Blues boss Roy Keane goes into Saturday’s game at Barnsley still looking for his bottom of the table side’s first league win of the season. The Town manager has no new injury worries with skipper Alex Bruce and long-term absentees David Norris and Luciano Civelli the only unavailable members of his squad.
Keane is under no doubt that it’s an important game, but says his players need to concentrate on the match itself rather than on their current lowly league standing: "It's an important fixture, I’m not trying to play it down, but we’ve just got to focus on playing the game and not get bogged down in terms of table position, if that's possible.
"I’m comfortable with the players, they’re certainly in it together, we saw that the other night and we just need to cut out these individual mistakes and we’ll be all right.”
Keane was pleased with the way his side played at Sheffield United in midweek and seems unlikely to make too many changes, although there may be the odd switch as the Blues go into their third game in eight days.
Despite his late error against the Blades, Richard Wright will keep his place in goal with Liam Rosenior and Jaime Peters probably continuing at full-back, although Keane says Damien Delaney will come back into his thoughts for the game.
At centre-half, Gareth McAuley impressed his manager at Bramall Lane and could well be partnered by Tommy Smith again with the youngster having appearing to have edged ahead of Pim Balkestein in the pecking order. Skipper Alex Bruce is out of action until after the international break due to his groin injury.
In midfield, Grant Leadbitter increasingly appears to have become an integral part of the team in the centre, while Liam Trotter seemed to grow in confidence playing the holding role at Sheffield United.
Alan Quinn did well at left midfield and will probably keep his place with Carlos Edwards on the right. Colin Healy again did well in the reserves this week and Keane says the former Barnsley player could travel with the squad.
Luciano Civelli and David Norris remain the only midfield players sidelined due to their knee ligament injuries. Civelli is due back towards the end of the year, while Keane has set Norris, who joined the squad for the trip to Sheffield United, a target of being back next month: "He travelled to be part of the squad and to be part of the banter, but for no other reason than that.
"He’s been told by the surgeons December, so I’ve said to him that means November, so we’re looking at November.”
Keane was pleased with the strike partnership forged by Jon Walters, clearly one of the members of the squad rated highest by his manager, and Tamás Priskin at Sheffield United and those two are likely to continue up front.
Reflecting on the week’s first trip to South Yorkshire, the Town manager says the performance at Bramall Lane should have yielded that elusive first victory: "There were good signs in the week. We played pretty decent and should have won, but one or two individual mistakes cost us. "We played with a good tempo and intensity and posed a threat going forward. There were definitely pluses but there were minuses too. "For me, a lot depends on our performance. I only look at the last game and our performance was OK. I always think that if the performances are good then the results will follow.
"It can change very quickly and that's why it's so important to get that first win.”
Barnsley boss and former Canary Mark Robins says the midweek victory over West Brom was a big lift for his side: "You have to take the positives when things do not go to plan and confidence when they do and beating West Brom did give everybody a boost. We now have to take that confidence into a game of the magnitude that we have coming up on Saturday.
"We performed reasonably well on Tuesday night and we now have to look for consistency. We need another three points to go into the international break with something to build from.
"Ipswich will be a tough game and we have shown that we are capable of putting on a performance. We now have to do that again and make sure that we are not complacent because of Tuesday night. We have to maintain that now on Saturday and if we can do that then I am sure we will be there or thereabouts.
"We need a consistent performance and the same energy that we showed against West Brom. If we do not do that then this division will punish you. We have set a standard and we now have to push on.
"I have enough problems here without worrying about what is going on at Ipswich. It is all about what we do.”
Robins has one or two injury problems: "Luke Steele has not trained for a month really, but we have lost Tom Rusling this week, although I am uncomfortable about putting him straight back into the squad. We will have to discuss that but I might have no alternative but to put Luke on the bench.
"Anderson [de Silva] has been for a scan on his hamstring and that has shown that there is no tear. We will have a look at him over the next 24 hours before making a decision.
"Ipswich will pose us different problems to West Brom, so we will have to see how things go in the next 24 hours.
"It is a big game and we want three points. We have picked up seven in the last week or so and we want to make that ten before the break. We have to set our stall out early and be up for a fight."
The Tykes currently sit fourth from bottom of the Championship on eight points, having won one, drawn one and lost three at home so far this season.
Historically, Town have done well against the Tykes, winning 18 games between the sides (17 in the league), drawing four (four) and losing 11 (nine).
Last season, two goals from Jon Stead gave the Blues a 2-1 victory at Oakwell, Daniel Bogdanovic pulling one back for the home side.
Earlier in the season at Portman Road, Stead was again on target, along with Owen Garvan and Ivan Campo, as the Tykes were defeated 3-0 on a nightmare evening for then-keeper Heinz Muller. Barnsley striker Reuben Noble-Lazarus became the youngest-ever Football League player during that game at the age of 15 years and 45 days.
The most famous meeting between the sides came in May 2000 at Wembley when the Blues won the play-off final 4-2 to reach the Premier League. Richard Wright is the only player in either squad to have played that day.
Barnsley signed former Town loanee Bartosz Bialkowski on similar terms from Southampton earlier in the week and the Pole looks set to face his old team-mates on Saturday. Bialkowski failed to make a first team appearance while at Portman Road as cover for the on-loan Shane Supple last season.
Another ex-Town loan player, Jon Macken, is also a Barnsley player at present, while Anderson De Silva played alongside Pablo Couñago at Malaga.
Blues midfielder Colin Healy spent 2006/07 at Oakwell but made only two starts and eight sub appearances during an injury-hit spell. Jon Walters spent three months on loan there in 2003/04 when a Bolton player, making 10 starts and two sub appearances but failing to score.
Saturday’s referee is Phil Gibbs from Birmingham, how has shown 24 yellow cards and one red in nine matches so far this season. Gibbs has never previously taken control of a game involving the Blues.
Squad from: R Wright, Lee-Barrett, Rosenior, Peters, D Wright, Delaney, McAuley, Smith, Balkestein, Leadbitter, Trotter, Quinn, Edwards, Martin, Healy, Colback, Priskin, Walters, Couñago, Stead, Wickham.