 Tuesday, 26th Jan 2010 08:51 Midfielder David Norris and striker Jon Stead are set to return to the Town side as the Blues take on third-placed West Brom at Portman Road this evening. Norris was rested at Southampton on Saturday, while Stead is back from his four-game ban. Town will be without skipper Jon Walters, who has a hamstring injury. Norris looks likely to join Grant Leadbitter in the centre of the midfield having been left out at the weekend. The former Plymouth man is only just back from his lengthy spell out with a knee ligament injury and manager Roy Keane feels he is not yet ready for three games in a week. Leadbitter, who is likely to stand in as captain in Walters’s absence, picked up a knock on his ankle during training on Sunday but is not thought to be in danger of missing out. Jack Colback will probably continue on the left of midfield with Owen Garvan perhaps switching to the right from the centre and Carlos Edwards dropping to the bench. Alternatively, Garvan could also drop to the bench with Jaime Peters moving to the right of midfield and David Wright coming in at left-back. Alongside Peters or Wright on the left of the defence, Gareth McAuley and Damien Delaney will carry on at the centre with Liam Rosenior on the right. Arran Lee-Barrett will continue in goal with Brian Murphy getting closer to a return to the bench, although tonight may be too soon for him. The former Bohemians keeper, who has an ankle injury, could be in action for the reserves in a behind closed doors friendly later in the week. Up front, Jon Stead is likely to return, probably alongside Stern John, although Pablo Couñago could also be in the running for a place in the XI after two goals in two games. That’s all assuming Roy Keane fields Town’s usual 4-4-2, however he may choose to match up with West Brom’s 4-5-1, in which case Leadbitter, Norris and Garvan are likely to be in a central midfield three with Stern John probably used as the lone striker. Keane says skipper Walters will be missed: “Jon’s an important player for us, he’s a leader. It was disappointing to lose him on Saturday but we’ll have to get on with it. Players get injured. “Steady’s available but whether we start him or not remains to be seen. We can’t feel sorry for ourselves about losing Jon Walters, we’ve got a big game and Steady’s available, which is a plus for us because the boy was unlucky to be sent off, never mind get a four-game ban.” The Blues boss says it’s no shock that the Baggies are having such a good season: “You look at them on the back of relegation, they’re very, very strong with some very good players. They can deal with the ball and they’ve got the experience of getting promoted. It’s no surprise to see them near the top of the table and they had another good result at the weekend. “You’re going to have to do well to finish above them or Newcastle. Forest are having a very good run at the moment and those three teams are very, very strong. All three are very, very good in attacking positions. “We’ll certainly have to be at our best and we’ll certainly have to be better than we were on Saturday.” Keane says the FA Cup defeat to Southampton was a wake-up call with complacency perhaps threatening to set in after the recent good run of form: “I think Saturday showed me exactly where we are and that’s a hell of a long way from being a decent team yet. “Maybe everyone got on a bit of a high last week after the win against Coventry, got a bit carried away and thought we were a decent team. We’ve got a long way to go yet to catch up with teams like West Brom and Newcastle and I’m well aware of that.” The Blues boss was quick to take some of the blame for the cup exit: “As much as I can look at the players and our preparation, I also have to look at myself. Maybe I should have done a better job on Saturday. “We always speak about the players, but I always look at myself and on Saturday I didn’t do a good enough job, I think I should have done better. “I won’t go into it, but I’m not happy with my own performance for a number of reasons. “I think if you want to be successful you got to analyse things and be critical, most top managers do that. “I’ve always been like that, whether it’s been as a player or as a manager. I’ve always been criticised for being hard on other people but trust me, I’m very quick to hammer myself.” The Town manager is determined to prevent the season petering out months ahead of time: “We don’t want the season just to fade away. Obviously we need to get away from the bottom, we’re still too close for comfort. “We want the players to perform every game, the players did quite do that on Saturday but we get another opportunity against a very good team in West Brom. In terms of the Championship they are very strong. “Our home form hasn’t been too bad of late, so I think it will be a good game. You’d expect plenty of goals. We were poor when we played them earlier in the season and this is a test to see how far we’ve come because I think there has been an improvement over the last month or two, as you’d expect.” West Brom currently sit in third in the Championship 18 points ahead of the Blues in 19th. Their away record stands at won six, drawn five, lost one. Midfielder James Morrison is still out having undergone heel surgery earlier in the season, while defender Jonas Olsson (head), midfielder Youssouf Mulumbu (ankle) and striker Ishmael Miller (face) are all expected to be fit after picking up knocks in the 4-2 FA Cup victory over Newcastle United at the weekend. Centre-half Abdoulaye Meite is set to return from international duty with the Ivory Coast, but will not be back in time to face the Blues. Manager Roberto Di Matteo will take each game as it comes during a very busy period of fixtures in late January and February: "I will review it after every game and see how the players are - who is OK and who isn't, who is a bit drained, and who isn't as sharp as they should be. We'll take it from there. "In my experience I've looked ahead to games in the past and said we'll rest one or two and in the next game play a certain team. "What happens is you don't do well in the first game and then those players you rested don't do well in the second game so you lose out twice. "I prefer focusing on the next game and trying to get the best out of the team, then I'll worry about the next game." The former MK Dons boss says Roy Keane’s Blues probably should be higher in the table: "I think he's managed to turn them around now. They're a much better team now and at home they're probably stronger than they are away. "They've drawn a lot of games, which doesn't reflect their position in the table. They could easily have won a few of those games." Town have had much the better of the Baggies over the years, winning 32 games between the sides (30 in the league), drawing 15 (13) and losing 21 (20). Earlier in the season, the Blues were very much second best as the Baggies won 2-0 at the Hawthorns, Youssouf Mulumbu and Robert Koren netting the goals. The teams last met at Portman Road on New Year's Day 2008 when goals from David Wright and Jason De Vos gave the Blues a 2-0 victory. No member of the current West Brom squad has played a first team game for the Blues, although keeper Dean Kiely spent time on loan at Portman Road in 1989 without making an appearance. None of the Town squad have played for the Baggies. At half-time, fan Marcus Brien will parade round the ground in either a Town or a Norwich shirt depending on the choice of his sponsors to raise funds for Haiti. Tuesday’s referee is Stuart Attwell from Warwickshire, the youngest Premier League official and famous for awarding the goal that never was in last season’s game between Watford and Reading. Attwell, who has shown 48 yellow and three red cards in 16 games so far this season, last took control of Town last February when the Blues won 3-1 at QPR when Ben Thatcher picked up the game’s only yellow card. Squad from: Lee-Barrett, McLoughlin, Murphy, Rosenior, Peters, D Wright, Delaney, McAuley, Balkestein, Bruce, Leadbitter, Norris, Colback, Garvan, Edwards, Martin, Quinn, Stead, John, Couñago, Priskin, Wickham.
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