Town may not know whether Kelvin Davis will be fit to face West Ham United until as late as Saturday morning. The keeper's broken finger has improved but manager Joe Royle says he will wait to make a decision on his keeper. If Davis doesn't make it youngster Lewis Price will be handed a debut.

Royle says of Davis: “He's better. There'll be a decision tomorrow, perhaps even on Saturday. He's 50/50 at the moment but improving.”

Martijn Reuser will again miss out with a groin problem, but better news is that John McGreal's hamstring injury isn't as bad as was originally thought. But he'll still see a specialist to discover the true extent of the injury picked up in the reserves on Tuesday.

Royle is keeping his cards close to his chest regarding any changes from Tuesday's side which lost at Wigan and won't announce his squad until tomorrow. He says he has one or two things to look at: “I've got an idea what our side is going to be. But I'm just going to take another look at us in training on Friday.”

The Town boss says that the visit of West Ham comes at an ideal time: “It's just the game for us, just the game we need after a poor performance the other night.

“We want to redress the balance a little bit. There is a little bit of scaremongering going on at the moment. We've lost two games, both of them 1-0, and of the four games we've played we could certainly have won three of them. Even the other night in a poor performance we had the best chances of the game.

“We're not that far away, we haven't come from seventh from top in this division to the worst side all of a sudden. We've got to be a little bit careful we don't get carried away with things.

“I read we don't pass the ball anymore. All we ever train to do is pass the ball and that's what we'll continue to try to do. When you have off performances, sometimes accuracy goes, and that's what happened the other night.

“But they're still good players, top players in this division. Even as we stand now, where there's room for a lot of improvement, we're not the world's worst all of a sudden.”

Royle says he doesn't think that West Ham's sacking of Glenn Roeder is something which will affect Town: “They are the pre-season favourites for this division. They've had a reaction to one defeat and the manager's gone.

“The players know Trevor Brooking, he's been part of the furniture for a long time. They'll try to play the West Ham way and we'll try to play the Ipswich way.

“If you believe some people passing football is no longer an issue at Ipswich but believe me it is, and will continue to be so. And I do take offence to the accusation.”

Royle says his plans to bring in a loan player are being hampered by the club's finances: “We still have to clear the wage bill before we can get anyone in. There's also the issue of a fortnight break before the next game. I'm not saying for certain that we wouldn't take somebody, something could happen quickly today.

“I know who I would like to take, but we'll see what happens. We still have to clear some money first.”

Royle is keeping the identity of the player he is interested in under wraps and also is refusing to reveal the player's position.

West Ham saw Robert Lee come off on Tuesday against Bradford with knee ligament damage and he will definitely miss Saturday's game. They are also without Steve Lomas and Rufus Brevett who have long-term knocks.

Town will have a close to capacity crowd at Portman Road on Saturday for the visit of the Hammers, probably around the 29,000 mark.

Town squad: Armstrong, D Bent, M Bent, Bowditch, Couñago, Davis, Diallo, Magilton, Makin, Miller, Naylor, Price, Richards, Santos, Westlake, Wilnis and Wright.

Photo: Action Images

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