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Venus Stewart Return - Ipswich Town News

Both Mark Venus and Marcus Stewart return to the Town squad for Saturday's game at West Ham. Stewart returns from his three game suspension while Venus has recovered from his groin problem.

John Scales is back in full training after his hamstring injury, but is lacking match practice and wasn't helped by the postponement of last Monday's reserve game with Arsenal.

Still out are Titus Bramble (last match of two game suspension), Richard Naylor (knees) and Gary Croft (medial ligament).

The main speculation ahead of the game will over which strikers start, but there are selection debates all over the pitch.

In attack Marcus Stewart is back, but hasn't played since February 10th so might not be up to a whole game. James Scowcroft has recently been starting up front, but has spent as much time playing in midfield and may start ahead of Jim Magilton there. Alun Armstrong started at Aston Villa and scored while Mark Burchill impressed in his two starts at Portman Road. A Stewart-Armstrong partnership looks most likely, but Burchill will probably get a run-out at some point.

The defence might see changes from last week with Mark Venus probably returning to the left of centre. It seems likely Hermann Hreidarsson will return to left-back while Chris Makin and Fabian Wilnis will fight it out for the right-back spot. John McGreal will probably continue on the right of the centre.

In midfield Martijn Reuser may well keep his place along with Jermaine Wright, Matt Holland and probably James Scowcroft. However, Jamie Clapham is also a likely starter despite being withdrawn shortly before half-time against Villa and being dropped for the home game with Bradford. He may well begin ahead of the Dutchman.

For once George Burley has the right sort of selection problems with almost a full squad available and it will be interesting who he sees as his current strongest line-up.

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