McCarthy: Players Won't Need Reminding About Royals Hammering Tuesday, 2nd Feb 2016 06:00 Town boss Mick McCarthy says his players won’t need reminding that tonight’s opponents Reading dished out their biggest thrashing in three years when the teams met at the Madejski Stadium earlier in the season. The Blues, who were soundly beaten 5-1 by the Royals on that Friday evening in September, will be looking to avenge that defeat, climb back into the top six and stretch their remarkable run of Tuesday night home victories to 16. “It’s not one of those where I’ll have to go around reminding people, in fact that might be counterproductive,” McCarthy said. “I’ve got a great bunch of lads who are motivated every week, that go out and give their all. “I don’t think me mentioning it would make any difference. But I might do anyway, just in case! “But I always tend to look at it as if I was one of them and I’d been there and lost by that margin, and I’d be well up for it.” McCarthy was back at the Madejski Stadium on Saturday to see the Royals - who are 15th in the Championship, 10 points behind eight-placed Town - beat Walsall 4-0 in the FA Cup. “It was a good win,” he added. “I thought they played well. I don’t think Walsall really caused them too many problems. “Reading are a really strong team. I think they’ve punched below their weight. When we lost to them there 5-1 - although if you see the stats from the game we had 12 shots, they had six but five of them went in - I thought they’d be in the top six pushing for the top two. “But whatever happened, they changed manager, Brian McDermott’s come back in and he’s a really safe pair of hands and knows everybody at the club, and he’s had a really good career there prior to this time. “I looked at their players on Saturday and they have got as good a squad, I think, as anybody in the league. “They’d a few players missing. They’ve got Yann Kermorgant and Matej Vydra up front, Danny Williams playing in the middle, Garath McCleary, who’s injured, Stephen Quinn came back. “They’ve got Michael Hector, who they sold to Chelsea for £5 million and brought him back on loan. They’re just a really competent team, so it’ll be a tough game.” McCarthy says the Blues will be under no more pressure to get a result having had 10 days off following the 3-0 defeat at Birmingham. “It’s on all the time, isn’t it?” he continued. “That doesn’t change. As soon as the game comes around there’s enough pressure on to get results and then there’s always something that can add a little bit of spice and a bit more. “I would imagine that most of them that played at the weekend will play on Tuesday, Kermorgant may come back [into the squad] because he was cup-tied. “Quinn played, he’d been missing for a while, Paul McShane had been missing, he came on and had a little cameo near the end. They’ve got a big squad, they’ve got plenty of fresh legs.” McCarthy will be forced into two changes with keeper Dean Gerken having suffered a shoulder injury, which will keep him out for at least a month, while Jonathan Douglas is suspended for three games following his red card for a high challenge at St Andrew’s. “Dougie’s been great and I think he was so unlucky at Birmingham,” the Town boss continued. “I do think it looked worse than it was. I’ve looked at it a number of times, he didn’t leave the floor and have two feet up as the suggestion was. “But I did speak to my contact amongst the referees just to check. I didn’t think it was worth an appeal because the referee has to make a clear and obvious error and I can’t say that because you could see the reaction of everybody when he tackled. “There are worse tackles that people don’t get sent off for, but it wasn’t worth an appeal, and the last thing I would want is to have a game added on for a frivolous appeal, so he’s missing his games and it’s a chance for somebody else. Let’s hope we don’t miss him.” Douglas’s obvious replacement is Luke Hyam, who has impressed his manager since returning from a brief loan spell at Rotherham where he went to get games under his belt after almost 11 months out with a knee injury. “He’s come back flying, I’ve been delighted with Luke, I thought when he went on in the second half at Birmimgham he and Skusey were terrific, especially with 10 men.” While Bartosz Bialkowski will start in goal in Gerken’s absence, Jonathan Henly will be on the Town senior bench for the first time. McCarthy has been pleased with the Scotland U21 international’s progress in the Blues’ U21s since he joined in August. “He’s been doing OK,” the Town manager said. “Whenever he plays, he’s solid enough. “He’s got helluva standard that’s been set by our two first-choice goalkeepers and neither of them [Henly and Michael Crowe, who is currently on loan at Braintree] are at the level of Bart and Gerks, but we’re talking about somebody to sit on the bench and come on in an emergency. “And if that’s the case, they can do it. And do you know what, if they have to play we’ll soon find out.” McCarthy seems certain to stick with rest of the side which played well in defeat at Birmingham with the usual back four of skipper Luke Chambers at right-back, Jonas Knudsen at left-back and Tommy Smith and Christophe Berra at the centre of the defence. Piotr Malarczyk is back after his one-match ban and will be on the bench, Cole Skuse will be alongside Hyam in the deeper midfield role with Kevin Bru ahead of them. Daryl Murphy is again set to be the lone central striker with Ryan Fraser on the left and Freddie Sears on the right. Reading are set to be without midfielders McCleary and Aaron Tshibola due to hamstring problems, but skipper McShane returned at the weekend after a calf injury. New signing Deniss Rakels is unavailable as he is yet to receive international clearance but striker Kermorgant and former Walsall midfielder George Evans are back having been cup-tied at the weekend. If Town win and seventh-placed Sheffield Wednesday fail to beat Burnley, who are third, at Hillsborough this evening, the Blues will climb to sixth ahead of Birmingham, who drew 0-0 at Bristol City on Saturday. Town have just about had the better of the Royals historically, winning 23 times (22 in the league), drawing nine (nine) and losing 22 (22). However, the Royals have won eight of the last nine games between the clubs with the Blues’ only victory in that time at Portman Road in January 2014 when they claimed a 2-0 win. Town have also won just three of their last nine home matches against Reading and have lost three of the last four. Despite the record of having won their last 15 Tuesday games at Portman Road, the Blues have only won five of their 14 Championship home matches this season, drawing six and losing three. In September at the Madejski Stadium, Orlando Sa’s hat-trick saw Reading to that 5-1 victory over the Blues, their heaviest defeat for nearly three years. Sa put the home side ahead in the seventh minute, Freddie Sears equalised soon afterwards before the Portuguese frontman made it 2-1 at the break. In the second half Nick Blackman made it 3-1 and Sa completed his hat-trick before Oliver Norwood lashed in a late fifth. The teams last met at Portman Road in February last year when Jamie Mackie’s 14th minute goal was the difference between the sides as Reading defeated the Blues 1-0. The Scotland international was given time to shoot from 25 yards and his effort just crept inside the post, while the Blues never really looked like getting back on terms. Jay Tabb joined Town in the summer of 2013 having been released by the Royals at the end of the previous season following a loan spell at Portman Road. He had been at the Madejski Stadium for four and a half years, during which time he helped them to the 2011/12 Championship-winning squad. Town keeper Jonathan Henly, who joined Town after a trial in August, came through the Reading youth ranks before being released in the summer without making a senior appearance. Blues full-back Kevin Foley spent time training with Reading towards the end of last year before joining Town. Reading midfielder Stephen Quinn is the younger brother of ex-Blue Alan, while Town manager McCarthy has previously confirmed that he targeted recently-signed Reading striker Yann Kermorgant when he joined Bournemouth from Charlton in January 2014. Fans planning to travel home by train towards London should note there will be disruption following the match. Tonight’s referee is Tim Robinson from West Sussex, who has shown 99 yellow cards and four red in 26 games so far this season. This evening's match will be only his 15th at Championship level. Robinson’s only competitive Town game was the 2-0 home defeat to Middlesbrough in December in which he booked Christophe Berra and two of the visitors. "Prior to that he took charge of the pre-season friendly at Crawley in the summer of 2013 in which he awarded the Blues a penalty, which was converted by David McGoldrick in a 2-1 victory. Squad from: Bialkowski, Henly, Chambers (c), Knudsen, Foley, Berra, Smith, Malarczyk, Skuse, Hyam, Coke, Tabb, Bru, Maitland-Niles, Fraser, Touré, Sears, Pitman, Murphy, Varney.
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