Mick McCarthy will stick with his winning formula at Bristol City tomorrow, even if his team selection remains unpopular amongst some supporters.

Veterans Luke Varney and Jonathan Douglas were recalled, and impressed in the 3-0 victory over QPR last weekend – the former scoring – and they will keep their place at Ashton Gate.

While McCarthy can justify sticking with a winning team, the inclusion of Douglas and Varney means fan favourites – attacking midfielder, Teddy Bishop and striker Freddie Sears – will have to settle for a place on the bench again, along with Jonny Williams, who is seen as a more attack-minded midfielder than Douglas.

“I get they (supporters) want the nice, tricky, sexy ones in there but (Cole) Skusey probably has to do more work than he should have to when he has got the ones (midfielders) in there that are always going forward,” said McCarthy.

“That’s nice, but those players have to get back in and do their job and be solid.

“They (Skuse and Douglas) handled it well last week, let’s hope they handle it well this week.”

He added: “Do I get things wrong?

“It turns out to be wrong if someone makes a mistake, but in the main I make more good decisions than bad and last week were good decisions, the right decisions.

“I needed a team of blokes and I knew what I was going to get out of them.

“I knew what I was going to get out of Reg (Varney) and Dougie (Douglas) and Chambo (Luke Chambers) who has been different class.

“I knew it wouldn’t appeal to everybody but we won the game.”

On making that all-important team selection, McCarthy said: “Some weeks you just want to pick a team because that is the team you want to pick and if you’re not in it, unlucky.

“I am not going to give a player any other reason, like ’you didn’t track back’ or ‘you didn’t mark properly’, that doesn’t wash with them, they know how they have played.

“If my choice is purely and simply about who I want to pick, then I am the manager, I can do it.”