Town Face High-Flying Royals Looking for Second Win of 2017 Friday, 3rd Feb 2017 06:00 Town face third-placed Reading at Portman Road on Saturday looking for only their second win of 2017 and hoping to avoid falling to back to back defeats for the first time this season. The Blues, who dropped to 17th following Tuesday's 3-0 defeat to Derby, but remain 10 points off the relegation zone, still haven’t recorded the same result in successive league games since drawing with Wolves and then Norwich back in August, 25 games ago, a new club record. Boss Mick McCarthy says he’s not surprised to see Reading towards the top of the table having been impressed with the Royals when they beat Town 2-1 in a game of three penalties in September. “Not after we played them and seen them for a bit after that,” he said. “They’ve got some good players, they’ve got a good squad. “They’ve probably underachieved over the last few years. They’ve brought in a few good ones, Roy Beerens has come in, but they had Yann Kermorgant, Garath McCleary, Danny Williams and Chris Gunter. They’ve had good players there for a long time and I think should have done better.
“They’ve had a takeover, they’ve had a series of managers come in and Jaap Stam seems to have done particularly well with them. He’s still there and they’re up near the top.” Does he believe the Berkshire side have a chance of breaking into the top two or does he believe Newcastle and Brighton already have the automatic promotion places sewn up? "“Only if Newcastle play like they did on Wednesday night [during the 2-2 home draw with QPR], where that came from I’ve no idea,” he reflected. “I thought QPR were good, they’ll end up in mid-table, no question. They’ve made a lot of signings and I think they had a lot of good players before. “But Newcastle started like they did against us but they were very poor. Whether that’s just a one-off game, I don’t know, but I still think Brighton and Newcastle will do it. “However, if either of them slip up, Leeds, who went to Blackburn and won on Wednesday night, Sheffield Wednesday and Reading, they’ll all be nipping at their heels. “They’ll have to be careful and I think the weight of expectation is on Newcastle, no doubt.” Reading midfielder John Swift had a trial with Town in November 2014 when a Chelsea player and McCarthy was impressed by the 21-year-old, who joined the Royals on a permanent basis last summer. “He came here on trial and I liked him,” he said “I was going to take him on loan but he got injured. “He went back and it wasn’t as severe but I didn’t dare play him or have him to train because he’d got this knee injury, so he went back and he’s done great. “He’s a good player, John. He’s playing really well, he plays in behind two strikers and it suits him.” Reading added highly-rated West Ham defender Reece Oxford, 18, on loan on deadline day and McCarthy says he was someone the Blues were considering as a potential replacement for skipper Luke Chambers after he was targeted by his former club Nottingham Forest. “We were talking about it even at the last knockings, Nottingham Forest were looking at Chambo,” he said. “But he’d gone up to Reading then anyway. So, yes, we’ve had a look at him. I think he’ll probably suit Reading the way he plays, he’s a nice footballer, he’ll certainly fit in with them.” Town added central midfielders Toumani Diagouraga and Emyr Huws on loan during the window, do their signings mean Jonathan Douglas, 35, has no future with the Blues and will move on at the end of the season? “Dougie’s contract is up in the summer and he’s probably the one who is slightly less liked than I am at the moment,” McCarthy added ruefully. “We’ll see, it’s a toss-up who goes first, me or him." Having added seven players during the window, does McCarthy envisage having problems fitting them in? “We’re hardly ripping it up, so nobody can actually say ‘I should be playing, I’ve been great’. I don’t think that’s the case. Anybody who comes in has got a chance to play.” Striker signing Kieffer Moore has made an impression off the bench twice after siging for £10,000 from Forest Green Rovers earlier in the month and McCarthy has been pleased with his performances. “I’ve been delighted with him,” he said. “A lot of the players that they’ve been talking about have been similar to him that are coming out of the National League and League Two. I think he’ll do well for us, I’ve been pleased with him. “He came on against Preston and he came on the other night, so he’s getting a look in. Can he start? Absolutely.” Despite making those signings McCarthy isn’t abandoning his plan to blood some of the club’s younger players once fears of relegation have been allayed. “If - when - we’ve got enough points and we can’t go down, because at the moment we’re looking over our shoulders, not above us, form tells us that, then it would be the case that I’d like to have a look at some of the younger ones,” he said. The Town boss will stick with Bartosz Bialkowski in goal but may look to change things around at the back, perhaps returning to a back four. Steven Taylor is available and the former Newcastle and Portland Timbers man may be handed his debut at centre-half alongside Christophe Berra with skipper Chambers moving to right-back. Jonas Knudsen will continue on the left. In midfield, Cole Skuse will be in one of the central roles with Diagouraga probably taking up the other having missed out against Derby in midweek. Huws is another option, while Teddy Bishop has now played two U23s games since recovering from his ankle injury. Grant Ward was among the Blues’ better performers on Tuesday after coming off the bench and the former Spurs man is likely to return on the right with Tom Lawrence - who is expected to be over the ankle injury which forced him off against the Rams - on the left. Up front, McCarthy could hand Moore his first start alongside one of David McGoldrick, Freddie Sears or Brett Pitman. New loan striker Dominic Samuel isn’t available against his parent club. If McCarthy opts to stick with a back three, Taylor is likely to be on the right of Chambers with Berra on the left with Jordan Spence the right wing-back and Knudsen on the left. Skuse and Diagouraga are likely to be joined in central midfield by Lawrence with McCarthy picking two from McGoldrick, Moore, Pitman and Sears up front. Reading, who also added Bournemouth’s former Norwich striker Lewis Grabban and Crystal Palace’s Jordon Mutch on loan this week, will be without Dutch midfielder Joey van den Berg due to a hamstring injury but are hopeful defender Paul McShane and striker Yann Kermorgant (both calf) will be OK to be involved. Town have just about had the better of the Royals historically, winning 24 times (23 in the league), drawing nine (nine) and losing 23 (23). At the Madejski Stadium in September Williams netted the game’s third penalty deep in second-half injury time to hand Reading a 2-1 victory over the Blues, Knudsen having been adjudged to have hauled down Van den Berg at a corner. In first-half injury time Ward had been harshly penalised for handball for the game’s first spotkick and McCleary put the Royals in front, then Pitman fired home Town’s penalty five minutes after the break having been fouled by Tyler Blackett. Last time the teams met at Portman Road in February last year, Town climbed back into the top six and extended their extraordinary record of Tuesday night home victories to 16 as an 89th minute Pitman goal saw them to a 2-1 victory over the Royals. After a lacklustre first half Ryan Fraser put the Blues in front on 57, Reading sub McCleary equalised from the spot before Pitman’s late winner. Reading midfielder Stephen Quinn is the younger brother of ex-Blue Alan, while Town manager McCarthy has previously confirmed that he targeted Reading striker Yann Kermorgant when he joined Bournemouth from Charlton in January 2014. Like Swift, Dutch midfielder Van den Berg similarly spent time on trial with the Blues, in September 2006. Saturday’s referee is Geoff Eltringham from County Durham, who has shown 83 yellow cards and four red in 27 games so far this season. Eltringham’s last Town match was the 0-0 draw at Blackburn in October in which he booked only one home player. Prior to that he was in charge of the 1-1 draw at Sheffield Wednesday in April 2013 when he kept his cards in his pockets throughout. His only other Blues match was the 3-1 defeat at Leeds in January 2012 in which he red-carded on-loan Town keeper Alex McCarthy for handling outside the area thereby denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity, booked Luke Hyam and one home player. Squad from: Bialkowski, Gerken, Chambers (c), Knudsen, Emmanuel, Spence, Taylor, Berra, Digby, Skuse, Diagouraga, Huws, Douglas, Bru, Dozzell, Bishop, Ward, Rowe, Lawrence, Sears, Pitman, McGoldrick, Moore.
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