Blues Travel to Wimbledon Aiming For Quick Return to Top Six Monday, 10th Feb 2020 16:26 Town travel to face AFC Wimbledon on Tuesday night looking to make a swift return to the top six. Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at Sunderland saw the Blues drop to seventh, the first time since the opening day of the season that they have been out of the automatic promotion or play-off places. Speaking after the defeat to the Black Cats, boss Paul Lambert said Town will now be in among the chasing teams rather than those being chased, as has been the case for most of the campaign up to now. “Maybe we have to hunt other teams now rather than the other way around,” he said.
“We have to hunt teams, for the first time we’re out of the top six this season, sometimes that can help you, at certain times. You have to go on a run, we have to go on a run. “It’s not a league like the Premier League where Liverpool are so far ahead it looks like you’ll never catch them. There are still a lot of teams in this division who can catch up." He added: “As I said before, now we become the hunter, now we have to hunt teams down and see if they can handle being in there. There’s a long, long way to go, 14 games to go. We have to start to win.” The Blues make their first ever visit to Kingsmeadow having fallen to three successive third tier defeats for the first time since the opening month of the 1956/57 season. Despite falling to the third of those defeats on Saturday, Lambert was pleased with the performance in the first half and is unlikely to stray too far from the team which started against the Black Cats, although with one or two changes on the cards. Tomas Holy will continue in goal behind the back three of skipper Luke Chambers, James Wilson and Luke Woolfenden. The wing-backs are unlikely to change with Gwion Edwards suspended for another match due to his 10 yellow cards and Luke Garbutt not expected to be back from his thigh strain. Myles Kenlock and Janoi Donacien will continue on the left and right respectively. Lambert could bring Emyr Huws back into the XI in midfield for Cole Skuse alongside Flynn Downes with Alan Judge or Jon Nolan ahead of them. Up front, Lambert could bring Kayden Jackson back into the team, perhaps alongside James Norwood, with Will Keane moving to the bench. Wimbledon's on-loan Brentford defender Mads Bech Sorensen is a big doubt having suffered a head injury in Saturday's 2-1 home defeat to Fleetwood. Betters news for the Dons is that Scott Wagstaff is over a calf problem, however, ex-Blue Anthony Wordsworth will miss out having aggravated a similar injury. “This is going to be a hard run of matches, we know that, but we keep ourselves in games,” manager Glyn Hodges told his club's official site. “We have a plan for each one, but I’m not going to look too far ahead. We are just focusing on playing against Ipswich tomorrow. "I want us to have energy and we showed that in abundance at the weekend. Hopefully, our players are recovered in time and I might freshen it up a little bit, just to put some fresh legs in there. “They need to be prepared, and they need to be relaxed and play. I don’t want them to get tense, to look over their shoulders at the run of games. "In this league any team can be beaten. I mentioned after the game on Saturday about the young boys playing without fear. Hopefully, that spreads to the seniors. We ask questions, we play our football, and we cause teams problems. We have to continue in that vein. “They [Town] are a good side. We’ve looked at how they play and what they do. We’ve covered that this morning and I think it’s still in the back of our minds the way that we lost at Portman Road. “We put in a good performance that night and we were unlucky to get anything out it. We need to be at the same level again.” Town and AFC Wimbledon had never met anywhere in a competitive or friendly fixture since the Dons’ formation in 2002 until the game at Portman Road in August when Jackson’s goal deep, deep in injury time saw the Blues come from behind to claim a dramatic 2-1 victory. The Dons went ahead via Nesta Guinness-Walker in the 41st minute in a poor first period from Town. But the Blues were much better in the second half, equalising through Norwood in the 81st minute before Jackson smashed in the late winner. The Dons squad includes three former Blues. Shane McLoughlin, who made one Championship sub appearance and one League Cup start for Town having come through the academy. The Irishman, who joined the Dons in January 2018, netted his first goal of the season in Saturday’s 2-1 loss to Fleetwood. Wordsworth was at Town between January 2013 and June 2015, making 10 starts and 10 sub appearances, scoring twice. Irish winger Dylan Connolly, who is currently on loan at Bradford, moved to Portman Road from Shelbourne in January 2015 before departing for Bray Wanderers in July 2016 without making a senior appearance. Wimbledon have won just one of their last seven and are 20th in the table with a home record of won five, drawn six and lost four. Following Saturday’s defeat at Sunderland, Town now have the second best away form in League One this season having taken 28 points from their 17 games to Rotherham’s 29 from 15. Tuesday’s referee is Craig Hicks from Surrey, who has shown 72 yellow cards and four red in 23 games so far this season. Hicks’s last Town game was the 0-0 draw with Gillingham on Boxing Day in which he showed yellow cards to Toto Nsiala, Edwards, Judge and Norwood. His only previous competitive Town match prior to that was the Leasing.com Trophy tie with Tottenham’s U21s in September last year in which he showed just the one yellow card to one of the visitors.
Hicks also took charge of Town’s July 2017 pre-season friendly against Gillingham at the Priestfield Stadium, which the home side won 2-1. The Kent side, who had current Blues keeper Holy in goal, went in front via a soft penalty awarded by Hicks, who kept his cards in his pocket throughout, won by ex-Town midfielder Lee Martin following a challenge by Blues captain Chambers and converted by Tom Eaves. Squad from: Holy, Norris, Donacien, Kenlock, Earl, Chambers (c), Wilson, Woolfenden, Skuse, Dozzell, Downes, Huws, Judge, Nolan, Dobra, Jackson, Keane, Norwood, Sears.
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