Town boss Kieran McKenna is looking for his players to once again show the strength in his squad as he makes the expected changes for Saturday’s FA Cup fourth-round tie at Coventry City.

The Blues, who will be wearing their pink third kit with the Sky Blues in a one-off charity dark blue fourth strip at the CBS Arena, will be looking to reach round five for the first time since 2007, while aiming to avoid losing five matches on the bounce, something they’ve not done since 2011.

McKenna confirmed there will be changes to his XI and is looking forward to turning his attentions to the FA Cup following a tough spell in the Premier League.

“It’s nice to have a break for a different competition and not to have to focus on the league for a week,” he said.

“We’re going to rotate the minutes around the squad and it’s a chance to try and compete in a different competition, get a good performance and hopefully a good result.”

The Blues boss, whose team comprehensively defeated League One Bristol Rovers 3-0 at Portman Road in round three, was asked how far his side might go in the competition the club won for the only time in 1978 and whether he believes a cup run might have a positive or negative effect on the league campaign.

“In terms of the impact, you never know because we’ve all seen it in both directions,” he reflected. “Sometimes it can have a positive impact, you go through and it keeps good feelings and good confidence in the group.

“And other times it can negatively impact a team. Coventry are probably a good example of that last season [when they made the semi-finals but dropped out of the play-offs late on] and we were maybe a different example by getting unfortunately knocked out earlier than we wanted to [by National League South Maidstone in the fourth round], but truthfully it probably helped our season.

“You don’t know in terms of the impact. All you know is it’s a great competition, we’d really like to go further in it and have some more good games and good days out and memories for the supporters.

“And actually when you win a couple of games in the FA Cup, now that we have the privilege of coming in in the third round again, if you can win a couple of games, then it starts to look like there’s a possible route to the later stages.

“We’re not thinking about that at the moment, I think you have to win the games first. We’ll go to Coventry and try and deliver a good performance.

“There’ll be changes in the team, that’s how we’ve approached the cup competitions in the last few years and it’s been a really important part of our success over the last couple of years.

“We’ve always tried to carry a deep squad where every player felt like they were competing for minutes and they were trusted to play minutes. And when you have that it can show at different times when players come into the team in the run-in and later stages of the season and you can tell that they’ve felt important and felt valued all through the season.

“That has always been a big part in the last few years of how we’ve approached the cup competitions and we’ve had lots of good performances in the cups.

“But you also know there’s a chance that the performance can maybe not always be as fluent as it is with a settled side.

“I think in the last round, the group showed the strength in the group, they showed how well they’re working behind the scenes as a group because of the fluency we were able to produce even against lower league opposition.

“And that will be the challenge again now with a big step up in the opposition, against a really, really good Championship side. A chance for us to go and show the strength in our group and the depth in group and hopefully deliver a really good performance that gives us a result and we can hopefully look forward to the next round and see what the cup brings us.”

McKenna made 10 changes to his team for the third-round tie with Luke Woolfenden the only survivor from the previous league match, the local boy skippering the team for the first time.

The Blues boss was asked whether, rather than resting his frontline players, he had been tempted to play them against the Sky Blues in order to try to build confidence following the last few disappointing results.

“Pretty much the whole group will travel and be part of the game, and I think it’s important that the group know that it’s an important game for us as a group and we respect that, so all the players will travel,” he said.

“But we will utilise the game to give minutes to players and make sure that everyone is as ready as possible for the league games coming up.

“That’s how we’ve approached the cup competitions in the last few years. We’ve had some good days doing that but I think more importantly the message that that gives to the group is the closeness in the group where everyone feels trusted to play.

“We don’t make changes thinking that we can’t win the game, we make changes believing that even against Championship team we can go there tomorrow and deliver a performance with the team that plays and gets us through to the next round.

“It’s important all the group feel that trust and feel that closeness to the team for league matches and we hope that will both give us the performance and the result that we want tomorrow but also give us the dynamic in the squad that we’re going to need over the next four months.”

Coventry, who won the FA Cup for the only time in 1987, are 11th in the Championship but having climbed from 17th when Mark Robins, who took them to the semi-finals of the FA Cup last season before they were controversially defeated by Manchester United and the play-off final the previous year, was sacked in November and Frank Lampard took over as head coach.

The former England midfielder’s record in his 15 games reads won seven drawn four and lost four.

Until Wednesday evening’s 2-0 defeat to leaders Leeds, the Sky Blues had won their previous five including the third-round home victory over Championship club Sheffield Wednesday 4-3 on penalties after a 1-1 draw. Last week, they won 2-0 at Swansea.

At home in the Championship they have won seven, drawn three and lost five with their most recent defeat at the CBS Arena until Wednesday a 2-1 loss to Derby in November in Robins’s final game.

The Sky Blues are in Championship action again on Tuesday when they host QPR for a third home game in seven days.

“They’re a really strong squad, we know them really well, of course,” McKenna said. “They’ve invested well over the last few years, they’ve got lots of good players. We know how strong they are, they’ve added good players again this summer.

“They didn’t start the season so well but that can happen in the Championship as the games are so tight. I think Coventry themselves have had seasons lately where they didn’t start so well in the league but then you can hit a run and very quickly you can go from one end of the table to being up and around the play-off positions.

“That seems to be the trajectory they’re on again this year. We know them well, we know the players well, we know the staff well, we know they’re a really, really strong outfit at Championship level and it’s going to be a tough game, but it’s one to look forward to.

“We really enjoyed the last round, this is a few levels up from that but we’re going to go and do our best to perform really well and get through to the next round.”

McKenna, whose team will be backed by a sell-out away end of almost 5,000, says he has crossed paths with Lampard on a number of occasions over their careers, but knows his right-hand man better.

“Fairly well, I’ve come up against him over the years as a coach at the different clubs he’s been at, even with Derby,” he said.

“And I know his assistant very well, Joe Edwards, who was Millwall’s manager last year and came through a similar youth development background to me, and a few other members of his staff as well.

“It’s good to see them working at a good club and having a positive impact there. We’ll catch up with them tomorrow but we ope we’re the side going through.”

Town will be returning to a ground with very happy memories, the 2-1 victory over the Sky Blues at the CBS Arena in April having seen his team to cusp of promotion to the Premier League.

“It is,” he smiled. “My reminiscing jug is full at the moment, but it’s a different competition, different season. Maybe I’ll go back there in 30 years and have a good reminisce about the fantastic night that we had that will go down in the history of the football club.

“But tomorrow is a different context and we’ll try and create I’m not sure quite as special a day but we’ll go and try and make it a good day anyway.”

Although Wigan and Leicester won the competition in 2013 and 2021 respectively, those wins are rare outliers with the big six having dominated the competition’s business end in recent years.

“It’s a fair point,” McKenna considered. “You look over the last good amount of years and there’s a small number of clubs whose depth has been so strong that they can afford to rotate in the early rounds.

“And when it comes to the later rounds to win the competition in any given year over the last decade, you’re going to have to beat probably in England the best team in the world, or one of the top two or three teams in the world.

“But at the same time, it’s a cup competition, if you can get to those stages and you can progress past the earlier rounds, then Ipswich or plenty of other clubs will believe they’ve got a chance because it’s a one-off game and anything can happen on a football pitch, 11-v-11.

“It’s too early for us to talk about winning the competition or anything like that. We’re going to try and win the game tomorrow but with the FA Cup when you come in in the third round, if you win a couple of games, you can start to really look at who’s left in the competition and dream of what might be.

“Hopefully we can get a good result tomorrow and a favourable draw and that will give the supporters the possibility to dream.”

If level at 90 minutes, the tie goes to extra-time and then penalties with no replays at this stage of the competition.

The Team

McKenna seems certain to hand new keeper Alex Palmer his debut, the 28-year-old not having featured for West Brom in their 5-1 defeat at AFC Bournemouth in round three.

At the back, the Blues boss seems likely to field a four, from the right, of Ben Godfrey, Woolfenden, who may again captain, Cameron Burgess and Conor Townsend, as he did against the Pirates.

In central midfield, Kalvin Phillips, an unused sub against Southampton last week, is likely to be partnered by Jack Taylor, as was also the case in round three, with skipper Sam Morsy and Jens Cajuste probably both among the subs.

In the three ahead of the double pivot, Jaden Philogene, who wasn’t involved in Aston Villa’s 2-1 victory over West Ham in the last round, may well be on the right, Sammie Szmodics, who is back from his ankle injury, could be in the middle with Jack Clarke on the left. George Hirst will almost certainly start up front.

McKenna revealed at his press conference that an U21s player could come into the squad and that seems likely to be summer signing Tudor Mendel with the Blues short of forwards with Julio Enciso cup-tied having played and scored for Brighton in their 4-0 defeat of Norwich in the last round, Conor Chaplin still out with his knee problem and Wes Burns and Chiedozie Ogbene long-term absentees.

Former Chelsea youngster Mendel, who signed for Town from Anderlecht in the summer, scored twice for John McGreal’s side as they beat Watford 4-2 at Playford Road on Tuesday and has become increasingly influential in recent weeks.

The Opposition

Coventry boss Lampard knows his team will have to be at their best if they’re to beat the Blues.

“Every detail has to be spot on and we try to do that every game but more so against Premier League teams because you know they have the strength and the weapons to hurt you and be really clinical in a sense,” he said.

“They have the physical capacities in the Premier League and sometimes you compare it and go, ‘Can we match their physical capacity?’, because that’s what they do every week and they are good markers for us as coaching staff to look at.

“We’ve only been here two months or so and it gives a chance to see where we’re at compared to a Premier League team.”

Quizzed on whether there’s likely to be too much of a difference between Town and Wednesday opponents Leeds, he added: “I don’t know, it’s not for me to decide, I suppose, as such.

“Ipswich were a fantastic side in the Championship last year. They’ve also gone and added to their squad and are competing in the Premier League, playing at that level week in and week out, so it feels like they’ll be the strongest team we have played against, pound for pound.

“But maybe that’s where the Leeds game can provide some valuable little pointers for us in terms of that step up in quality and what it means for us with and without the ball, because we could be better than we were against Leeds on both fronts. So we’ll see.”

Given the match is the second of three in seven days, Lampard says he will look to utilise the full extent of the players available to him.

“Yeah, and we’re not got the biggest squad so some players that haven’t been getting so many minutes may get opportunities, individually, to show themselves,” he continued.

“And we’ll need the freshness, definitely, with that quick turnaround. It’s a busy part in what is already a pretty long season, so we’ll have to use it as well as we can.”

Reflecting on the impact Coventry’s cup run had on their league form last season, he reflected: “Well, I wasn’t here so it’s difficult to absolutely talk about that. I’ve heard it mentioned but for me, cup runs are generally always good for confidence.

“You want to manage the squad, you want to have as many games and FA Cup games deep into the competition are great things.

“We like to think we want to win every game that we play. You approach every game as it comes and I’m not going with any other thought than trying to win the game to get to the next round.”

Coventry’s one January addition, midfielder Matt Grimes, who came in from Swansea, is ineligible having played for the Welsh side in round three.

Top scorer Haji Wright, fellow forward Ephron Mason-Clark and midfielder Ben Sheaf are all on the way back from injury but won’t be involved against the Blues.

Fifth Round Draw

The draw for the fifth round will take place on Monday’s One Show on BBC One at around 7.10pm.

History

Town have a good record against Coventry over the years, winning 40 games (38 in the league), losing 24 times (21) and with 25 matches (23) ending in draws.

The Sky Blues have won only five of the last 30 games between the clubs, while the Blues have won their last two at the CBS Arena, a 3-2 win in February 2012 having been their most recent visit prior to last season.

In April, Town moved one point away from a return to the Premier League after a hard-fought 2-1 victory at Coventry.

Kieffer Moore’s eighth-minute goal gave the Blues a 1-0 half-time advantage, but the Sky Blues, who were in charge for long spells, levelled through Wright on 64.

However, Burgess restored the lead with his second goal of the season five minutes later and Town saw out 11 minutes of added-on time to secure three vital points and put them a single point away from back-to-back promotions, which they secured with a 2-0 home victory over Huddersfield on the following Saturday

In December last year at Portman Road, first-half goals from Hirst and Burns were enough to see second-placed Town to a 2-1 victory over the Sky Blues, who missed a second-half penalty before a Brandon Williams own goal saw them pull one back deep in injury time.

Hirst gave the Blues the lead in the sixth minute, firing home after being brilliantly played through by Nathan Broadhead, then Burns scored a superb outside-of-the-boot effort on 39, which was later named the EFL Goal of the Season.

Matt Godden smashed his spot-kick against the bar on 73 after Harry Clarke had fouled Tatsuhiro Sakamoto, but the visitors netted a late consolation when Williams nodded past his own keeper under pressure from Ellis Simms, although it probably should have been ruled out for a push.

The teams met for the only time in the FA Cup in 2019/20 - the Covid-curtailed campaign in which the Sky Blues were promoted as League One champions - in the second round when the Midlanders won 2-1 at Portman Road following a 1-1 draw in the first match.

In the initial tie played at Coventry’s temporary home of St Andrew’s, Will Keane gave the Blues the lead on 51 but Callum O’Hare levelled in the final minute.

At Portman Road 10 days later, Jordan Shipley and Maxime Biamou gave the visitors a 2-0 half-time lead before Luke Garbutt pulled one back six minutes from time.

Familiar Faces

Blues forward Chaplin with with the Sky Blues during the 2018/19 season, the first half on loan from Portsmouth before the switch was made permanent in the January.

Chaplin netted eight goals in 22 starts and nine sub appearances before moving on to Barnsley that summer.

Town were keen to sign Coventry striker Simms from Everton in the summer of 2023 before he completed his switch to the Sky Blues.

Coventry head coach Lampard, who won the FA Cup four times as a player with Chelsea and scored against the Blues in each of two ties at Stamford Bridge, was interviewed for the Town job in May 2018 following Mick McCarthy’s departure and prior to Paul Hurst’s appointment.

Officials

Saturday’s referee is Ben Toner, his assistants Constantine Hatzidakis and Danny Jarvis, and the fourth official Elliot Bell. There is no VAR.

Lancashire-based Toner has shown 126 yellow cards and four red in his 27 games so far this season.

Toner’s last Town game was the crucial 3-0 win at Barnsley in April 2023, a result which saw the Blues to within two points from promotion to the Championship with two games to play, in which he booked Hirst, Morsy, Christian Walton and three Tykes.

Before that, he refereed the 1-0 defeat at Wycombe in December 2022 in which he booked four Chairboys and no Blues.

He was also in charge of the 1-0 win at Burton in August in which he cautioned George Edmundson, Greg Leigh and one Brewer.

Prior to that he was in middle for the 2-1 defeat at Peterborough in February 2021 in which he booked Flynn Downes and Andre Dozzell.

Toner also refereed the 4-1 home victory over Tranmere in September 2019 in which he yellow-carded James Norwood and two of the visitors.

Perhaps ominously, his only other Blues match was the 1-0 FA Cup replay defeat at Lincoln City in January 2017 in which he cautioned Jonathan Douglas and two home players.

Squad From

Palmer, Muric, Slicker, Davis, Townsend, Johnson, Godfrey, O’Shea, Woolfenden, Burgess, Greaves, Morsy, Cajuste, Phillips, Luongo, Taylor, Hutchinson, Philogene, J Clarke, Szmodics, Broadhead, Mendel, Delap, Hirst.

TWTD

TimmyH added 18:15 - Feb 7 Hhhmmmm...make too many changes and we'll go out, Coventry should have knocked Tottenham out of the League Cup earlier in the season and they'll be no push overs as last season cup proved. We need something to cheers us up, 2025 hasn't been great so far.
14

grow_our_own added 18:21 - Feb 7 Agreed, good performance by us vs Southampton. Deserved to win. Calamitous goalkeeping performance, as has been the case for most of the season with Muric. Glad McK has swallowed his pride. Many managers would have flogged a dead horse to vainly prove they were right. Hopefully fixed now. CoYB!
2

flykickingbybgunn added 18:50 - Feb 7 If this is used to encourage the squad players then that is good. That Palmer should get a game is unquestionable. We dont want to do a Coventry of last year, but it would be nice , just to get somewhere, in the competition.
4

Blue_Heath added 18:50 - Feb 7 It may have been in the past but where we are at now we desperately need a win to try and build some confidence. For me season as good as over if we lose tomorrow. Don't see any way back with two defeats in a row to effectively Championship sides. We are long overdue a cup run, give us something to get excited about please cos it ain't happening in the league.
5

bluebullet29l added 19:06 - Feb 7 Full strength team and nothing else...we need a confidence boost not another defeat. You think your a big time manager KM...you better start proving it. There is only so long you can live off the success of the last two seasons. It's wearing a bit thin now.
-5

billlm added 19:12 - Feb 7 God help him if we lose, We need a good win, Fans won't accept going out ATM, We as fans need some hope,
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blues1 added 20:36 - Feb 7 Bluebullet291. Stop talking rubbish. Clearly a fan who's only been going for a couple of seasons. Can tell by the stupid comment about Mckenna.No idea.
1

blues1 added 20:38 - Feb 7 Billm. What are you on about, God help him if we lose? Think you'll find most sensible fans, while maybe disappointed if we go out, won't be that concerned.
1

Phil1969 added 20:43 - Feb 7 We have enough in the squad to win whoever plays or they wouldn’t be in the Premier.
-2

TimmyH added 21:07 - Feb 7 Obviously Palmer needs to come in...but a number of others?
2

Leejames99 added 21:11 - Feb 7 Play the league 1/Championship players in this game for me, the glory and romance of the FA Cup is finished, it will be won by the usual City, Aresnal or like. A run would be nice but survival is more important, wouldn't play Hirst or Delap tomorrow, play Broadhead or Szmodicks for his fitness. Wouldn't play new keeper either if he gets injured we are in a pickle, think Slicker deserves a start. My team vs Coventry Slicker Johnson Burgess Woolf Townsend Morsy c Luongo J Taylor J Clarke Broadhead Szmodicks

-3

ZurichBlue added 08:00 - Feb 8 Hmmm, reading between the lines I wouldn't be at all surprised if there are loads of changes to the team. Palmer in goal I guess, along with lots of fringe players in from the start to give the regular starters a rest. Though there might be issues with 'gelling' whatever team is fielded should be well-drilled and strong enough to win.
0

ArnieM added 08:45 - Feb 8 I feel we'd should be starting to keep a settled 11. If he continues to chop and change byb4 or 5 players every game we will never get continuity or partnerships forming in the team. It's ridiculous to make wholesale changes just so a few peripheral players " get some mins".
4

blues1 added 09:04 - Feb 8 ArnieM. As long as we keep the defence the same for lge games then I'd agree with you. Other positions, you can rotate. Thry do work togetherxall week in training. For this game tho, actually would make sense to make changes. Fans would be the 1st to moan if we picked up more injuries to the 1st choice players, for a competition we aren't gonna win.
2

SpiritOfJohn added 11:20 - Feb 8 Should be a similar team to the one that beat Bristol Rovers, but with Palmer or Slicker in goal, and Hirst up front instead of Al-Hamadi. Woolfenden captain as per the previous FA Cup match.
1

Lightningboy added 12:00 - Feb 8 "Success"..? Errr,not in the actual cups it hasn't. We need to start picking a settled team & sticking with it.
3

PinstripeBlue added 12:27 - Feb 8 Success against Maidstone Town!!!
0

Linkboy13 added 13:52 - Feb 8 To survive in the Premier league we need a run of wins and there's little signs we are capable of that im afraid. A good cup run will keep the season alive and also might give players confidence who have been struggling at Premier league level.
3

Razor added 14:13 - Feb 8 This is not the time to be to cute or clever------play your strongest team athat includes Delap-
1

TimmyH added 14:32 - Feb 8 11 changes chortle!
0

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