Time To Test The Town Back Line

Ipswich Town go into the game tomorrow night at Portman Road without five regular players and it is the defence that will be tested to the full I suspect.

Polish keeper Bartosz Bialkowski will make his home debut having played his first rather nervy 90 minutes in a Blues shirt against Blackpool on Saturday.

We can forgive him though because to be thrown in at the deep end with no time for any pre-match preparation is enough to give even Gordon Banks a cardiac arrest!

Other absentees include Jonathan Parr once again, as he has not recovered from his groin strain, which means that Elliot Hewitt has been recalled from his loan spell with Colchester and looks certain to play in his more familiar right back position. The loan arrangement was due to be extended but injuries dictated.

Apart from our defensive woes, we also have Teddy Bishop and Cole Skuse missing from the midfield.

Personally I am not a fan of Skuse, who I think is far too negative and perhaps too similar to Luke Hyam so I do not see this as a major problem. Giving Stephen Hunt another game after he shined against Blackpool will give the team more attacking flair and against Wolves and against his former club we will need it!

The loss of both Teddy Bishop and Jonny Williams is a blow though and this might make room for Paul Anderson in the team; although I would much prefer to see Alex Henshall play from the start for a change.

The one bright spot on the Town horizon is the return to fitness of Kevin Bru and although he does not set the world alight, he does what he does rather well and his steady approach, allied to his undoubted finesse, will aid our cause I feel.

Let us not kid ourselves, against Blackpool we were expected to win but at home to in-form Wolverhampton, Mick McCarthy is entitled to be perhaps content with a point – especially in view of our injury crises.

Crisis what crisis? I guess we will find that out tomorrow night at Portman Road, which I think and of course desperately hope. Town might just nick 3-2!

Frank Weston – Editor of Vital Ipswich