Blues boss Kieran McKenna believes Stoke City will be a big test for his side, despite the Potters’ poor recent form.

Town go into the game fourth in the Championship, a point behind Millwall in third, five off Middlesbrough in second and 10 away from leaders Coventry with a game in hand on all three.

The Blues are undefeated in four and had won three on the bounce until Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Leicester, which might well have ended in another victory but for referee John Busby denying a last-gasp penalty.

Stoke started the season very promisingly, topping the table in August and remaining in the top two throughout September.

However, the Potters are currently 15th in the division, 10 points off the play-offs and 12 points from the relegation zone.

Having taken 27 points from their first 14 Championship matches, they have managed only 20 from their last 22.

McKenna has a lot of time for Stoke manager Mark Robins, who he says varies his team’s approach and believes the Potters have come out on the wrong side of tight games for the most part recently.

“He’s produced lots of good teams in this division, but maybe one of the conventions is that they don’t all look the same,” McKenna said. “I think he’s a good manager and gets the best out of the players that he has and sets them up and utilises their strengths really well. 

“For Stoke at the moment that can mean different things, they’ve played different systems over the last month or so.

“In the first half of the season they had really, really good form, played some fantastic football, played well at Portman Road and that was typical maybe of the first half of the season.

“Not on such a good run at the moment but, when you watch them, they’re still there or thereabouts in all the games.

“We know how tight the margins are in this division and if a few things go against you, you can very quickly come out on the wrong side of them more regularly. 

“We know going there on Tuesday night is going to be a big test. They’re going to be desperate for the result. 

“They have strong players and a good manager and they’re going to try and make it really, really hard for us, and we need to be ready to go and stand up to that. 

“We’re desperate for the points as well and the best way to get them is to just prepare as well as you can and focus on what the performance is going to need, and then go and try and deliver that tomorrow.”

Stoke have conceded the third fewest goals in the Championship, 35, with only Town and Middlesbrough having been more miserly at the back. But just six teams have scored fewer than their total of 39.

At the bet365 Stadium this season, the Potters have picked up 25 points from 17 games, seven wins, four draws and six defeats, the 16th best home form in the division.

Stoke have won only one - a 2-1 success against Oxford in their most recent home match - of their last 10 in the Championship - as well their 2-1 FA Cup exit to Fulham - and go into Tuesday’s match having lost their last two, a 2-1 loss at Coventry and then a 2-0 defeat at Swansea on Saturday.

McKenna dismissed the suggestion that now is a good time to be facing the Potters given their form, significant injury issues and the suspension of Wales international Sorba Thomas, who was red-carded against the Swans.

“I never really go for any of those things, the margins are genuinely so, so small,” he said. “Probably at the start of the season they were winning games 1-0 or 2-1 and more often lately they’ve been losing them 1-0 or 2-1, or sometimes if the other team gets a red card you get the win and they’ve had two red cards in their last few games, which clearly affected them.

“I thought they had much the better of the chances at Swansea away on Saturday until the red card.

“The margins are really, really small and sometimes playing a team who are in good form means they’re more likely to play an open and positive game against us, which is really often the scenario we enjoy.

“And sometimes, maybe a little bit like Saturday, when you’re playing against a team who are lower on confidence or fighting to get a result that they haven’t had in a while, then it means that they’re going to double down on making it really difficult and break the game up and things like that.

“I certainly think in our context, it never really changes the difficulty level, whether a team’s in good form or not in good form because we know they opponents will give us respect.

“And they’re a good team with a good manager and they’re going to be desperate to get a result. I don’t think that changes our challenge significantly, certainly not in a positive direction.”

Recalling the 1-0 win at Portman Road earlier in the season, McKenna added: “I thought it was a good game. It was another midweek game after our Coventry game, so that was a test for both teams, probably.

“We got an early goal, a great goal, which was a big help, but then they made us work really, really hard for it in the first half. They moved the ball well and they’ve got good athletes and good footballers, and it was a real challenge.

“We had to work really, really hard for it and then I think in the second half we sort of pushed on and had the better chances. 

“I thought we deserved to win on the night, but I thought it was a really, really hard game to win and, going away from home to them on a Tuesday night at this stage of the season, we expect it to be even tougher, so we’re going to have to step up our level again.”

Elsewhere, Millwall host Derby on Tuesday night, while Coventry are at home to Preston on Wednesday, the same evening Middlesbrough are visited by Charlton.

The Team

McKenna will almost certainly make the usual tweaks to his side given the volume of fixtures, while reporting some potential issues affecting unnamed players at his pre-match press conference.

Christian Walton will continue in goal with McKenna probably keen to stick with his backline, from the right, Darnell Furlong, who remains on nine yellow cards with a 10th leading to a two-game ban with two matches to be played before the cut-off, skipper Dara O’Shea, Cedric Kipre and Leif Davis.

Azor Matusiwa, also still on nine bookings having gone 16 games without a yellow card, should be in his usual central midfield with Jack Taylor appearing likely to return to the XI with Dan Neil dropping to the bench.

McKenna will make changes to his front four with Sindre Walle Egeli perhaps returning to the side on the right having scored his fourth goal for the club off the bench on Saturday, with Jack Clarke on the left and either Anis Mehmeti or Marcelino Nunez the number 10. George Hirst will probably come in for Ivan Azon as the number nine.

The Opposition

Stoke had nine players absent through injury at the weekend, Viktor Johansson, ex-Blues left-back Aaron Cresswell, Lewis Baker, Divin Mubama, Robert Bozenik, Ato Ampah, Bosun Lawal, Gavin Bazunu and Sam Gallagher.

During that game, left-back Eric Bocat was forced off as was skipper Ben Wilmot. Better news was that one-time Colchester right-back Junior Tchamadeu returned to action from the bench having been out since picking up an injury while with Cameroon at the Africa Cup of Nations.

In addition to the injuries, Thomas was red-carded for a second bookable offence in the 36th minute and will miss the Blues’ visit.

History

Historically, results have been evenly matched with Stoke having won 29 (25 in the league) games between the sides, Town just ahead on 30 (28) and 22 (20) having ended in draws.

The Blues are currently unbeaten in four against the Potters, two wins and two draws, however, they have won just two of the last 11 games between the teams and only seven of the last 27.

Town have never won at the bet365 Stadium in nine visits going back to February 1998 and haven’t scored there since a 2-2 draw under Joe Royle in January 2006.

The Blues last won at Stoke at their old Victoria Ground home in March 1997 when Mauricio Taricco scored in a 1-0 win.

At Portman Road in December, Jaden Philogene’s seventh goal of the season in only the second minute was enough to see Town to a 1-0 win.

Philogene curled in a trademark brilliant strike to see the Blues on their way to what ought to have been a more comfortable win, one which saw them move up to fourth in the table.

The last meeting at the bet365 Stadium was on New Year’s Day 2024 when the Blues recorded back-to-back 0-0 draws for the first time under McKenna as they were frustrated to a goalless stalemate by 10-man Stoke, having similarly drawn a blank at home to QPR a few days earlier.

The Potters were reduced in number on 67 after midfielder Jordan Thompson was dismissed for a second yellow card for something he said to the referee - having been fortunate not to have been shown a straight red in the first for clotheslining Kayden Jackson - with the Blues dominating from there but without ever really looking like grabbing their first goal of 2024.

Familiar Faces

Blues forward Jack Clarke had a stint on loan with the Potters, making six starts and eight sub appearances in the second half of 2020/21.

Philogene spent the second half of 2022/23 on loan at the bet365 Stadium making six starts and five sub appearances, scoring once, his first senior goal.

Blues full-back Harry Clarke, currently on loan at Charlton, spent the first half of 2022/23 on loan at Stoke, making 10 starts and 10 sub appearances, scoring twice, before returning to Town on a permanent basis from Arsenal in the January.

Ex-Town left-back Cresswell joined Stoke last summer after leaving West Ham after 11 years. The 35-year-old joined the Hammers from the Blues in July 2014 after making 138 appearances, all starts, scoring seven times and having won the Town Player of the Year award in 2011/12.

The Blues showed interest in Potters forward Jesurun Rak-Sakyi, who is on loan from Crystal Palace, during their previous stint in the Championship.

Town also made approaches to Blackburn for striker Gallagher in January 2024 before eventually bringing in Kieffer Moore. Gallagher joined Stoke that summer.

The Blues were also among the clubs understood to be showing interest in Mubama last summer before the Manchester City youngster joined the Potters on loan for the season.

Officials

Tuesday’s referee is Thomas Kirk, his assistants Johnathon Bickerdike and David Harrison, and the fourth official Sam Allison.

Cheshire-based Kirk has shown 117 yellow cards and four red in 26 games so far this season.

He is in his fifth season as an EFL referee having risen swiftly up the divisions and took control of his first Premier League match, Burnley-Crystal Palace, which ended 1-0 to the away side, in December and has since taken charge of two more top-flight games.

His most recent Town match was the 3-1 defeat at Leicester in December in which he booked Taylor, Jack Clarke and one home player.

Earlier this season, Kirk refereed the Blues’ 3-1 East Anglian derby victory over Norwich City at Portman Road, yellow-carding Philogene and three Canaries.

In his only Town game prior to that, the 2-1 win at Morecambe in League One in October 2022, he awarded the Blues two penalties,

On 58, Kyle Edwards was tripped by Farrend Rawson, Town’s first spot-kick in nine months, but Chaplin’s effort was saved.

Six minutes later, the Blues were given another when Jackson was felled by Jacob Bedeau. This time Lee Evans was successful to claim the points. Evans was the only Town player booked during the game along with six home of the home team.

Squad From

Walton, Palmer, Williamson, Furlong, Johnson, Davis, O’Shea (c), Greaves, Kipre, Matusiwa, Cajuste, Neil, Taylor, Clarke, Burns, Walle Egeli, McAteer, Nunez, Mehmeti, Akpom, Hirst, Azon.

Photo: TWTD