Ipswich Town Under The Microscope

It is very much a sign of the times that Town are once again attracting global attention with the game at Charlton being the early kick off on Sky Sports One!

This is a good opportunity for the armchair viewer to chart the blues progress of late and there will be supporters huddled around television screens from Bangkok to Boston tomorrow afternoon,when the game kicks off at 12.15 pm

Mick McCarthy will be forced into at least one change,as centre back Christophe Berra serves a one game ban.

It looks likely that our manager will keep faith with Bartosz Bialkowski in front of the posts and if Tyrone Mings does not recover from his dead leg then McCarthy has said he will play Matt Clarke in his place,which would delight the travelling support.

It looks likely that Luke Chambers will revert to his more accustomed position in central defence,accompanied this time by Tommy Smith who scored here last season,along of course with the winning goal against Watford recently at Portman Road.

This means that Jonathan Parr will probably come back into the side as the other wing back and in midfield too there is a noticeable absentee,as Kevin Bru recovers from an ankle injury incurred against Bournemouth and may be out for some time.

It seems likely that McCarthy will stick with Cole Skuse in midfield;along perhaps with Teddy Bishop and Luke Hyam.

If we play with three up front then the debate will be about who joins Murphy and McGoldrick?

Personally I would like to see Stephen Hunt again playing slightly deeper and feeding the front two. He is good at set pieces when he is on song and his form of late has been very encouraging.

The bench warmers will almost certainly include Noel Hunt and Darren Ambrose and there should be places too for Dean Gerken, Paul Anderson,Jay Tabb and Alex Henshall I would hope.

The Town away support will be close to 3,000 and if we can nick all three points we could go to second in the table for a few hours,which is a great incentive I think so come on you blues!

Frank Weston – Editor Vital Ipswich