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Town Return to Scene of McCarthy's First Game as Birmingham Battle for Championship Survival
Thursday, 29th Mar 2018 18:51

Town visit Birmingham City, scene of Mick McCarthy’s first game in charge of the Blues back in November 2012, on Saturday with the Midlanders the ones desperate for points in a relegation battle on this occasion.

Five-and-a-half years ago, two days after McCarthy’s November 1st appointment, the Blues travelled to St Andrew’s bottom of the Championship on only seven points from 13 games.

The McCarthy era, which will come to a close when the currently 12th-placed Blues host Middlesbrough on the final day with a mid-table finish certain whatever happens in their final eight games, got off to a winning start with DJ Campbell netting the only goal after eight minutes as Town took the first step towards survival.

Birmingham go into Saturday’s game 22nd, but in the bottom three by just a point following Good Friday's games, having ended a run of seven successive defeats by beating Hull City 3-0 at home in their final game before the international break.

“We’re going back to the scene of the first crime,” McCarthy reflected. “Birmingham, where I had my first game. The irony is that I’m announcing that I’m finishing going back to Birmingham.

“We’ve got some winnable games but they’re scrapping for their lives, they had a great result last time out.

“Then Millwall are coming here, that’ll be a great game on Easter Monday because I would think they’ll bring a lot of fans, they’ve been flying. So, we’ve got some good games and ones we’ve got to compete in.”

With the press conference concentrating almost wholly on McCarthy’s summer departure, there was no team or injury news, however, winger Mustapha Carayol was expected to be back in contention after his groin problem in time for the game.

McCarthy probably won’t stray too far from the team which was narrowly beaten 1-0 at Bristol City a fortnight ago, their first defeat in six away games.

Bartosz Bialkowski, fresh from winning his first Poland cap, will be in goal with Cameron Carter-Vickers, who made his first start for the US as he won his second cap, in a back three alongside skipper Luke Chambers and Adam Webster.

Jonas Knudsen, who won his third Denmark cap and his first while with the Blues on Tuesday, will be the left wing-back, while Jordan Spence will probably be on the right.

In midfield, Cole Skuse is likely to play behind Callum Connolly and Grant Ward, while Luke Hyam and former Birmingham man Stephen Gleeson are other options.

Up front, Martyn Waghorn will be joined by Carayol or Bersant Celina in deeper roles or Freddie Sears alongside him.


Youngsters Ben Morris - a sub in the last two first-team games - and Aaron Drinan - who is yet to make his Blues debut - will hope to play a part from the bench.

Town are without midfielders Emyr Huws, Andre Dozzell (both knee) and Teddy Bishop (hamstring), who have been ruled out for the season along with keeper Dean Gerken (hip) and strikers David McGoldrick (groin) and Joe Garner (head, shoulder and knee).

Right-back Dominic Iorfa was unavailable prior to the break with a groin problem, while midfielder Tom Adeyemi remains sidelined with his hamstring injury.

Birmingham boss Garry Monk, who took charge on 4th March following Steve Cotterill's departure, says he’d happily take a scruffy victory as his side look to escape the drop.

"I'd take a rubbish 1-0 all day long," he told the Midlanders’ official site. "My idea is to play aggressively on the front foot. You want to see your team create chances and score goals. Who wouldn't want to watch that? But I also like the defensive side of it.

"""We scored three goals and created a number of other chances against Hull, but not every game is going to be like that.

"""If we need to grind out a win we need to do be able to do that, if we're going to score two or three goals we need to know how to do that, and then there's the type of game in between where it's a little bit tighter. "

"We're trying to prepare them for each and every way to make sure we can compete and if we can score goals it's the number one thing because it wins you games. "

"We know the capabilities of the whole squad, and it's up to us to push them and give them a platform to try and deliver as they did against Hull.”

Regarding McCarthy's impending Blues exit, Monk told the Birmingham Mail: "I don’t know the ins and outs but there’s obviously been speculation of it for a while.

"They’ve made the announcement now. Mick’s a really good, experienced manager and every time I’ve come up against his teams and spoken to him, you can see that experience and how good a manager he is.

"At this moment in time it’s not our business, our business is ourselves. We’ll have to focus on ourselves and I’m sure I’ll speak to Mick after the game.

"They’ve made that decision, rightly or wrongly - that’s between Mick and the club.

"My focus at this moment is only on my team and the players and on this game on Saturday."

Birmingham should have left-back Jonathan Grounds available again after a knee injury and midfielders Craig Gardner (hamstring) and David Davis (knee) could also be involved, but on-loan Southampton striker Sam Gallagher (calf) is not expected to be fit.

Historically, Town have had the better record in fixtures between the sides, winning 35 times (32 in the league), drawing 16 (16) and losing 29 (23).

At Portman Road on the opening day striker Garner got his Town career off to a goalscoring start by scoring a second-half debut goal to see the Blues to a 1-0 victory over the Midlanders.

Garner turned in a Knudsen cross five minutes after the break to win the game, however, the victory was marred by what appears to be a serious knee ligament injury sustained by Dozzell just before the break.

Last time at St Andrew’s in December 2016, Webster’s first goal for Town wasn’t enough to prevent the Blues from falling to a 2-1 defeat.

Clayton Donaldson put the home side in front from the penalty spot in the 41st minute, Michael Morrison made it 2-0 eight minutes after the break before Webster headed his goal as the Blues attempted to stage a comeback in which Christophe Berra had what would have been a late equaliser harshly ruled out.

Blues midfielder Huws had a spell on loan with Birmingham while a Manchester City player during the second half of 2013/14 making 17 starts and scoring two goals.

Adeyemi spent the whole of the same season with the Midlanders making 36 starts and four sub appearances, netting three times.

Gleeson joined Birmingham in the summer of 2014 from the MK Dons and went on to make 111 starts and 14 sub appearances, scoring one goal, before joining the Blues on a free transfer in January.

Ex-Blues loanee David Stockdale made 18 appearances for Town between July and December 2011, while defender Morrison hails from Haverhill.

Saturday's referee is Roger East from Wiltshire, who has shown 77 yellow cards and three red in 23 games so far this season.

East's last Town match was the 1-1 draw at Brighton in February 2017 in which he booked eight players, five of them - Josh Emmanuel, Myles Kenlock, Emyr Huws, David McGoldrick and Tom Lawrence - from Town.

Prior to that East refereed the 5-1 defeat at Reading in September 2015 in which he yellow-carded Knudsen, Chambers, Skuse, Ryan Fraser and no home players.

He also took control of the play-off semi-final second leg against Norwich at Carrow Road in May 2015 in which Christophe Berra was red-carded and Skuse and one Canary were both booked.

Before that, he was in charge of the 2-2 draw at Birmingham in August 2014 in which he cautioned only one home player.

Squad from: Bialkowski, M Crowe, Spence, Kenlock, Chambers (c), Knudsen, Carter-Vickers, Webster, Skuse, Connolly, Hyam, Bru, Gleeson, Nydam, Ward, Celina, Carayol, Waghorn, Sears, Morris, Drinan.


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Kikapu added 19:06 - Mar 29
'Andre Dozzell (both knees)' now! Poor fella. Must be MM's fault.
0

jas0999 added 19:36 - Mar 29
Doesn't really matter now. Suspect even MM isn't too bothered, let alone the players who are or want to move on in the summer.
2

Karlosfandangal added 20:24 - Mar 29
Mmmmmmm all the Mick haters must be happy now......wonder how they feel when BART goes at the end of the season too
I expect they were the one that wanted Burley out.......look what we got as a replacement

Be carful what you wish for....let's hope it's not a McClaren or a Stam etc
-11

liam88 added 21:54 - Mar 29
Didn't we get Joe Royle after Burley? I thought he did pretty well considering the administration saga.
19

Karlosfandangal added 07:03 - Mar 30
It was Royle and agree....... but McCarthy did pretty well with no budget
2

gunnerblue added 09:17 - Mar 30
Karlosfandangal and all the rest of you that keep saying "Be careful what you wish for", don't be scared, we will hold your hands now that the nasty bully is leaving. He has clearly scarred and scared you in to believing that dull, boring football is a good thing and that he is God almighty..... It is not and he is not.

Let's stand together, have courage of our convictions and look forward to a new era. The F*ck-KING is dead long live the new KING.

p.s. ME - Why oh why is MM still here....... Madness!
16

Cloddyseedbed added 11:34 - Mar 30
I don't think it's a coincidence that teams get relegated after MM leaves. The type of players and football he installs in them nobody else wants to be like. It is one hell of a task facing the next manager with so many players either out of contract or wanting to move on. This would have occurred whether the 'special one' was still here or not. It is now a huge rebuilding exercise for the next manager with his type of players and playing system. We may well drop down a division, if that is what it takes to rebuild and play expansive attacking football then I for one would put up with it. I'm bored stiff like many with what we have had to watch over the last 2 seasons and constantly being told how good the manager is, mostly by him himself. There is life after him and hopefully it will prove to be more exciting and the FA cup will once again be respected.
9

maninashed added 15:27 - Mar 30
I am bemused by this constant defence of MM by the lack of money argument. I have been watching the Town since the Ramsey era and can anyone tell me of any manager that could compete on money grounds. Even Robson sold to buy or did player exchanges (Mariner and Hunter). MM has never changed the way we play to suit the players, as did Robson and Ramsey, he has tried to change the players to suit his way of playing (Chambers and Sears name but two. The season he played Murphy as a striker instead as a winger guess what, he scored goals.

The MM era is now over so back the team in the hope attracting the best manager possible. Incidently this can only be done by going to the games, not sitting at home listening to Radio Suffolk.
16

Dab added 23:19 - Mar 30
Anyone remember the last time we received praise from the national press for one of our matches?
Not that long ago - Away at Palace when we played the "kids"!

Job number one for the new manager is to instill an "Ipswich" style of football played by ALL our teams, so when youngsters move up into the first team they don't have to learn a different style which is always going to be near impossible when they only have a match or two to shine before they get hooked!.
Will it be like Barcelona or Sir Bobbys style? Probably not! sorry definitely not!, but we want something we can be proud of and know what our club stands for!
10

nineteenseventyeight added 23:58 - Mar 30
Just want the season to end so the new era can begin.
We played better football when we was poor (before Marcus) and I don't mind losing if we play well.
Be careful what you wish for? I wish for multiple shots on target, I wish for the roar of the crowd, I wish to see one on ones with goalkeepers, I wish to hear an atmosphere, I wish to feel part of my club, I wish for an FA cup run, I wish to beat Norwich for once, I wish to get value for money, I wish to see fast flowing passing....I wish to see ITFC be great again!
18

black_shuck added 00:09 - Mar 31
Why is Mick still here?
9

therein61 added 07:21 - Mar 31
Shuck, it's probably because he has a clause where he gets a years salary if he's removed a second before his overpaid contract expires.
2

blue75 added 07:58 - Mar 31
Let's stop all the in/out comments McCarthy's going, let's all accept that and as so many like to comment on here support the team. No players have left yet our squad is a decent one that can play better than it has just needs a fresh approach which some players might want to be apart of it.
2

hello66 added 08:25 - Mar 31
How many times have we heard from the MM supporters ……..”Be careful what you wish for?”
Can I please point out MM win Ratio after 6 years is 38.2 % ……….John Duncan was over 45% after 3 years
The Greats ….
1) Alf 47.7%
2) Bobby 44.6%
3) Burley 45.5 %
Jim Magilton was 37.8% , but given more time ….like 6 years! ? ……the football back then was passionate and extremely entertaining.
Let's analyse these people, individuals that will supports MM at any cost absolutely scared of change, their own shadow, probably taken the safest option and lowest risk all their lives.
Here are a few of their other traits they may possess :
1) Don't switch gas or electricity provider to risky
2) Never disagree with the wife to risky
3) Never lived outside Suffolk to risky
4) Never invested outside the national banks to risky
5) Never taken ownership of an action in all their lives, wait for other to take, then criticise !

Well I for one agree with Cloddyseedbed
“We may well drop down a division, if that is what it takes to rebuild and play expansive attacking football then I for one would put up with it. I'm bored stiff like many with what we have had to watch over the last 2 seasons !”
6

Dissboyitfc added 08:34 - Mar 31
Need the new man in now! Cloddy,, great post. Karlos.... usual nonsense.

Done some reading watching and researching, dont think Cowley is right for us! Paul Tisdale or Nathan cook Or Tony Mowbray for me.
2

Dissboyitfc added 08:42 - Mar 31
Everybody knows you get 3 points for a win! look at the table had he been more positive at home and gone for wins we could still be in a shout for the play-offs!
4

smithy0981 added 09:13 - Mar 31
Be careful what you wish for....... bore off. I'm sure some of the people now supporting MM wanted him out and now it's actually happened they have changed their minds because of what outside people are saying. Also I'm sick of ex players, managers, pundits (especially Darren gough on talk sport) saying how good MM is and that ipswich fans are out of order the way they treated him etc. You lot have no idea what it's like to be a true supporter and also we have not sacked mick, his contract is up and he has had a good 6 years. It's just time for a change simple as that.

It's always a gamble bringing a new manager in but do we really want to sit in the championship and be safe or do we want to take a gamble and maybe get promoted. I know what I want
5

Karlosfandangal added 09:15 - Mar 31
Gunnerblue

I was very lucky to see the Sir Bobby days and the closes I have seen to that was when Burley was here. Yet that was the start of our downward slope (my opinion) The fans turn on Burley, money was thrown at getting players and the club went bankrupt. The fans turned on Sheepshanks and if My memory serves me right a so called fan throw his season ticket at Sheepshanks because Gaardose was sold.
Everyone was happy to see Jewell and Keane arrive and then turned on them because we were not top of the table. I saw some good games under them and far better than with Mick in charge.
Mick has achieved more they they did and with no money, Jewell and Keane were given loads look how much Keane paid for a very average Edwards.
If Mick was given money it might have been different ( we will never know)
Yet the fans were happy to see him arrive and yet seem surprised at the sort of football he plays.
That is Micks style, he will do the same at the next club he goes to yet might get money to spend.
Town will never be able to compete in the Prem as there is far too much money now and average players are even out of Towns reach now
Players will leave at the end of the season BART being one of them (fingers crossed I am wrong)
The new man coming in will have the same budget as Mick and will be a manager who is out of work because they have been sacked for doing a poor job somewhere else.
Any one who is decent will want money to spend to build a squad so players will be sold to finance this.
Will the fans be happy with mid table pretty football, I think not so in about 2 years time they will want the new man out because we will have lost 2-0 at home to someone.

Let's see how many more season tickets get sold now with Mick gone and 10% off,
-1

Dissboyitfc added 09:16 - Mar 31
Smithy0981... spot on!
0

blue75 added 09:28 - Mar 31
smithy0981 Jim white and his crew were the same on talksport yesterday kept going on about all the abuse he's had and how the Ipswich fans can't take it back when he gives it. Can someone tell me what this abuse was I know he was told his football was crap and things like that but the way the media are going on it's like he's personally abused which I've not heard?
2

planetblue_2011 added 09:32 - Mar 31
Come on town let's get the 3 points today.
Play with a bit of pride & passion.
A lot has gone on with Mick leaving end of season, so let's finish season on a high👍⚽️
2

warktheline added 10:16 - Mar 31
All so easy from the outside for the likes of Darren Gough to make broad assumptions without looking more in depth at the smaller details! Lazy journalism! Let's see what he has to say in three yrs if his beloved Barnsley hook up with McCarthy!
1

TBT added 10:29 - Mar 31
I agree with the majority on here - this is the first season in 30 years I have missed a few games out of sheer boredom.
That said, Milne and Evans are making a HUGE mistake not doing a deal with MM and releasing him now. We need the new boss in to look at the squad over a few games with no fear of relegation. Instead we are going to fuel a player revolution and possible mass walk out by keeping somebody on that the players respect with nobody caring how the games go. It is yet another basic business mistake from owners that don't care about ITFC.
Last week's statement from Evans was just words without any possible interaction or debate. He has never faced up to questions (apart from prepared questions from Mark Murphy in a staged interview) from any supporters in ten years and there's a reason for that.......
5

Karlosfandangal added 10:35 - Mar 31
Dissboyitfc

Ha ha read your own posts first
0

black_shuck added 11:27 - Mar 31
What is MM trying to achieve in the next 8 games? Run the club into a brick wall and spread discontent and a player exodus?
1


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