Ipswich Town Have No New Injury Concerns

Town are back at Portman Road this afternoon and it is a game that the blues will feel they have to win.

Another home draw would do nothing to boost team spirit and although lowly preston won away at lofty Queens park Rangers in their last league encounter, they still find themselves one place off the bottom.

There are no new injury concerns for Town, which probably means that manager Mick McCarthy will field the same eleven that faced Norwich last Sunday and that Brett Pitman will probably remain on the bench.

BBC Radio Suffolk’s Graeme Mac summed up the mood in Suffolk.

‘Ipswich Town can take plenty of positives from Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Norwich City in the East Anglian derby. After having a goal wrongly ruled out for offside and then conceding against the run of play, a Blues side of previous seasons might have folded. But Ipswich came through a tricky part of the match with flying colours to deservedly claim a point on the day and in the second half there was real cause for optimism – particularly in the way Grant Ward and Teddy Bishop linked up in midfield.’

Yet of course our London rivals will be on a high after winning away at high flying QPR and they have a resolute defence which given our lack of goalscoring prowess, could present the blues with a few problems.

There is talk that striker Leon Best could sign shortly but McCarthy has said that he has other irons in the fire and one of them might be Hal Robson-kanu who has been hero worshipped in Ireland since his remarkable individual goal in the Euro’s!

He is a free-agent and apparently Town are at the stage were tentative negotiations with his agent are taking place but they are at a very early stage but it is one worth monitoring I think.

Back to today and anything less than a win would be seen as a huge disappointment to the home faithful.

McCarthy may play 4-4-3 again in this one and if there is a change to the lineup, it could be young Teddy Bishop replacing Kevin Bru who was rather poor against The Canaries – although he did provide the ammunition for that Jonas Knudsen strike.

Preston have problems of their own and it is likely that former Town loanee Ben Pringle will not have recovered from his ankle injury in time for this one.

Frank Weston – Editor of Vital Ipswich