Town manager Roy Keane looks set to switch Jack Colback to central midfield when the Blues face Cardiff at Portman Road this evening. The loanee from Sunderland is the man most likely to replace Grant Leadbitter, who is suspended for two games having amassed 10 bookings.
Keane says he is annoyed at the number of needless bookings Leadbitter has picked up: "I’m very disappointed, his 10th on Saturday was for a tackle, which I can get my head around, but three or four of them have been for dissent.
"Grant’s an important player for us, so we’re not happy about it. I’ve no problem with players getting booked for tackling people, particularly in the middle of the park, but three or four for dissent is a lot of bookings.
"We give players the benefit of the doubt once or twice, but three or four means we’ll be missing an important player for a massive part of the season. Grant’s got no one to blame but himself and he’s getting very little sympathy from me.”
Leadbitter, who faces an automatic club fine as well as the two-match ban, is likely to be replaced by Jack Colback, who has done well at left-back but Keane accepts is missed when not in the midfield: "When we play Jack at left-back we miss him in the middle of the park, his energy, his goal threat, his tenacity and his tackling.”
Colback is likely to join David Norris in the centre with Carlos Edwards on the right. Owen Garvan, Alan Quinn, Lee Martin and Shane O’Connor are all contenders for the left midfield role with the Irish U21 skipper probably the favourite to come back into the side.
Jaime Peters looks likely to take one of the full-back roles, either replacing Liam Rosenior on the right as he did at QPR or alternatively taking over from Colback on the left. Shane O’Connor and David Wright also amongst Keane’s options, while Damien Delaney and Gareth McAuley will continue in the centre.
Brian Murphy will keep his place in goal with Arran Lee-Barrett likely to be on the bench, although Richard Wright is now fit enough to be considered for selection.
Skipper Jon Walters could replace Daryl Murphy up front, the on-loan Sunderland man having looked jaded in recent games having played little football this season prior to his move from the Stadium of Light.
David Healy was rested at Blackpool and is likely to start with Pablo Couñago and Connor Wickham set to play some role in the second half, Keane having been impressed with the duo at Bloomfield Road and in training of late.
Despite most of the focus having been on the Blues’ failure to take their chances, the Town boss was particularly disappointed with Jason Euell’s winner at Blackpool: "It was a shocking goal. If teams open us up and score good goals, I’ve no problem with that.
"But if you look at the goal we gave away on Saturday from maybe two minutes beforehand in the build-up, there were so many mistakes involved. Then, ultimately when the ball came into our box, we didn’t defend it well enough.
"I’ll defend the players all day and I have done, however, on Saturday we put ourselves under pressure by missing chances — we’ll let the strikers deal with that — but the defenders still have to do their job, which is to try and keep clean sheets.
"If teams open us up and score good goals then we’ll hold our hands up. Teams have done that against us, but when we give them a helping hand, whether it’s that goal or at Preston, Peterborough or the goal against Middlesbrough at home. We’re not making it hard for teams to score against us.
"Whatever’s happening with the strikers - and we’re trying to deal with that by bringing in new players and by trying different combinations — the defenders have to take responsibility.”
The Blues boss feels he is restricted by his lack of options in some areas: "You keep persevering, keep working on the training field. We’re limited in some positions at the club and certain players will continue to play, but they need to learn and it doesn’t look like they’re doing that at the moment.”
In terms of his misfiring frontmen, Keane says that at this stage of the season it’s no use blaming bad luck or superb performances from opposition keepers: "We can’t keep talking about good goalkeeping. I’m fed up of saying it. Against Bristol City last week their keeper was brilliant, then they concede five at home the following week.
"Is it good goalkeeping or bad finishing? I think a bit of both. At Blackpool, I think the keeper made a really good save from David Healy but other than that I don’t think we really hit the target.
"We can criticise the defenders for not defending properly, but when our strikers and our midfielders get into shooting positions, they should at least hit the target. To say it’s frustrating is an understatement.”
The Blues find themselves once again only a point away from the relegation zone and Keane says it’s largely a result of failing to turn draws into victories: "We had such a poor start to the season, but the amount of draws we have had and the amount of chances we’ve missed is frightening if you really analyse it.
"If you look at the tapes, at the chances, it’s crazy that we’re in this position, but we are. It’s a reality check and we’ve got a massive battle over the next two months.
"It’ll come down to very little in terms of talent, it’s about characters over the next month or two. We need a bit of bravery, for certain players in certain positions to stand up and be counted.”
Keane is well aware that his position will increasingly come into the spotlight the longer relegation remains a serious threat: "If you’re a manager and you’re not getting results you put yourself under pressure, of course. I keep saying that, I do live in the real world, I don’t stick my head in the sand.
"No matter what pressure comes from within the football club or from the supporters, trust me, it nowhere near matches my own.”
Keane admits that Town’s position is well below what is acceptable: "Looking at the group of players we have and the talent we have in the dressing room and the preparation and the staff, of course we should be doing better.
"I think even if we were mid-table at this stage of the season, I would think that we should be doing better.
"But you look at our games and with the amount of points we’ve gifted away, we deserve to be where we are.
"However, we still have enough games left to get up that table and make sure we learn from it. But at the moment we’re not learning from it, some players certainly aren’t learning from it because we keep making the same mistakes. But we’ll keep going.”
The former Ireland skipper is doing the traditional thing of taking each game as it comes: "I’m not looking beyond Tuesday night. People keep saying that with 11 or 12 games to go we just need to win four or five of them, but we’ve not managed to that for most of the season.
"We’re putting pressure on ourselves and the players will have to deal with that, as will the staff and the supporters because we will be under the cosh in certain parts of the game, as we were on Saturday.
"We never felt in danger against Blackpool but we had a tricky five-minute spell which we had to get through and we didn’t get through it. That’s when you have to show mental toughness and we didn’t do that.”
Keane hopes fans will get behind the team as they go into a crucial stage of the season: "They’ve stuck with us so far this season. They’ve had massive disappointments, but if ever the players needed them it’s now because it’s crunch time, without a shadow of a doubt.”
The Town manager believes Cardiff will make the play-offs and says his side cannot afford to give away any more sloppy goals: "With the soft goals we’re conceding we’re giving sides a helping hand and we certainly can’t give the likes of Cardiff a helping hand because they will punish us.
"That’s what good teams do and that’s why we’re not good yet because we let teams off the hook week-in, week-out.”
Cardiff currently sit in sixth place, 14 points ahead of the Blues, with an away record of won seven, drawn three and lost six.
Manager Dave Jones says he expects Keane to ultimately be a success with the Blues despite this season’s tribulations: "Roy is a doing a good job and will turn Ipswich around just as he did at Sunderland.
"Ipswich are good enough to stay up. They are a fantastic football club with a good manager. They have some good players. Sometimes you go through a season where you think everything is in place and all of a sudden it doesn't work out as you'd like. That happens in every division.
"Ipswich aren't doing as well as they expected, but in their case they brought in a new manager, new players came in and had to bed in. There were high expectation levels, but things don't happen overnight. When Roy went in, everybody assumed that was it, crash, bang, wallop, here we go, we're going to be fantastic.
"You've still got to earn the right and get the right players and that takes time. He's basically on the first rung of that ladder.
"His playing career has nothing to do with his managerial career. His playing career stands him in good stead because of what he's done and the dressing rooms he's been involved with.
"But it doesn't mean that because you've been a fantastic player that it's all going to fall right. You've still got to earn it and Roy certainly did that at Sunderland. He earned the right as a manager.
"His team didn't do well at Sunderland because he was a good player, it was because he was a good manager. And that's what he will do at Ipswich - he will prove he's a good manager."
Jones hopes his side can build on Saturday’s 1-0 victory over Middlesbrough after a tricky spell: "We have been going through difficult times, but morale has been good. Losing a game dents it, but doesn't take it away. We have a good bunch of players and they are a good bunch of lads.
"There's a good camaraderie about the place and they knew they had to pull something out of the bag on Saturday.
"This month will be very challenging for the players here. We may get one or two back from injury, but that still won't be enough. It's going to be a tall order for everybody. But we're up for the fight and the players are giving everything they've got. If they continue to do that, there'll be no complaints from me.”
Jones is likely to name an unchanged side from the one which beat Boro with a number of senior players missing.
Top scorer Peter Whittingham (groin), left-back and rumoured recent Town target Mark Kennedy (calf), midfielder Stephen McPhail (ribs), striker Kelvin Etuhu, defender Mark Hudson (both ankle), midfielder Joe Ledley (hip), striker Josh Magennis (broken leg) and defender Miguel Comminges (knee) are all set to miss out.
Town have the upper hand historically, winning 16 (14 in the league), drawing 10 (10) and losing 10 (nine).
Earlier this season, a late deflected Jon Stead goal saw the Blues come from behind to a record a 2-1 victory in Wales. The home side went in front via Peter Whittingham’s stunning first-half volley, the last time Town were behind at half-time, 16 games ago, but the Blues hit back through Jon Walters and Stead.
Last season, the Bluebirds won 2-1 at Portman Road, Jay Bothroyd and Gabor Gyepes netting for the Welshmen and Jon Stead again scoring for Town, who had Ben Thatcher sent off for two bookable offences.
The Blues won the return fixture - the penultimate game of the season, the last at Ninian Park and Roy Keane’s first in charge of Town - 3-0 with Pablo Couñago, David Norris and Jon Stead on the scoresheet. Richard Wright saved a Ross McCormack penalty.
Tuesday’s referee will be Christopher Sarginson from Staffordshire, who has shown 73 yellow cards and six red in 26 games so far this season. Sarginson hasn’t previously refereed a Town match and this is only his fourth game at Championship level.
Squad from: B Murphy, Lee-Barrett, R Wright, Peters, O’Connor, D Wright, Rosenior, Delaney, McAuley, Balkestein, Norris, Colback, Edwards, Garvan, Quinn, Martin, Walters, Healy, D Murphy, Couñago, Wickham.
Photo: ITFC