New signings Mark Kennedy and Conor Hourihane are expected to make their Portman Road bows on Saturday afternoon when the Blues take on Premier League West Ham (KO 3pm).

Ex-Cardiff man Kennedy looks likely to start having been a sub at Bury Town on Wednesday, but Hourihane, who signed from Sunderland earlier in the month, will probably be on the bench having started both midweek matches.

Manager Roy Keane says he is conscious of not overplaying the 19-year-old: “We want to be careful with Conor. His transfer dragged on a little bit but these things happen sometimes.

“He’s done well, he had an hour at Leiston but we had to play him at Bury because Garvs went for talks [at Crystal Palace].

“It was unfair on the boy really to play two games in two nights, but I remember when I was his age, you want to play every night, but we took him off because we didn’t want to push him too much. Conor’s got a good chance of being a player, he’s got a good attitude.”

Keane is looking for his team to up their game a level against the Hammers: “We’ll hope to move on another step against West Ham, that’s the plan. We’ve picked up some injuries in the last few days when a week ago we were really pleased with the squad we had.

“But we’ve picked up the injuries and we’re down to the bare bones considering there’s only a week to go to the start of the season.”

David Norris will probably return after his back problem, but the Blues will be without Damien Delaney (thigh), Connor Wickham (ankle), Luciano Civelli (knee) and Alan Quinn (groin), while Colin Healy has recently been sidelined with a hamstring problem.

Jon Stead could be in the squad after his move to Blackpool apparently broke down, while Alex Bruce has completed his switch to Leeds and Owen Garvan is continuing talks with Crystal Palace.

The absence of several senior players will see youngsters such as Luke Hyam, Jack Ainsley and Troy Brown playing significant roles.

New Town coach Gary Ablett is expected to be back on the Blues bench having missed the visit to Bury with a virus.

West Ham, who have sold more than 2,000 tickets for the game, will give a start to ex-Blue Kieron Dyer, who is expected to play for 70 minutes as he looks to be fit for the start of the new season, and Suffolk-born England World Cup defender Matthew Upson in their squad.

Upson, born near Eye, says he expects plenty of requests for seats at Portman Road: "I'll have a couple of people texting me for tickets. It's a good fixture for us. They're a good team with a good manager and I think they'll be up for it.”

The Hammers skipper was a schoolboy with the Blues’ centre of excellence before moving to Luton’s youth set-up.

West Ham, now managed by Avram Grant, are expected to include new signings Thomas Hitzlsperger, Pablo Barrera and Frederic Piquionne in their squad, along with the likes of Robert Green, Carlton Cole and Scott Parker.

The sides last met in a pre-season friendly at Portman Road ahead of the start of the 2008/09 season when the Hammers won 5-3 with Dean Ashton netting a hat-trick and Craig Bellamy and former Town loanee Mark Noble, who is also likely to be involved this time around, adding the other two. Veliche Shumulikoski, Owen Garvan and Alan Lee scored Town’s goals.

Photo: ITFC

Photo: Action Images

Youth added 16:03 - Jul 30 will be good to see how these fit in with the lads, lets hope they gel straight away
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ozzy_itfc added 16:08 - Jul 30 They've sold 4000 tickets actually if you look on their website
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PhilTWTD added 16:09 - Jul 30 Town say 2,000.
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ozzy_itfc added 16:16 - Jul 30 My bad we've sold 2300 but with another 1000 or so avsiable on turnstiles
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Tractorog added 16:22 - Jul 30 Will Yao be playing for them? Will Avram Grant have a ruby set in the middle of his forehead?
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itfc1981 added 16:26 - Jul 30 I was really looking forward to seing wickham again, now its not half as fun.
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bontcho added 16:34 - Jul 30 Are we sure we can raise a side?!?
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Mark added 16:56 - Jul 30 It's deeply worrying that we are down to the "bare bones" one week before the season starts! When are we going to make some signings?! I make it 9 players out, 3 on the way out, and only 2 in.
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SiBo added 17:47 - Jul 30 Where's young Billy Clark got to then? he had a couple of decent sub appearances at the end of last year and yet hardly seen him this year... Does anyone know if he's injured?
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RetroBlue added 17:48 - Jul 30 painful though it is , this cull of the dead wood at ITFC has been long overdue. Hopefully when we do get players in noiw, they will have real quality and not just go to make up a very expensive (largely unused) squad of average players .
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Mark added 18:35 - Jul 30 The problem is that Keane's replacements for the deadwood have often been worse than the actual deadwood e.g. Priskin for Rhodes, Healy for Miller, Martin for Haynes, Edwards for D.Wright...
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Back_The_Boss added 20:18 - Jul 30 We have barely any players! Any injuries in the first few games and we have had it.
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blutris89 added 21:17 - Jul 30 2-1 COYB
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mickeyjb added 22:44 - Jul 30 New boys Kennedy and horwhathisname, after the speal from keane at the end of the season I thought the new boys might be a bit more significant and plentiful
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robdaful added 00:37 - Jul 31 new boys set to play? With the irish conor h on the bench? Like mickeyjb says I would have thought we would have some more significant players come in by now. And is it too late for fulop to play if he comes in by tomorrow morning? Or have we missed the cut off line that makes him elligibale to play?
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16_Jack_ken_16 added 08:40 - Jul 31 hello blue boys how about we get behind the players today.......ipswich vs westham is never a friendly so I say we get loud
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Bergholtblue added 08:48 - Jul 31 RK - “But we've picked up the injuries and we're down to the bare bones considering there's only a week to go to the start of the season.” Exactly one week to go. Our first 11 (if anyone knows who they are) should be at their fitness peak and ready for the off. Any more injuries against the WHU and Spurs and we will be putting out a scratch side against Boro'. Unless we get reinforcements in soon, we could still be without a league point going into the Scunthorpe match.

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bluepeter added 09:37 - Jul 31 ladbrokes are offering odds of 3/1 on Steady for tonights game. That's not to score, it is to get injured!
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willmister added 09:37 - Jul 31 Im not to optimistic about this game, we are missing a lot of players like wickham and apart from jonny walters i am stuggling to see where the goals are going to come from
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Daleyitfc added 11:31 - Jul 31 So Upson is a rubbish judge of football as well as a rubbish exponent!
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SiBo added 11:56 - Jul 31 I'll be there to support the blues... whoever plays!
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