Town boss Roy Keane will field a very young Town side when the Blues face Exeter in the first round of the Carling Cup at St James’ Park this evening. Northern Ireland U17 international midfielder Josh Carson has joined the likes of Luke Hyam, Troy Brown, Reggie Lambe, Jack Ainsley, Ronan Murray, Tom Eastman and Billy Clark in making the trip to Devon with virtually an entire senior team injured or on international duty.

Keane, who celebrates his 39th birthday today, says it will be a tough examination of the latest crop of academy players currently breaking into the his squad: “It’s a big test, the younger boys will get a chance. We’ll be going with a young squad. Some of the young boys didn’t let us down on Saturday and they won’t let us down on Tuesday.

“It’s a game of football and we want to win it, simple as that. This time last year we went to Shrewsbury and had a really good game against them. We took some young players and the experience stood them well over the season and it’s going to be the same at Exeter.

“We want to win the game, but it will be tough but, with the injuries we have, we have to be careful with Saturday’s game in mind because we are struggling for numbers. I’ve never known anything like it.”

The Blues boss says 17-year-old Josh Carson, who was recently named on standby for the Northern Ireland U20 squad, is very much in his thoughts for the game: “He might be starting. He’s done very well. He’s a good player and a lot of these players have done well. There could be other second year academy players, maybe even younger, some of the really young kids are doing really well.”

Town will be without the injured Carlos Edwards (groin), Mark Kennedy (hamstring), Luciano Civelli (knee), Connor Wickham (ankle), Damien Delaney (thigh), Alan Quinn (groin) and Gareth McAuley (back). Grant Leadbitter and David Norris also complained of stiff backs after the Middlesbrough game, but will almost certainly play some role at Exeter. Shane O’Connor is over a virus.

Márton Fülöp and Tamás Priskin are away with Hungary ahead of Wednesday’s international with England and Conor Hourihane plays for the Republic of Ireland U21s against Estonia in Dublin tonight. Priskin missed training with the Hungarian squad yesterday due to a swollen ankle, but is not now expected to miss the England game.

Despite all the injuries, Keane says there will be a smattering of first team regulars involved: “Jon Walters, Steady, Tommy Smith, Jaime, Grant, Chuck, Brian Murphy will be in goal for us, but other than that we’ll play it by ear.”

The Blues boss says the elevation of the younger players is down to their performances in pre-season, but feels that additions will be needed to make the squad more competitive: “The likes of Reggie and Jack are in the team on merit.

“It’s great for any club, we need investment in terms of new players, but I think the academy staff will be delighted, the lads who have worked with the players since they were young lads. It’s a big boost for everybody.

“I bet our supporters enjoyed it, both the victory and seeing some young players get a chance. They’ll get another chance on Tuesday, but whether these young players can go 46 games and get this team promoted, that’s the big question mark and I would say at this point in time we’re short of the squad to maintain that challenge.

“If you compare us to the teams that competed in the top six last year, we’re nowhere near them. That’s not me trying to play down our chances, I think a blind man could see that.

“We’re short of numbers, experience and physically I think we’re still a bit light. On top of that we’ve lost some players to injuries.”

Keane says the squad was lacking in depth even before the injury problems: “We were struggling for numbers anyway. I knew over the summer with the changes we were making we needed a little bit of luck to get through the season, let alone the first few weeks.

“Obviously, that’s changed unbelievably in the last two and a half weeks with the injuries we’ve picked up, even on the training ground. It’s tough, but we’ll look at things over the next day or two, whether we can get one or two players in on permanent deals or maybe one or two loan players.

“I think we’re just having a difficult spell at the moment and we need to get through it. Some of the injuries have been pretty serious, Damien Delaney, he was very lucky, Connor has a bad ankle injury and is nowhere near back, he’s still in a medical boot.

“The players who are injured are nowhere near being fit and the danger is when you’ve got a small squad is that you throw them back in when they’re not quite fit and they end up getting more injuries. It’s a vicious circle at the moment, which is why we need more players.”

One man who is fit but won’t be included is striker Pablo Couñago, who reports over the weekend claimed had been involved in a dressing room bust-up with the Blues’ boss. Keane says that at the moment, other players are performing better than the Spaniard: “Pablo won’t be involved as some of the young boys are ahead of him on merit.

“As I’ve said before, I pick my team on what I see and I’ll always try and be fair like that. And Pablo is behind these players at the moment from what I see on the training pitch. Our training ground is open to anybody, anybody can come and watch us train.”

The Town boss rates his Grecians counterpart Paul Tisdale: “He’s a good manager and from all reports from the game at the weekend they play some very good stuff. It’s set up for a very good game. We’re going down with young players, but young players we think want to represent the football club.”

The match will see the Blues reunited with former striker Marcus Stewart, who has signed on at St James' Park for one more season, a player Keane says he has been talking about ahead of the match: “I was speaking about him with some of the staff on Saturday, about who they felt were the top players at Ipswich in the last 10 years, and he was one of them. You always remember your good players at your football club and he was one of them.

“We could do with someone like that scoring us 20-odd goals a season, that would certainly get us in the top six.”

Guessing Keane’s team is likely to be even harder than usual, despite Brian Murphy having been confirmed as the keeper. Assuming Town continue to use their 4-3-3, Jaime Peters will probably be at right-back, Tommy Smith and Troy Brown are likely to be in the centre with Jack Ainsley and Shane O’Connor fighting it out for the left-back role.

Luke Hyam could keep his holding role in midfield with Billy Clark perhaps coming in alongside one of Colin Healy, Grant Leadbitter or David Norris. Reggie Lambe may start on the right of the front three, while Jon Walters, Shane O’Connor, if he isn’t at the back, Ronan Murray or even Josh Carson on the left. Walters is also a candidate for the central role along with Jon Stead.

Exeter manager Paul Tisdale says defender Steve Tully is a big doubt: "Steve took an awful whack on his ankle, it's black and blue. It looks very painful but I don't think it is anything more serious than very bad bruising. It really is pretty sore but he did well to carry on really. I think we will see how he reacts on Monday in training."

One-time Town frontman, Richard Logan is also a doubt with a groin injury and will only be fit enough to be on the bench.

Exeter’s more celebrated ex-Blues striker Stewart says he is very much looking forward to the game: "My happiest days as a footballer were at Ipswich. We had a lot of success under George Burley at the time and played some fantastic football, the way Ipswich teams like to play.

"They have a brand of football and that is passing the ball. George instilled it there and I am sure under Roy that will be the same philosophy.

"We are both footballing teams and I expect it to be a good spectacle with both teams passing each other off the park. The pitch will be zippy and it's a night game with a good atmosphere I'd expect under the lights."

The sides last met in 1998/99 at the same stage of the same competition when ties were played over two legs. The first leg in the south-west ended 1-1 with Matt Holland putting the Blues in front and Jonathan Richardson equalising for the Grecians in the final minute.

Town comfortably won the second leg at Portman Road, Mauricio Taricco, Holland again, Mick Stockwell, Alex Mathie and Paul Mason, playing his final game for the Blues, scoring the goals in a 5-1 victory. Richardson again netted for Exeter, who haven’t won a Carling Cup tie at home for 17 years.

Overall, The Blues have won 10 games between the sides and the Grecians six with nine ending in draws. In addition to the 1998/99 League Cup matches, the teams have met once in the FA Cup, in 1951/52 when Town ran out 4-0 victors at Portman Road.

Tuesday’s referee is Rob Shoebridge from Derbyshire, who last season showed 69 yellow cards and one red in 31 games. His last Town match was last season’s 2-1 Carling Cup defeat at Peterborough, in which he booked two players from each side and awarded the Blues a penalty, which Tamás Priskin missed.

Probable squad: Murphy, Lee-Barrett, Peters, O’Connor, Ainsley, Smith, Brown, Eastman, Hyam, Norris, Leadbitter, Healy, Clark, Walters, Lambe, Stead, Carson, Murray, Griffiths, Cawley, Griffiths, Dunbar.

Story syndicated from TWTD.co.uk

Photo: Action Images

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