Boss Kieran McKenna says the Blues support can play a massive part as his side look to return to winning ways against West Bromwich Albion at Portman Road on Saturday following Tuesday’s shock 3-0 home defeat to Charlton Athletic (KO 12.30pm, Sky Sports).

Town were unbeaten at home this season and looking for their fourth successive win on their own turf, but a second-half collapse saw them fall to their worst Championship defeat at Portman Road since Aston Villa won 4-0 in Suffolk in April 2018.

Going into Saturday’s match pre-season favourites Town are 14th having picked up 84.6 per cent of their points, 11 of 13, and 81.3 per cent of their goals, 13 of 16, in their home games, making the loss to the Addicks all the more a surprise.

Sections of the Portman Road crowd made no secret of their frustrations at the final whistle, something McKenna said he could sympathise with given the second-half display.

But the Blues manager says his team will need their fans firmly behind them throughout Saturday’s game against the Baggies.

“It would be massive, there’s no doubt about that,” he said. “We're really humble enough to know that when the second half goes as it did the other night, we haven't earned the support on that night, but I know how much the players want to do well.
 
“We have to show it in the performance first and foremost with the energy, the commitment and, hopefully, the quality of the football that we can put together.

“The supporters staying with the players in a difficult spot is going to be massive. If we can do that, we can come out of the difficult days or a difficult result with a really good response.

“It makes your next wins even sweeter, it strengthens the bond between players and supporters.

“As much as beating Norwich or one of those games can strengthen it, also coming back from a week of adversity and coming together. Players doing everything they can, supporters doing everything they can. Both groups knowing that it's not going to be an easy ride tomorrow, it's not going to be all smooth sailing. 
 
“I'm pretty sure there are going to be some challenges in the game, but sticking together through that and everyone pushing to get the performance and the result that we want.

“If we can do that, then it will be a massive help to the players, but I think it will also really strengthen us again as a club.”

West Brom are 10th in the Championship, four points ahead of the Blues having played a game more.

Having picked up three wins and a draw from their first four matches, the Baggies have been more inconsistent over the last seven games, winning two, drawing one and losing four.

They beat Preston 2-1 at home last weekend, but lost by the same scoreline at Watford on Wednesday, their third defeat in six away matches.

However, they have won the other three, 3-2 at Wrexham, 1-0 at Stoke and, at the start of this month, 1-0 at Norwich City.

Since the summer West Brom have been managed by Ryan Mason, 34, who McKenna knows well from their time at the Tottenham academy.
 
“Ryan was in the youth team, an excellent youth team player, when I came out of the reserves and finished with my injuries,” McKenna recalled.

“He was in the group that I went pretty much straight from playing to coaching, a really exceptional youth-team group that I went straight into helping out with on crutches. 
 
“I don't think I will have played a game with him. I won't say I was imparting too much wisdom on him at that stage of my coaching career, but I was around helping him with sessions and games. 
 
“I think we went to a tournament as well, where I was one of the coaching staff and he was a player, so I’ve known him for quite a long time. A good guy, was a really good player, has been a good coach and I'm sure will be a good manager.”

Reflecting on Mason’s team, he added: “Very tough. They’re a good side, no doubt about it. You can see the things that they do well. You can see the things that he's brought to the team.

“And then you can see other things that are probably a legacy from some of the staff that have been there over the last few managers, certainly in how they defend.

“They've got some good defensive principles that they've had through the last few years and Ryan's put his stamp on it, especially with some of the attacking patterns and stuff that you can see that I know he'll be working on. 
 
“Like everyone, they're competing in a really challenging division, they’ve had some good results, some not good results. They are there or thereabouts in pretty much every game. They've got some good players and we know we're going to be in for a big test.”

Town have six ex-West Brom players in their squad and McKenna admits he’s tried to utilise the inside knowledge of one of them.

“Darnell is the one we’ve spoken to a little bit more because he’s been there through a pre-season,” he said.

“He’s been around the likes of [Aune] Heggebo and some of the new players. [Five-goal top scorer Isaac] Price probably wasn’t around when Cedric [Kipre] or Dara [O’Shea] were there.

“You tap into that little bit of knowledge when it’s as recent as Darnell’s is, but I’ve said it every week, because every week we’re facing someone where somebody was previously a player, there’s not that many secrets.

“I’m not sure Ryan’s going to need too many inside insights to know what Sam Szmodics’s strengths are or George Hirst’s strengths are, or Chuba Akpom’s or Kasey McAteer’s or whoever, and we know their players. I’m sure both teams will be prepared as well as they can.”

The Team

McKenna seems likely to return to a greater degree to the team which started the Middlesbrough match last weekend having made seven changes for the defeat to Charlton.

The only enforced change is Christian Walton coming into the team in goal - surprisingly making his first Championship start for the club in his 100th appearance - in place of Alex Palmer, who misses a reunion with his old club having torn a calf muscle against the Addicks, an injury which will sideline the Town number one for several weeks.

Furlong seems likely to return against his former side at right-back with skipper O’Shea continuing in his right-sided central defensive role.

Jacob Greaves may well continue alongside the Irish international, although Cedric Kipre will hope to be recalled against one of his previous sides. Leif Davis will be at left-back.

In central midfield, Azor Matusiwa appears certain to be return following his one-match ban with McKenna having to decide between Jens Cajuste and Marcelino Nunez for the role alongside the Dutchman. Cajuste may drop out with the Swedish international rarely playing three games in a short space of time.

Jaden Philogene will almost certainly be back on the left of the three ahead of the double pivot with Szmodics probably in again as the number 10.

McKenna will have to choose between Kasey McAteer and Sindre Walle Egeli on the right with the former Leicester man perhaps getting the nod. Jack Clarke is another option having impressed in the left-sided role but the Blues manager has said it’s less likely he’ll start both Philogene and Clarke, if not quite impossible, the two each strongly favouring playing on the left. George Hirst seems set to be the number nine.

David Button, another of the Blues’ former Hawthorns employees, will be on the bench for the first time since joining the club in the summer.

The Opposition

West Brom head coach Mason is frustrated that his side have Wednesday-Saturday games for the second time this month, their victory at Norwich and visit to Millwall, which they lost 3-0, having been similarly scheduled at the start of October.

“They have got an extremely good squad, they've got continuity with a really good manager so it's going to be a difficult game,” he told the Express & Star following the defeat at Watford.

“I think the game is probably right on the limit from a physical point of view in terms of the scheduling.

“I think it's poor, I think it's really poor but that's fine. We have to accept it and try and arrive inside of the game with the best possible state of mind.”

Mason is sweating on the fitness of on-loan Chelsea right-back Alfie Gilchrist, who picked up an ankle problem on his debut for the Baggies at Vicarage Road, while midfielder Jayson Molumby is expected to miss out due to a muscle injury he suffered while away on international duty with the Republic of Ireland.

Another midfielder, Toby Collyer, who is on loan from Manchester United, (hamstring) and skipper Jed Wallace are also sidelined at present, but defender Krystian Bielik is likely to return having missed the Hornets match due to illness and Danish forward Tammer Bany played an U21s game last week as he continues a recovery from injury.

History

Historically, Town have won 33 games between the sides (30 in the league), West Brom 24 (23) with 17 (15) ending in draws.

The Blues most recently beat West Brom at Portman Road in the League Cup quarter-final in December 2010 with a Grant Leadbitter penalty the difference between the sides.

Town’s previous win over the Baggies, who are unbeaten in four against the Blues, was back in January 2008 when goals from David Wright, now an U21s coach at Playford Road, and Jason De Vos saw Jim Magilton’s side to a superb victory over the then-Championship leaders.

That win is Town’s only success in 13 against Albion in the league, however, the Blues have scored in 23 straight home meetings with West Brom going back to a 0-0 draw in November 1980 in which Russell Osman went in goal after Paul Cooper suffered an injury.

The teams last faced one another at Portman Road in February 2024 when Omari Hutchinson netted an injury time leveller as the game ended 2-2.

Tom Fellows’s 18th-minute goal gave the visitors the lead before Nathan Broadhead levelled seconds after half-time.

However, Albion sub John Swift restored the Baggies’ lead with 14 minutes to go, prior to Hutchinson grabbing a deserved second equaliser for Town three minutes into time added on, the Blues having dominated the second half.

In the preceding November at the Hawthorns, Town fell to only their second Championship defeat of the season and first away from home in the league in 10 months as goals at the start of each half from now-Blues right-back Furlong and Grady Diangana saw West Brom to victory in Town manager McKenna’s 100th game in charge of the club.

Furlong’s flicked header from a corner gave the Baggies the lead in the fifth minute, then Diangana added the second two minutes after the break with the Blues subsequently never looking like taking anything from the game.

Familiar Faces

Furlong joined the Blues in the summer from West Brom for £3.5 million after six years at the Hawthorns during which time he made 227 starts and 20 sub appearances, scoring 11 goals.

Blues skipper O’Shea joined the Baggies’ academy at 16 in 2015 and went on to make 98 starts and nine sub appearances, scoring seven times before leaving for Burnley in the summer of 2023.

Kipre, who is on loan with the Blues from Reims for the season, was with West Brom from September 2020 until the summer of 2024 when he joined the Ligue 2 club having made 65 starts and three sub appearances, scoring four times. In 2023/24 the central defender was named the club’s Player of the Season.

Town have two former Baggies keepers, Palmer and Button. Palmer came through the academy ranks at the Hawthorns and after 11 years at the club, following a a number of loan spells, made his senior West Brom debut in August 2021. He went on to make 104 starts before joining the Blues in January.

Button, who signed for Town in the summer after leaving Reading, was with the Midlanders from 2020 until 2023, making 31 starts.

The Blues’ sixth ex-West Brom player is Conor Townsend, who is out for the season with an ACL injury. The left-back joined Town from the Baggies in the summer of 2024 having made 190 starts and 25 sub appearances, scoring four goals, in six years.

Blues CEO Mark Ashton was born and bred in West Bromwich and grew up supporting the club. He was a youth goalkeeper with Albion - playing under Town legend Brian Talbot - and subsequently held various community and coaching roles before switching to the business side of the club, eventually joining the board under ex-Town chairman Mike O'Leary.

Blues assistant manager Martyn Pert had a spell at West Brom on Aidy Boothroyd’s staff early in his coaching career.

Officials

Saturday’s referee is Josh Smith, his assistant Sam Lewis and Mark Stevens, and the fourth official Neil Hair.

Peterborough-based Smith has shown 20 yellow cards and one red in seven games so far this season.

Smith’s most recent visit to Portman Road was for the 2-1 friendly defeat to Fortuna Düsseldorf in July 2024.

His last competitive Blues match was the 2-0 victory at Plymouth in March 2024 in which he yellow-carded Conor Chaplin, Jeremy Sarmiento, Lewis Travis and one Pilgrim.

Smith had already taken charge of five Town matches during 2023/24, the 1-1 draw at Leicester just over a month prior to the trip to Home Park in which he booked Harry Clarke, Massimo Luongo and Travis again.

He also refereed the 2-2 derby draw at home to Norwich City just before Christmas 2023 in which he booked only Luke Woolfenden and Sam Morsy. Both Canaries goals were subsequently shown to be offside, however, the errors were the assistants’ fault rather than down to Smith himself.

Prior to that, he took control of the 1-0 win at Bristol City at the end of October that year in which he yellow-carded Davis, Morsy, Hirst and Kayden Jackson.

Earlier in the season, Smith was in the middle for the 1-0 win at Southampton, in which he cautioned Brandon Williams and Jack Taylor.

Smith was also the man in the middle for the 2-0 home victory over Stoke City in which he yellow-carded Morsy, Vaclav Hladky, Janoi Donacien and one of the visitors.

In the previous campaign, the 2022/23 League One promotion season, he refereed the 4-4 draw at Charlton in October 2022 in which he booked nine players - Morsy, Walton, Wes Burns, Dominic Ball, Tyreece John-Jules and four Addicks - as well as sending off home manager Ben Garner for taking his protests too far following the Blues’ second goal.

Before that, he was in charge of the 4-0 win at Portsmouth in October 2021 in which he cautioned Morsy, George Edmundson and two home players, one of them Harness.

Smith was also in control of the 2-2 home draw with the MK Dons in August 2021 in which he yellow-carded Woolfenden, Kane Vincent-Young and one visiting player.

His only other Town match was the 2-1 EFL Trophy defeat away at Exeter in January 2020 in which he again booked Woolfenden, as well as Toto Nsiala, Will Keane and one Grecian.

Squad From

Walton, Button, Gray, Furlong, Johnson, Young, H Clarke, Davis, O’Shea (c), Greaves, Kipre, Matusiwa, Cajuste, Taylor, Nunez, Humphreys, J Clarke, Walle Egeli, Szmodics, Philogene, McAteer, Akpom, Hirst, Azon.

Photo: TWTD

WaltonBlueNaze added 19:32 - Oct 24 Cajuste needs to be on the bench, we need players who are prepared to give their all for more than just 60 minutes. IMO he’s greatly overrated. Nunez and Azor to start for me.
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BlueRuin69 added 20:23 - Oct 24 Disagree Cajuste must start!
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Westy added 20:26 - Oct 24 Didn't like the boos on Tuesday and I can honestly say I have never booked an Ipswich player. What a fickle lot football fans can be. Cheered the team off after beating they that will not be named and booed on Tuesday. Having said that the players seemed to lack belief with no sense of urgency. Charlton scored three goals in what, twenty minutes or so. We should have believed we could do the same. I have seen Ipswich score four in sixteen minutes and be two down, a man down and win three-two on two occasions. We need belief and leadership on the pitch and support from the stands.

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jas0999 added 21:02 - Oct 24 We haven’t won away, nor looked like it. That’s on McKenna. As a result, this week, six home points was the only acceptable outcome. Even if we win tomorrow, three out of six isn’t good enough, so damaged limitation now. Look at Leeds, Burnley and Sunderland. NINE straight home defeats from start of year … even at PL - abysmal. Hope we win tomorrow but it would be a below average week.

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bluesissy added 21:45 - Oct 24 Km should be more concerned with supporters staying behind him....the ice is getting thinner...
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Northstandveteran added 21:46 - Oct 24 Szmodics was the highest goal scorer in the championship for a poor Blackburn team. Why not play him as a centre forward instead of out wide? Just a thought.
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