Town will be without skipper Jon Walters, midfielder Grant Leadbitter and striker Stern John when they travel to Crystal Palace on Boxing Day (KO 1pm). Walters and Leadbitter serve one-match bans after reaching five yellow cards, while John is ineligible to play against his parent club.
The Blues will be in action for the first time in a fortnight but manager Roy Keane says the decision to postpone last week’s game at Scunthorpe was correct: "It was disappointing that the game was called off last weekend, but it was definitely the right decision and we want to have some good results for ourselves and our supporters.
"The disappointment for us is that Stern can’t play and that Jon Walters and Grant Leadbitter are suspended, so we’re going to use the squad. Two games in three days is a test but I’m OK with numbers, we’ve got decent numbers.
"We’ve not got back-to-back victories so far this season. Let’s focus just on the Palace game and the QPR game will take care of itself.
"We have a tough game against Palace. They turned us over quite comfortably down here when we were quite poor. We know we have to do a lot better than that and we’ll get to the QPR game when we come to it.”
With two games so close together over the holiday period Keane will make changes to his side. Stern John is likely to start the QPR game, the final match of his loan spell, as he is unavailable against Palace.
Jon Walters also being absent means that either Tamás Priskin or Pablo Couñago is likely to come into the attack at Selhurst Park alongside Jon Stead. Neither has particularly impressed this season, but the Spaniard may get the nod given his greater experience. Connor Wickham is likely to be on the bench.
In midfield, David Norris is set to return to the squad but is unlikely to start having been out of action due to a knee ligament injury since August. The former Plymouth man should see some action from the bench at some stage over the Christmas period.
Alan Quinn could come into the centre of midfield for Grant Leadbitter alongside Jack Colback, with Owen Garvan on the left and Jaime Peters on the right. Carlos Edwards is likely to come into the reckoning for the QPR game. Lee Martin is fit again after his heel problem.
At the back, Keane is almost certain to stick with the back four which has done so well in recent weeks — David Wright, Damien Delaney, Gareth McAuley and Liam Rosenior — with Arran Lee-Barrett in goal. Alex Bruce is fit again after his groin injury and is likely to be on the bench.
In addition to looking for their first back-to-back wins of the season, the Blues will be seeking to extend their unbeaten run to 11 matches.
Town’s training schedule hasn’t been hit badly by the weather with groundsman Alan Ferguson making sure the Playford Road pitches are in playable condition. The Portman Road surface is also likely to be fine in time for Monday’s game against QPR.
The squad will train today and again in the afternoon on Christmas Day before travelling to London in the evening.
Palace will be without full-back Danny Butterfield, who has a hamstring injury but manager Neil Warnock says it isn’t a major blow: "We're looking at the FA Cup game at the start of January to get Danny back in the squad.
"I'm not too worried as I think Nathaniel Clyne has done very well and I'm sure he will make it very hard for Danny to get his place back in the team when he does return."
Central defender Paddy McCarthy is also out with a shoulder injury. Palace currently sit 12th in the Championship with 30 points, nine more than the Blues, with a home record of won four, drawn four and lost three.
Town have the edge over the years, winning 29 games between the sides (27 in the league), drawing 23 (23) and losing 23 (23).
Last season, the Blues won 4-1 at Selhurst Park with the goals coming from Owen Garvan, David Norris, Kevin Lisbie and Clint Hill (OG). Ex-Blue Alan Lee netted for the home side.
Earlier this season, the Eagles won 3-1 at Portman Road, former Town man Darren Ambrose scoring twice along with Neil Danns. Alex Bruce netted for the Blues.
Ambrose and Lee remain members of Neil Warnock’s squad and are the only Eagles to have previously played for the Blues. Stern John is on loan at Town from Palace, while Jon Stead and Alan Quinn both played for Palace boss Neil Warnock at Sheffield United.
As it's Boxing Day train services are limited, although Southern Railways are operating in south London. Details can be found here
Saturday’s referee is Paul Taylor from Hertfordshire, who has shown 63 yellow and seven red cards in 16 games so far this season. Taylor’s most recent Town game was the 1-1 home draw with Preston earlier in the season in which he booked Tommy Smith and Jon Walters and Lilywhites midfielder Ross Wallace, in addition to showing a straight red card to Preston defender Callum Davidson for denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity when he handled a goalbound shot.
Squad from: Lee-Barrett, McLoughlin, Rosenior, D Wright, Delaney, McAuley, Bruce, Smith, Colback, Quinn, Garvan, Norris, Trotter, Healy, Peters, Edwards, Martin, Stead, Couñago, Priskin, Wickham.