Only A Win Will Do For Town

Our record on a Tuesday night under the lights at Portman Road is far better than when we play there on a Saturday so let us hope this continues tomorrow because nothing less than a win will do.

We are in eighth place in the Sky Bet Championship and four points adrift of Sheffield Wednesday in sixth but worse still, they have a superior goal difference and that is worth another point.

Blackburn will be no-pushovers but if we are serious about making another challenge for those illusive play-off places then nothing less than a win will suffice.

The good news is that David McGoldrick appears to be on the mend but it won’t be until the beginning of April at the earliest before he is back in the squad and as for poor Teddy Bishop it looks as if he will not feature at all this season, which is hugely disappointing for all concerned.

The squad should look a little stronger tomorrow though because Kevin Foley has recovered from his bruised ribs and Dean Gerken is back as the understudy to Bartosz Bialkowski on the bench.

Rovers may find themselves in sixteenth place but they still have a better goal difference than Town and have proven strikers in Delfouneso and Graham so we must be on our guard.

I don’t think manager Mick McCarthy will juggle the team around to much and I expect the defence to remain the same.

If he does decide to shuffle the pack, it will probably be in midfield but even here I am not sure that he will change things too drastically – although Jonathan Douglas or Kevin Foley could take the place of Kevin Bru.

Up front he is bound to go for Sears and Murphy again and leave Brett Pitman on the bench, which is where we will probably find Ainsley Maitland-Niles as well.

Making a good start if vitally important I feel tomorrow and this means taking the game to Blackburn. We cannot afford any slip-ups at the back because as we witnessed against Cardiff, one mistake can cost you very dear!

Our strikers need to start scoring again but this is less likely to happen if we lack creativity in midfield so perhaps Kevin Foley should be involved from the start because although he is essentially a defender, he has the vision to make things happen in the centre and has been impressive since he joined us on loan.

Freddie Sears badly needs a goal and so too does Daryl Murphy. Brett Pitman is our leading scorer on ten but most of these have come from the bench which is where I expect to find him again.

Frank Weston – editor of Vital Ipswich