McAuley Withdrawn From Northern Ireland Squad - Ipswich Town News
Gareth McAuley's withdrawal from the Northern Ireland squad facing Serbia in a friendly in Belfast on Saturday has been confirmed. The defender is not yet over the thigh injury he sustained at Plymouth.
On Friday, manager Roy Keane said that McAuley would not be joining up with the Northern Irish squad if he was unable to play for the Blues at Reading.
Town have a number of other players away on international duty before the live home Sky game with Sheffield Wednesday on November 21st (KO 5.20pm).
Loan keeper Asmir Begovic is with Bosnia as they take on Portugal in their World Cup play-off, Jaime Peters is with Canada for a friendly, Tamas Priskin is with Hungary, also for a friendly, while Owen Garvan is with the Irish U21s and Ronan Murray is with the Irish U19s for European qualifiers.
Keeper Brian Murphy, who formally joins the Blues from Bohemians on a Bosman in January, is with the Republic of Ireland squad for their World Cup play-off with France.
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EFL Statement on AbandonmentThe EFL has issued a statement relating to yesterday’s abandoned Championship game between the Blackburn Rovers and the Blues at Ewood Park.
McKenna: An Inevitable DecisionTown boss Kieran McKenna says it was an ‘inevitable decision’ for referee Stephen Martin to abandon the Blues’ match at Blackburn Rovers and expects to return to Ewood Park to restage the contest.
Blackburn Rovers 1-0 Ipswich Town - Match AbandonedTown look set to face a return trip to Blackburn Rovers later in the season after this afternoon’s game was abandoned after 80 minutes due to a waterlogged pitch with the home side 1-0 up and with the Blues down to 10 men. Jacob Greaves was shown a straight red card four minutes after the break for hauling down Yuki Ohashi, then Rovers skipper Todd Cantwell netted a penalty on 59, but the heavy rain had made the game increasingly farcical the longer it progressed and in the 80th minute referee Stephen Martin took the players off and then 25 minutes later abandoned it entirely.