Town goalkeeper Alex McCarthy will be making his first trip to the KC Stadium on Saturday but he knows exactly what to expect.

McCarthy, on loan from Reading, will clock up his sixth Ipswich appearance against play-off hopefuls Hull City and predicted: “It will be a tough game played on a horrible pitch.

“I saw the highlights on television of Hull’s home draw with Leeds the other night and the pitch looked horrendous.”

The Tigers share the stadium with rugby league side Hull FC and McCarthy added: “With rugby on it every other week it must have an effect.

“The thing that worries every goalkeeper is a back-pass and the ball bobbling on a divot — and the worse the pitch is the more chance there is of that happening.

“You tend not to take too many chances because of the likelihood of what could happen.”

But concerns for the state of the playing surface aside, McCarthy is going into the match confident: “There are a lot of positives for us to take into the game after the way we fought back to earn a deserved point at Southampton on Tuesday.

“We didn’t start as well as we wanted to but the gaffer gave us a good talking-to at half-time and we came out to play a lot better in the second half.”

McCarthy, recalled to the starting line-up for the last two games after losing his place to Arran Lee-Barrett following his dismissal at Leeds in January, is quick to acknowledge the close working relationship between all three senior keepers at the club.

He said: “Both Arran and Richard [Wright] have been great to work with. We’re a close little group and we got on very well with each other, no matter who is in or out of the side.

“The settled back four has also helped. The team conceded a lot of goals earlier in the season but in recent weeks we have been stronger in this area and opposing teams are finding it much harder to break us down.”

Story syndicated from TWTD.co.uk

Photo: Action Images

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