Town boss Mick McCarthy is pleased that he’s able to call on Bartosz Bialkowski, a keeper he sees as the equal of injured Dean Gerken while the former Colchester and Bristol City man is out.

Gerken suffered a shoulder ligament problem during the 3-0 defeat at Birmingham and is facing at least a month on the sidelines.

“I’m delighted that we’ve got a keeper of such quality that people wanted Bart to get in having lost his place under really sad circumstances,” he said.

“And now he’s got his place back and the two of them are different class, they’re two really good goalkeepers.

“It’s a toss of a coin between them and it’s usually and injury or some ill-fated timing of something that’s decided whether either one is in goal. Neither of them have been anything other than terrific when they’ve played.”

With Michael Crowe on loan at Braintree and the Blues unable to recall him until February 7th McCarthy confirmed that former Reading youngster Jonathan Henly, 21, will be on the bench for the next couple of games having ruled out bringing in a more senior stopper as cover.

“Jonathan will be number two on Tuesday and on Saturday,” he added. “The chances of getting a really good goalkeeper to come in and sit on the bench behind Bart are below zero, and I’ve had that discussion.

“I’ve had a lot of people ring me up, ‘You’ve lost your keeper, perhaps you’d like this fella’. ‘Does he want to sit on the bench?’. ‘Well, he’s sat on the bench now’. So the answer to that is no. So we just hope he doesn’t have any problems.”

Aside from Gerken McCarthy says he has no other new injuries, while Teddy Bishop and David McGoldrick remain sidelined with their hamstring injuries.

Midfielder Jonathan Douglas will start his three-game ban after his red card at Birmingham with Luke Hyam expected to come into the side.

Defender Piotr Malarczyk will be back from his one-game suspension after his dismissal at Portsmouth.

Photo: Action Images

prebsa added 13:31 - Feb 1 Great to see Bart back, it was sad the way he was left out and I know lots of people agree he deserved his place back in the team! Gerks has picked up some decent form of late and I am of course devastated to see another one of our players on the injury list. But I am pleased that Bart is back in the sticks as I still feel that he is the better of the two.
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Count_Arthur added 13:44 - Feb 1 Glad to see Bart back* too Obviously we're not privy to stuff behind the scenes but I thought it a real shame that he appeared to have lost his place in the team on the back of a family bereavement. Which must have seemed very harsh and unjust when Gerkin's first few games in goal were so dire. Let's hope he plays well and maybe stays in goal if his performance warrants it, which I'm sure it will. (*To clarify, that's Bart back, not Burt Bach-arach)

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TR11BLU added 14:33 - Feb 1 We are lucky to have two keepers that are 'different class'...
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essextractorboy93 added 14:57 - Feb 1 Not much between Gerken and Bialkowski for me, both very similar. Will be interesting to see what happens in a month when Gerken recovers from his injury. Crowe sounds like he's doing a decent job at Braintree on loan, couple of clean sheets in their last 2 games.
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paulcooperisgod added 14:58 - Feb 1 Wayne Hennessey from Palace on loan? Ex Wolves and still an international player?
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rkl added 15:04 - Feb 1 Good, hope he keeps his place in the team for the remainder of the season.
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footyblue added 17:01 - Feb 1 He should be number one but how has his confidence been knocked by M M
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therein61 added 17:33 - Feb 1 Proves he is a good pro after the way he was treated re his fathers death.
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Steelmonkey added 00:03 - Feb 2 And what will you do if Bart gets injured against Reading MM?
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