Town boss Mick McCarthy warns that Saturday’s opponents Wigan Athletic will still be a threat, despite the Latics' current position of second-bottom of the Championship, eight points from safety.

McCarthy admits that he’s surprised to see the Lancastrians, a Premier League club less than two years ago, at the wrong end of the table.

“I keep saying I try not to get too shocked or surprised by football and whatever happens,“ he said.

“I left Wolves as a Premier League outfit and almost two years later they were a League One club.

“I was surprised about that, that was a shock. And Wigan are in danger of doing it as well.

“They’re down at the bottom, but they have got good players, irrespective of where they are or what they’ve done.

“They’re trying to do a lot of business, I’m not even sure what we’ll face tomorrow because they’re trying to get players in. They’re hoping they’ll have signed a few.

“They’re still a threat, there’s not that much between the teams and they’ve still got some good players.”

He says relegation from the top flight can have a big impact on a club: “I think it shows the devastating effect of coming out of the Premier League.

"Having players on good dough, 25 grand a week, and then others signing on much less. I think it creates divisions in a club.

“Whether that’s happened there, I don’t know, but relegation certainly had a really bad effect on the club.

“But last year they were in the play-offs. I don’t know, it’s a bonkers league, it doesn’t get any saner, does it?”

McCarthy was pleased with his side's display as they picked up their first away win of the season against Wigan earlier in the season.

“It was significant, it was a good performance," he recalled. "We played so well that night and overran them completely, except for the last 10 minutes when they got one back and got back in the game and hit a post.

"It was a really good performance, I think that was what was really significant.”

McCarthy can call on striker David McGoldrick after a two-game absence with a knee injury but 18-goal top scorer Daryl Murphy is out with a calf problem.

McGoldrick is likely to start either alongside Noel Hunt or Freddie Sears, both players having impressed since joining the club.

Hunt, who scored twice at Millwall a fortnight ago, will probably get the nod ahead of Sears, who netted his first Town goal in the 3-2 defeat at Brighton, with the former Colchester man likely to play a role from the bench.

In midfield, Cole Skuse will take up his usual deep central position with Teddy Bishop perhaps coming in for Kevin Bru after playing for the U21s on Monday. Paul Anderson and Jay Tabb look set to continue in the wide roles.

At the back, the Blues boss seems likely to continue with skipper Luke Chambers at right-back, Tyrone Mings on the left and Christophe Berra and Tommy Smith in the middle. Bartosz Bialkowski will again be in goal.

The January transfer window has seen something of an exodus from the DW Stadium. Shaun Maloney has moved on to the Chicago Fire, Ben Watson to Watford, Callum McManaman to West Brom, Adam Forshaw to Middlesbrough, Ivan Ramis to Levante and Roger Espinoza to Sporting Kansas City, while Oriol Riera (to Deportivo La Coruna) and James Tavernier (to Bristol City) have gone out on loan.

Liam Ridgewell has joined on a six-week loan from the Portland Timbers and Australia international Chris Herd has come in on loan from Aston Villa.

This afternoon, the Latics have completed the permanent signings of striker Billy McKay from Inverness Caledonian Thistle and defender Jason Pearce from Leeds.

Manager Malky Mackay is expecting a hard game: “I know Mick really well and his teams are always difficult to play against.

“He’s done really well at Ipswich, they’re a tough, uncompromising team who have plenty of experience and plenty of goals in them.

“Portman Road’s never an easy place to go and certainly not at the moment, but I always enjoy going there and so will the lads.

"It’s a good stadium, good atmosphere and a good pitch and we’re really looking forward to the challenge.

“We’ve pretty much got a fully fit squad, there are a couple of knocks and bruises, but in the main we’re fine and we’re in good shape heading down there.”

In September goals from Luke Hyam and Conor Sammon saw the Blues to a 2-1 victory over Wigan, their first ever win at the DW Stadium.

Hyam, who is currently out with a knee problem, turned home the opener on 20 and loanee Sammon netted against his old club in the 63rd minute, before Martyn Waghorn set up a nervy finish for Blues supporters when he pulled one back with eight minutes remaining.

At Portman Road in March, Wigan returned to Lancashire having claimed a 3-1 win. Tommy Smith put Town in front in the 19th minute, but goals from James McClean and Leon Barnett saw the Latics go in ahead at the break with McClean adding his second and Wigan's third in 77th minute.

Overall, Town have beaten the Latics three times (twice in the league), have lost six times (five) and the teams have drawn one League Cup tie.

Town fitness coach Andy Liddell was a Wigan player between 1998 and 2004 and kit man Paul Beesley was at Springfield Park between 1984 and 1989.

Wigan's goalkeeper-coach is Mike Pollitt, who made one appearance for the Blues during a curtailed loan spell in November 2006, a 3-1 home derby victory over Norwich City.

Supporters are reminded that this weekend is the first of two months of disruption on the railway line between Manningtree and Shenfield.

Saturday’s referee is Charles Breakspear from Surrey, who has shown 59 yellow cards and seven red in 19 games so far this season.

Breakspear’s most recent Town match was the 1-0 home victory over Bolton at Portman Road in February last year in which he booked only Christophe Berra.

Squad from: Bialkowski, Kenny, Chambers (c), Mings, Parr, Berra, Smith, Clarke, Skuse, Bru, Bishop, Ambrose, Anderson, Tabb, S Hunt, Stewart, McGoldrick, Murphy, N Hunt, Sears.

Photo: Action Images

vanmunt added 22:13 - Jan 30 @reddust That's got all bases covered, playing all the best defenders in correct position and bishop with a chance to create. Not knocking MM at all but it's obvious that's our best line up and formation so why insist on Chambers as right back when he has been found to be wanting in the last couple of games. COYB.
2

oldegold added 22:19 - Jan 30 I think Bournemouth showed tonight against Watford that if you take the initiative and attack you should reap the right result. MM now has to be ostentatious and daring if he wants to grab probably the last automatic place. If MM relies on cautious hoof football,we will pay the price no doubt as has been shown everytime we could go top but been hampered by a predictable return to caution-first strategy. I keep saying that the history of the Championship always favours the brave and the more attack minded clubs tend historically to be promoted and not the clubs who tend to play a more defensive style of soccer. If we don't go for Wigan's throat and look for the 3 points then the storm clouds will gather and we will lose that head of speed that we built up to early January. Come on Mick...throw caution to the win and go for that win with panache please !

3

GiveusaWave added 03:47 - Jan 31 Route 1 football isn't going to win this one unless we put one of our central defenders (like Berra) up front. If we try to play passing football against a team like Wigan we are going to lose and lose badly. Hoof Ball is our only hope. Given our recent run of results, a few of the "outside" players should get their chance. Bialkowski, Parr, Chambers, Smith, Mings (defence) Stewart, Ambrose, Hunt, Tabb (midfield) Berra, MCgoldrick (up front) tactics: Play ball across defence to Chambers. Long hoof to Berra who can then control the ball and knock it down for MCgoldrick. When we lose the ball, we have Tabb, Hunt etc to win it back and play it back to Chambers who can then hoof it forward again. Personally, I don't think Wigan will expect this selection or tactics. It will unsettle them as they will (most likely) be expecting us to play the likes of N.Hunt/Sears/Bishop etc and will expect us to try and play passing football. Alternatively, we could play Taylor. Now...they would NEVER expect that. Could prove a master-stroke on our part.

-2

BrettenhamBlue added 05:52 - Jan 31 Need Chambers or Parr to play well or else McLean will run the show. Wigan are a very good team and we will need to be at our very best to win this game. We are punching above our weight at the moment imho. When you look at the other teams around us they all have greater strength in depth and unfortunately this will make the difference particularly at this stage in the season. We must get 3 points against Wigan and just hope that at the end of the season we are in the top 6. Hopefully Sears and N.Hunt will get us there. Just think we lack pace out wide (isn't that why Henshall/McDonnell and Stewart were brought in?) cloudyseedbed: don't think we can play anything but hoofball. Just hope Sears and Murphy can get on the end of the long balls. Its a boring way to play but we've had some great results from doing it this season. Bluefeast: agree with you. Pablo123; are we really challengers? Bellazurri79: can't see anything on keane. Like others here, think we need someone "murphy like" so when he's out we've got someone upfront we can hoof it to.

1

WindsorBlue added 08:38 - Jan 31 @bluefeast. You should get a job at Look East!
0

CharlieITFC added 12:33 - Jan 31 I agree with most that Murph will be a big miss, but I'm really starting to get bored of people saying 'we only play hoofball', 'we are punching above our weight' etc. neither of these statements are true. Yes we use the long ball well, but we also pass the ball around well. It's funny how some fans only seem to judge on the last 2 games. We are where we are on merit, and in my opinion given we have the best manager in this league, are genuine challengers. I was speaking to a Brentford fan not long ago, and he said we were the best team he'd seen at griffin park this season by a country mile. We beat them 4-2, remember that? The team that play great attacking football...of course you don't, because we've had a bit of a blip (notice how no team around us has managed to pull away despite this). Anyway, for me, we are more balanced with Parr at RB and 4 at the back. I'd like to see a 433/Diamond: Bart Parr Chambers Berra Mings Skuse Bishop Bru McGoldrick Sears Hunt

0

Blogs 295 bloggers

Ipswich Town Polls