Boss Roy Keane says keeper Brian Murphy has probably been the club’s unluckiest player during his time at Portman Road. Murphy is set to make his third league appearance of the season today when the Blues take on his former club Swansea at Portman Road (KO 12.45pm, Sky Sports Two).
Keane said: "He’s been very unlucky, probably the unluckiest player at the club in my time here. When I speak to players when I leave them out or give them disappointments you find out about them.
"It’s how they respond to it and I’ve a lot of time for Murph. He’s a really good goalkeeper with a really good attitude and I don’t remember him ever letting us down when he’s played for us.
"He kept a clean sheet the other night and I thought his distribution of the ball was very good. He’s good with his feet and we’re lucky to have him at the club.”
The Blues boss says summer signing Márton Fülöp’s ankle injury gives the 27-year-old, who joined Town on a free transfer from Bohemians in January, a chance to cement his place in his starting line-up.
Keane feels that not all of his fringe players have made the most of their chances in recent weeks: "Over the last month or two I’ve put one or two players on [as subs] and said to them afterwards that they gave us nothing. The whole idea of being on the bench is that they make some impact for us.
"However, I thought Shane and Carlos did make an impact the other night. If some of them have to play on Tuesday in the reserves [at Playford Road against Luton], then they should go into the game with a positive attitude. If they don’t then they rule themselves out for Preston."
Despite the midweek Carling Cup victory over West Brom, Keane appreciates that he is still under pressure with the Blues having lost their last four league games and says it comes with the territory: "It’s part of the game. If there’s no pressure to perform, you just go through the motions, that’s when I’d be really concerned and that’s the time to get out of the game.”
The Town manager says you need that intensity to succeed in any field: "If you haven’t got passion, you’ve got nothing. And that goes for anything in life. If you haven’t got that you’ve got nothing, you’re a nobody, you don’t exist in my eyes.
"We’ve shown before that when our backs are against the wall we can respond. What we have to do now is do that when we’re not on the back of losing three or four games.
"The top teams perform when they’re winning or drawing or picking up the odd defeat here and there. We seem to go to extremes."
Keane says everybody is becoming fed up with Town's up and down form: "A couple of weeks ago we won two or three, then before that we lost two or three, now we’ve lost four, then we had a good performance against West Brom.
"I think that’s why it’s so frustrating for everyone, supporters, media and myself. We’re all striving for that consistency which in recent years only a few teams have managed. And usually they’re the teams that get promoted.”
The Irishman says his side need to discover that consistency sooner rather than later: "We have to try and find our form or like last year we’re going to leave it far too late. Believe it or not from October on our form wasn’t bad. We still had that bad performance in us, such as at home to Plymouth when we shot ourselves in the foot.
"We have to win football matches and have to climb the table. The beauty for any team in our position where we’ve dropped into the bottom half is that if you go on any sort of half-decent run you’re back in the top half and pushing for the top six.”
Meanwhile, striker Jason Scotland is determined to get back on the scoresheet against his former club Swansea after failing to net in the Blues’ last five Championship matches: "There’s more to come from me!
"I haven’t scored in five games, which in my eyes is a drought. Both Tamás and I need to chip in with some goals, because we’ve been playing up front a lot.
"But I’m happy with my form, and it’s not preying on my mind. I just need to put away a couple of chances.”
Scotland thoroughly enjoyed his two years at the Liberty Stadium, netting 53 goals in 91 starts and 14 sub appearances: "It was the best time of my career. I enjoyed playing there and under manager Roberto Martinez. I fitted into his formula, with one striker and two pacy wingers.
"I don’t know whether I’ll celebrate if I score, simply because I haven’t scored for a few games.”