Town still have around 2,000 tickets available for tonight's Worthington Cup semi-final with Birmingham City. Either it seems fans are not interested in watching Birmingham or some have felt that they had no chance of getting a ticket to the game.

On the pitch John McGreal will be missing while Mark Venus is pencilled in for a return. Up front David Johnson has been named in the squad and seems to be over the groin injury that prevented him taking a place on the bench on Saturday at Morecambe.

Goerge Burley sees the tie as a major opportunity for Town to make Europe: "Only two teams are now keeping us away from Europe. That's really close as far as we're concerned. The Worthington Cup is our best chance of qualifying for Europe Although we have not given up on either the League or the FA Cup."

Meanwhile ex-Town man Danny Sonner is looking forward to the tie. Sonner, who celebrates his 29th birthday today is keen to put one over on George Burley the manager who let him leave Portman Road after a number of off-field transgressions. Sonner, who has clearly not lost his genius with the English language since he left Town, said: "I enjoyed my time at Ipswich but there was a little indiscretion involving the manager. I don't want to go into that now because I think things have gone OK for me since. But it was a definite difference of opinion and led to me leaving Ipswich and going to Sheffield Wednesday."

The Lancastrian continued: "I'm hoping it's an omen that we are facing another of my old clubs. We beat Sheffield Wednesday in the quarter-finals so it would be great to follow that up by beating Ipswich as well."

Town squad: R Wright, Branagan, Salmon, Wilnis, Clapham, Croft, Karic, Venus, Hreidarsson, Bramble, Holland, Magilton, J Wright, Reuser, Scowcroft, Stewart, Johnson, Brown and Logan.

Guillermo Graaven, Town's summer Dutch signing, is well on the road to recovery after having an ankle operation in the summer. Graaven joined the Blues along with Nabil Abidallah but suffered a nasty injury in the reserve match with Leicester. He will be back in full training in February.

Keith Branagan was replaced on the bench at Morecambe by Mike Salmon. Branagan was suffering from a swollen knee, but this isn't thought to be serious and he is included in the squad for the Birmingham game.

James Pullen, Town's young keeping prospect, is also on the way back after long-term injury as is Wayne Brown. The centre-half was included in the squad at Morecambe after a long lay-off with a groin problem and is likely to play in the reserves tomorrow at Watford.

Town's other injury victims, Richard Naylor and John Scales are both back in light training. Naylor is running after suffering a minor broken leg, while Scales has recovered from his back and hamstring problems.

Town are lending Norwich City goalkeeping coach Malcolm Webster. In a move that many fans will not be pleased with, Norwich keepers Andy Marshall and Robert Green will train with Richard Wright, Keith Branagan, Mike Salmon et al.

Webster coached part-time at Carrow Road until the beginning of this season when Town took him on full-time. Let's hope that nothing from Marshall or Green rubs off on our players.

Released Town centre-half Manu Thetis is back in France and is having trials at a number of clubs. The Frenchman's career at Portman Road gradually faded out after a good start and it had become very clear that he was surplus to requirements at Portman Road.

This weekend sees our Academy sides in action. The U17s play Millwall at home, while the U19s meet Charlton away.

Photo: Action Images

Ipswich Town Polls