only taken control of one previous Town match, the 2-0 win at Sunderland last month in which he booked Joe Garner and one home player.
Boycotting PR will achieve absolutely nothing in the way of change. Won't even make news outside of the TWTD bubble. It's not as though the owner is likely to be there to witness even more empty seats at "his" stadium. If fans want to find ways to get their anger over, and fears for, the current state of the Club noticed they need to look no further than events at the London Stadium last week.
I'm so fed up with ITFC. Remarkable MM is still here. Remarkable we haven't heard from Evans. It's at the stage where I couldn't care less if we win, lose or draw.
#MicksZzzztactics Thank you for the long and interesting post. The only thing I want to say is I am fed up with poor spelling and grammar on here. We don't all have to be experts at the english language, but when you post something that is very critical towards someone, at least do it correctly. I am in no way a fan of MM, but if I was criticised in my job for bad performance I would expect it to be done in a professional and courteous way.
The real supporter's will stay away as it is the best way to show your feelings to go and keep this fool in his job is to facilitate the demise of our once great club whose reputation for quality football was 2nd to none our pitch was the envy of all. The short term loss of revenue is better than a constant dwindling which is what we have been suffering for many years now. We know we will never again compete with the likes of Man City until rules change which probably will never happen. Mick out is the only option better would be enabler Evans who has also shown no respect for our club to go as well. stay away,the only way!
I'm not sure a mass boycott would have the desired effect on ME as season ticket holders are included in the attendance whether they are there or not. Maybe protesting outside the ground, peacfully, not like West Ham 'fans', would send a better message.
Replace MM with someone who can play players in their best position, pass the ball, a little bit of youth and the crowds will come back in their thousands.......it's not rocket science dear!
@blackcat, I'm assuming not many are expecting to compete with 'Man City' but do desire a side that will 'compete,entertain and have the 'occasional' cup run'! Not much to ask for, surely not at 'any' level!
Figures from sqauwka.com. 3rd from bottom pocession, 3rd bottom passing accuracy, 2nd bottom chances created. Nice passing football and entertaining not.The facts back up the football is sh#t. With Burley nobody was a superstar but they had a good teacher....
Let's just get behind the team for the remainder of the season & let what ever happens to Mick happen. We still want to win games & finish as high as we can. Don't keep worrying about Mick McCarthy, just get behind the lads. Be nice to get the 3 points today. COYBâš½ï¸âš½ï¸
Interesting. First you acknowledge that people "don't have to be experts at the English language" ...and YET in your very next sentence you basically *diss* me for not being hmmmm expert-LIKE enough! Interesting use of the English language right there, indeed! :-) :-) wink wink
As for my long post, in my own humble opinion it's not too shabby ...although in hindsight it could have been delivered a BIT better, yes ..but then again 1) At the time, and the late time at that btw, I just so happened to be "under the influence", and according to my better half to a fairly noticeable degree (after one of those not very bearable & extremely loooong-drawn grand 'family-dinners', where I somewhat cowardly strategically succumbed to get through the whole dreaded ordeal by constantly filling my glasses with various forms of vintage "poison"! :-) :-) lol) ...and 2) As I have been compelled to divulge here before I've in fact suffered a couple of not insignificant aneurysm in recent years, the latter having caused fairly serious issues with selected parts of my memory. And thus my writing skills for instance is sadly one of those areas which has suffered.
Anyways I'm grateful for your thanks and that generally speaking you did find my post worth your time, and THUS if you are looking for an direct apology for my occasional less than stellar grammar ...well you can have it my good sir! Voila!
Lastly , and to be perfectly honest, I have much more serious problems with you 2nd point of criticism. Namely that said post of mine is very critical off MM ...ehhhh no not really! I have obviously written truckloads of posts on TWTD during the years which are! and in my own opinion and giving my lofty number :-) :-) of upvotes here -- (speaking of votes that the likes of Pro-MM'ers @Rabbit & @Tony88 has upvoted & and seems in agreement with YOUR sentiments of today means absolutely nada to me personally though! as both more or less silently downvote the vast majority of my inputs here OCD style!!!) -- certainly the none purely sarcastical & non graphical anti-MM posts of mine, cause I am a notorious joker / jester on chatboards in general, all were & and still are to this date pretty darn FACTUAL (as in can be supported by lots of stats, video-footage and other evidence) and thereby "professional" in you like. As for being quote "courteous" towards Mick McCarthy ....LMAO LMAO!!! well most respectfully dear @juinorblue: "F@ck that!" as the very obvious 'Delusion of Grandeur' etc etc. suffering Mick McCarthy is one of the LEAST courteous persons I have ever come across! And I've been all around the Globe!
But this HERE long post of mine on this here article very clearly evolves around the hot topic of whether *PAYING* football fans are entitled to voice their objections to something dissatisfying been served them for their hard earned money. And HOW, WHEN, and towards WHOM, players included, said objections can & cannot, and might best be voiced!
The reason for the down post was I found your post more boring than MM's ramblings. I also mark down anyone who just repeats the same thing two or three times a week.
Thanx for the rare "explanation" ohhhh mostly 'Silent One'! :-) :-)
Not only would it be kind of interesting if you could "bother" to define boring from you own perfectly unbiased pov, but also specifically what's so boring about this VERY VERY hot topic of paying fans being entitled to object or not (as again was exactly what my long post was all about as outlined to @juniorblue just above)???
Although you sound perfectly sincere in your own mind, I furthermore respectfully take the liberty to put into question the sheer validity of part the 2nd part your explanation i.e. "I downvote ANYONE who jut repeats the same thing two or three times a week"! Hmmmm how come I don't recall you doing so to imho.... shall we say... ANY REMOTELY NOTICEABLE DEGREE to any of the Pro-MM'ers who habitually repeats themselves on the News Pages articles but more importantly to those Pro-MM'ers who fundamentally very much also repeat themselves directly or indirectly (and have done so for years btw!) on the TWTD Forum???
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