Paul Jewell is hoping to repeat his 2006 Carling Cup semi-final triumph over Arsenal with Wigan when Town take on the Gunners at the Emirates at the same stage of the competition this evening (BBC2, 7.30pm). The Blues go into the game a goal up from the first leg, Tamás Priskin’s second half strike having seen them to a 1-0 victory at Portman Road a fortnight ago.

Jewell was surprised to be told that it was half a decade since Jason Roberts’s extra-time goal took Wigan to a 2-1 win at Highbury after the first leg had ended 1-0 to the Latics: “I didn’t realise it was five years ago. A repeat of that would be nice. I feel a bit of a fraud really because I’m in the second leg of a semi-final and I’ve not been involved in the League Cup this season at all.

“It’s all down to the players and if they can go out and show the same attitude as they did at home, whatever the result I don’t think there’ll be any complaints.”

The Town manager’s recollections of the Wigan game are perhaps surprisingly related to what he wore that night: “It’s strange because some of the best memories that I’ve got about football are overshadowed by my clothes. Everyone talks about the leather jacket I had on, I thought it looked nice but I was ridiculed by everyone for wearing it! My missus was most upset as she bought it for me. I think it’s in a museum now!

“It was a great night and a great journey home. I have to say Arsenal had loads of class because they had the champagne in their dressing room and David Dein quickly put it into ours. It was a good journey home that.”

Jewell says Saturday’s win against Doncaster will help his current team: “It’s always great to go anywhere on the back of a victory. There’s nothing like winning matches to breed confidence.

“You can do all the team-talks and talk about confidence and belief in players, it’s the players who have to go out there and do it.

“We showed really good character in the second half after an edgy performance in the first half. We went 2-1 up, conceded 10 seconds after that, then came back really strongly and defended at the end.

“We’d rather win the games more comfortably than that but at least it shows we’ve got the character in the team and that’s something to build on.”

The Blues boss, who watched the first leg from the stands with former coaches Charlie McParland and Tony Loughlan in charge of the team, says he is expecting a different sort of game this evening: “Obviously we’re the away team and we’ve got a goal start. I had the unfortunate experience on Saturday night of watching Match of the Day and watching Arsenal and I quickly turned it off!

“I said to the players that I could be talking about how good Arsenal are from 9 o’clock in the morning until 10 o’clock at night because they’re a brilliant football team, the form team in England.

“But we’ve got to go there and we’ve got to stand up to them and if we move the game to Twickenham we might have a chance!” referring to Cesc Fabregas’s claim that Town had played rugby in the first match.

“It’s going to be difficult,” he continued, “But it’s a great opportunity for the players to go and not be overawed by the Emirates. If that’s where we want to get to in terms of the league, the players have got to be able to stand up to the challenge. It’s going to be difficult, but nothing comes easily, does it?”

Town fans are expected to be singing choruses of Swing Low, Sweet Chariot and bringing inflatable rugby balls to the game, but Jewell says Fabregas’s criticism made little impact amongst the squad: “I’ve not heard any of the players mention it. At the end of the day, I guess things are taken out of context, but I’d fancy us to beat them at rugby!”

The 46-year-old says his squad can’t get intimidated by the famous names they’re up against: “We’ve got to try and cope with their players. Once you cope with Van Persie, then you worry about Fabregas, then you worry about Walcott, then you worry about Nasri and all of a sudden you’re in a cold sweat. We’ve got respect them, but we’ve got to see if we can pull off a huge upset.

“We’ve got to be able to play when we get it rather than just give it back to Arsenal. We know we’re going to come under pressure but when we get the ball we’re hopeful we can have a bit of composure and do the right things at the right times.

“I said to the players at training that it’s 11 v 11, the pitch is basically the same size as most pitches and if you look around the stadium and think ‘This is nice’, before you know it, you’ll be out the game. We’ve got to forget what’s going on off the pitch, it’s on the pitch that counts.”

Jewell, whose last visit to the Emirates with Wigan led to an FA fine, is hugely impressed with Town’s 9,000-strong travelling army, the biggest since the 2001 trip to Milan: “That’s more than a decent following, that’s a brilliant following, 9,000.

“They were terrific on Saturday, they lifted the team in the second half, didn’t get on their backs and the team responded. It was a great atmosphere and hopefully we can give them something to shout about at the Emirates.

“To take 9,000 to a game during the week is a major achievement and shows that the club has huge potential.

“Sometimes fans underestimate the importance of the role they can play. If they can stay with the team and encourage them as they did on Saturday, they can play a huge part. Everyone goes on about the 12th man, but they are, they’re part of our team.

“If we can get them lifting the players and vice versa, they’ve got a huge role to play between now and the end of the season.”

Jewell, whose side will travel to London this morning, admits that reaching Town’s first ever League Cup final is a big ask but says he can ask his players to do no more than try their hardest: “Arsenal have played in the Champions League and torn teams apart. I saw the game on Saturday and they were outstanding and could have won by a lot more goals.

“On their day they can almost get Barcelona-like. We’re up against it, let’s have it right, but I want us to go there and enjoy it.

“I don’t want us to enjoy losing, I want us to go there and put in a performance and after the game feel that we did everything we could and it hasn’t happened or that we did everything and it has happened. What will be, will be, as long they go out and give their best, that’s all I can ask.”

Jewell is unlikely to make too many changes from the side which beat Doncaster 3-2 on Saturday. Márton Fülöp will continue in goal with Darren O’Dea at left-back, Carlos Edwards on the right and Damien Delaney and Gareth McAuley in the centre.

Mark Kennedy will probably come into the side in the holding midfield role he filled in the first leg with Grant Leadbitter and Colin Healy joining him in the centre. Skipper David Norris will be on the right and Connor Wickham on the left.

Alternatively, Jaime Peters could come in on the right — either in midfield or at full-back with Edwards pushing forward — with Norris in the centre and Kennedy on the bench. Tamás Priskin will again be the lone striker.

Midfielder Lee Martin is cup-tied having appeared for Charlton in the competition earlier in the season, while Brian Murphy (ankle) and Alan Quinn (groin) remain sidelined.

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger says he has no new injury worries from the 3-0 victory over Wigan at the weekend: “From Saturday, everyone is available. Walcott, Nasri, Fabregas and Djourou were small doubts with kicks on ankles and calves etc. But they all had successful tests today. So basically it will be the same squad as Saturday.

“Tomas Rosicky is sick. He has a chance to be available for Sunday. He might be little bit short I don’t know. He was in bed for one week so we’ll have to build him up. But he should be back with the squad on Thursday.”

Abou Diaby (calf) and Sebastien Squillaci (hamstring) also won’t be back until the weekend, while Lukasz Fabianski (shoulder), Thomas Vermaelen (achilles) and Emmanuel Frimpong (cruciate knee ligament) are longer term absentees.

Wenger has confirmed that he will continue to rotate his squad, with Fabregas and Robin Van Persie expected to be on the bench: “Over Christmas I did not have much choice because it was four games in ten days and two games in 48 hours.

“I think recently we have gone for a little bit shorter rotation. [It will be] this kind [of rotation against Ipswich].

“I’ve said that many times but I really think that I have 25 players and every time we play a game it’s a very difficult decision because all the players are top quality.

“That’s why I have convinced all my squad that we have to go for all the competitions because we have the needed quality. You can compare every player in every position, every time there is two top quality players.”

Wenger says he recalls losing to Jewell’s Wigan in 2006 but says that shouldn’t be a factor tonight: "We didn't go through because we didn't win by enough but you cannot compare. Every season is different.

"The history does not play, what plays is the players on the pitch and the quality of our game is important. That is what we want to focus on.

"We play against Ipswich, we don't play against Paul Jewell, so we want to find a way to score goals and we want to find a way to win the game. Where you are completely right is that we want, of course, to play in a much sharper way than we did in the first leg."

Arsenal have had the best of the games between the teams historically, winning 29 (27 in the league), drawing 11 (10) and losing 18 (15).

The most recent cup tie between the sides prior to the first leg was in the same competition, Town running out 2-1 winners at Highbury in the third round in November 2000 on their way to the semi-finals, where they were beaten by Birmingham. Jamie Clapham and James Scowcroft were on target for the Blues and Igor Stepanovs for the home side.

Town were also victorious in the most famous cup clash between the teams, the 1978 FA Cup final, Roger Osborne netting the game’s only goal.

Prior to the first leg, the Gunners had only lost one Carling Cup match to a side from a lower league during Wenger’s time in charge, at Burnley in 2008. The tie is the Blues’ fourth Carling Cup semi-final, Town having reached this stage in 1981/82, 1984/85 and 2000/01 but having lost on all those occasions.

The most recent meeting between the teams on Arsenal territory was in the Premier League in April 2002 with two Freddie Ljungberg goals giving the Gunners a 2-0 win in a game which saw George Burley give Darren Ambrose his Town debut.

No member of the Town squad has played for the Gunners and vice versa, although reserves coach Chris Kiwomya was a player and an academy coach with the North Londoners.

Mark Kennedy first burst to prominence as an 18-year-old with a 1995 FA Cup goal for Millwall in a 2-0 victory over the Gunners at Highbury.

If the scores are level at the end of 90 minutes then extra-time will be played with away goals counting double if the situation remains the same at the end of the additional half an hour. If the teams still can’t be separated, then there will be a penalty shoot-out.

National Express are laying on three additional train services from London Liverpool Street to Ipswich after the match.

Tonight’s referee is Select Group official Mark Halsey from Lancashire, who has shown 41 yellow cards and one red in 19 games so far this season.

Halsey is best remembered amongst Town fans for his extremely harsh red-carding of Liam Trotter in the FA Cup third round tie against Portsmouth at Portman Road in January 2008. Halsey also denied the Blues what looked like an obvious penalty during the closing stages of the Blues’ 1998/99 play-off semi-final first leg against Bolton Wanderers at the Reebok Stadium.

Birmingham meet West Ham at St Andrew’s in the second leg of the other semi-final on Wednesday with the Hammers 2-1 ahead from the first leg.

Squad from: Fülöp, Lee-Barrett, Edwards, O’Dea, Peters, Brown, Delaney, McAuley, Smith, Kennedy, Hyam, Norris, Leadbitter, Healy, Civelli, O’Connor, Wickham, Priskin, Scotland, Murray.

Story syndicated from TWTD.co.uk

Photo: Action Images

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