Daryl Murphy Misses Out Against Wigan

It came as a bit of a shock to discover that our leading goalscorer will not be playing against The Latics.

He has been in fantastic form throughout this campaign but a calf injury picked up in training means he will play no part tomorrow afternoon at Portman Road.

That is the bad news but the good news is that David McGoldrick is fully fit again and he is likely to be partnered up front by our new signing Freddy Sears!

We are perhaps fortuitous that the Murphy injury comes when we are up against one of the sides who are struggling at the foot of the table; which makes me wonder whether Murphy is being wrapped in cotton wool for this one only because we have some much more demanding fixtures to come?

Or it could just be that Mick McCarthy wants to see the Sears/McGoldrick combination in full working order as soon as he can?

Certainly if the manager wanted to rest his top goalscorer then this would probably be the game to do it.

I suppose the gaffer could start again with Noel Hunt partnering David McGoldrick but once again, a few games ago we would not have had this wealth of attacking options!

Timing they say is everything and with that in mind we have also been a little lucky not to lose any of our key defenders of late and tomorrow we can expect the manager to pick his usual defensive formation with Jonathan Parr probably having to make do on the bench again I would have thought.

The midfield is always a little difficult to call though but I expect that Paul Anderson, Jay Tabb and Cole Skuse will be in from the start along perhaps with either Teddy Bishop or Kevin Bru.

On the bench then we will see reserve keeper Paddy Kenny along perhaps with Stephen Hunt, Darren Ambrose,Cameron Stewart,Jonathan Parr,Alex Henshall and Matt Clarke.

This is a game that Town really need to win. We know there are no walk-overs in the Championship but this on paper is the nearest thing to one and we have get all three points if we are to stay in the race for an automatic promotion place.

Our home form has generally been good and if we want to end the month of January in good spirits then a win tomorrow is vital.


Frank Weston – Editor of Vital Ipswich