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Ipswich Town boss Mick McCarthy is ready to unleash his ‘fab four’ against Bristol City
Manchester City loanee Bersant Celina (centre) scored on his full league debut for Ipswich Town in midweek. Photo: Pagepix - Credit: Pagepix Ltd
Ipswich Town boss Mick McCarthy will once again let the leash off his fab front four in this afternoon’s Championship clash with Bristol City at Portman Road.
The forward quartet of Joe Garner, Martyn Waghorn, David McGoldrick and Bersant Celina combined superbly on Tuesday night as struggling Sunderland were thrashed 5-2 on Suffolk soil.
Town are the division’s leading scorers with 19 goals from nine games, with five of their six wins coming against the quintet propping up the rest.
A rejuvenated Robins side should provide a tougher test today given Lee Johnson’s men are unbeaten in 10 games across all competitions, but McCarthy has vowed to go on the attack once again.
“It’s not always that four good players like that play well together, but when they do it’s great,” enthused the Blues boss.
“Now it’s a test for us to play the same way against a team who is having a better season. It’s a test for us to replicate that performance.
“It’s nothing to do with them, it’s how we play. Can we have the same energy and intensity and the same quality?
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“We’ll still respect the opposition, we’ve still done our analysis and we’ll still want to stop them playing, but it’s more about whether we can do it again.
“Let’s concentrate on us playing as well as we’ve done.”
• Match preview: Ipswich Town v Bristol City
Asked if he had always wanted his team to play more attack-minded, entertaining football, McCarthy replied: “It irks me slightly that I keep getting asked this question as if we’ve been hopeless for five years.
“We had a bad season last season, we lost our star striker (Daryl Murphy) at the start, it wasn’t good, we end up having a scrap, but pretty much other than that we’ve been high intensity and got after teams.
“I think everybody enjoyed the other night. I hope we can do it again, and again, and again.
“Is it possible every week? Probably not, no. I don’t think Newcastle, Brighton or Huddersfield managed to play like that every week last season.
“Against Fulham, a good team, I had all the strikers on the pitch and it didn’t work (lost 2-0 at home last month). It wasn’t right and they picked a hole in us. Not every team is as good as Fulham though. And I do think we’ve got a bit more balance to us at the moment.”
