Boss Roy Keane says the busy Christmas spell can shape a club’s season even if it won’t necessarily make or break a campaign. The 17th-placed Blues begin a run of four games in nine days when Watford visit Portman Road on Boxing Day (KO 3pm).
Keane said: "I think it’s an important period for any club. We just hope we can get through it with no injuries and with the same type of effort and performance from the players. We’ve just got to give honest and committed performances like we did last week.
"I wouldn’t say it’s a make or break time, but it’s an important period for any club. It can certainly shape your season.
"We’ve got some tough matches, particularly away from home. Looking at the conditions, hopefully all the games will be on. We need to keep focused and what we saw last week was a good honest performance with the players giving 100% and hopefully that might be enough to get one or two results.”
After Watford’s visit, Town face a trip to Doncaster on Tuesday, then are off to Coventry on New Year’s Day before Nottingham Forest are at Portman Road on January 3rd.
The Blues boss feels the Christmas fixtures put a lot of strain on players and will change his team with some of his squad unable to play two games in three days: "We can argue all day about having a winter break, and I think it would be great for everyone.
"The players in particular, physically and mentally need a rest. Over this period some of them will no doubt be carrying knocks. It can put a lot of demands on their bodies.
"But traditionally, fans like to come out and watch the games, even when there are sub-zero temperatures, as we saw in the snow last week. It’s all part of the game and it’s tradition in the Premier League and Championship.
"We have to be careful of some players, some of them won’t be capable of playing that amount of games, lads coming back from injury, one or two of our older players. We’ll certainly have to make changes over the next week or so.”
Keane says that training hasn’t been too disrupted by the recent inclement conditions: "It’s certainly not helped but I think we’ve got away with some of the better weather and we’ve been able to do a little bit of training.
"We’ve been fortunate, and credit to the groundstaff. We’ve put training back to 11am to get the freeze out of the pitch, so we’ve been OK.”
The Blues boss was delighted with last week’s victory over Leicester and feels his side probably ought to have ended their bad run prior to that match: "It was nice to win a game of football but for a couple of weeks beforehand I thought our form wasn’t too bad.
"At Preston I think we should have got something, Swansea at home, we should have won and against West Brom we should have scored more than one goal.
"I think we’d been threatening to win a game of football but you’ve got to go out and do the business. What you’ve got to do is keep winning football matches and we’ve not done that for the last year or two.
"We’ve got one or two players coming back from injury, Connor got on again the other night, Márton Fülöp was available, Mark Kennedy got another few minutes under his belt, Rory did well for us and we’ve now got to keep it going.”
Although the line-up with Shane O’Connor on one flank, skipper David Norris on the other and Grant Leadbitter and Jack Colback in the centre of midfield impressed against the Foxes, Keane says he won’t necessarily name the same side against the Hornets: "It worked for that game and the way we were set up, but Watford is a completely different challenge and a different game.
"The players did well the other night, but doing well in one game is all well and good, you’ve got to do well week-in, week-out and we need to be more consistent.”
Watford haven’t played since their 3-1 victory at QPR on December 10th, a display which greatly impressed the Blues boss: "They’ve had a while to enjoy that performance because it was outstanding.
"I think the way Watford are set up they’ll never be a team lacking in energy and effort. They probably enjoyed the break but if they’d played the night before they play us they’d still come out and have a right go, that’s the way they’re set up.
"They’ve not had too many injuries and they’ve got some young energy. I like the way they’re set up. Away from home they counter-attack teams very, very well. They’ve got two very important players in John Eustace and Martin Taylor. Two boys who know the league and the game.”
Keane sees Eustace as the Hornets’ key man: "If you saw Eustace in the QPR game, he knows how to play the game in all aspects. Remember his tackle on Jon Walters last season in the game down there?
"I think every team needs someone like that, a Eustace, a Derry, a Carsley. Someone who sits in the middle of the park and talks to the players around them. A player who knows the game, knows how to talk to the referee, knows how to foul, knows how to tackle.”
Márton Fülöp will continue in goal with Brian Murphy out for three months having broken his ankle in training on Thursday. Arran Lee-Barrett will be on the bench.
At Thursday’s pre-match press conference Keane said one or two of his squad were suffering from knocks, but refused to say who and his selection will depend on whether the unnamed players are over their injuries.
The Blues are already without Shane O'Connor, who picked up a shoulder injury in Christmas Eve training, which will prevent Keane from playing an unchanged side even if the mystery doubts are fit.
Mark Kennedy and Gianni Zuiverloon are likely to be the full-backs with Damien Delaney and Tommy Smith at the centre of the defence.
Gareth McAuley is making good progress after his achilles operation but won’t be back in action until early January, probably not in time for the Chelsea FA Cup tie and the first leg of the Carling Cup semi-final at home to Arsenal.
In midfield, the Leadbitter-Colback central pairing worked against Leicester and may be retained with skipper Norris able to get forward more from the right of midfield and scoring his sixth goal of the season against Leicester.
However, O’Connor's injury may mean that Colback is forced wide to the left with Jake Livermore perhaps joining Leadbitter in the centre. Alternatively, Norris could come back into the middle with Carlos Edwards returning on the right.
Luke Hyam is another possibility for a central role as he is closing in on full fitness after his hamstring tear and was down to play 45 minutes of a reserves friendly with Crystal Palace on Tuesday until the weather intervened.
Despite this, Keane says he will have no qualms about giving the 19-year-old game time over the next week or so. Colin Healy and now that O'Connor has dropped out Luciano Civelli could also come into Keane’s midfield thoughts over the holidays, particularly if the Blues pick up any more injuries.
Jason Scotland was subbed in the second half against the Foxes and could be one of those players struggling with injury. If he’s fit, the former Wigan and Swansea man is likely to continue in his role behind Rory Fallon, who may be rested at some point over Christmas having undergone a hernia operation earlier in the season.
If Scotland is missing, Connor Wickham could come in for a start with Tamás Priskin appearing to be out of favour after his less than dynamic performance from the bench at Preston. Ronan Murray will be hoping for some involvement at some point during the four games.
Watford boss and former Canary Malky Mackay says his options are limited over what he feels is too hectic a run of fixtures: "There is not much rotation in our squad because we have a very small squad and some of the kids have almost no experience at all.
"Two games in three days tests anyone and to have it twice in quick succession is frankly madness in terms of modern footballers and what they put into a game and what they have to go through.
"These are the spells which test your squad when you can’t freshen up or rotate the side, but we have got to get on with it and see how we go. Our medical department will certainly be working to their maximum over the next two weeks.”
Midfielders Michael Bryan (ankle) and Stephen McGinn (broken cheekbone) are the only two members of Mackay’s squad currently sidelined, while Josh Walker has been recalled from a loan spell at Stevenage as cover over Christmas.
Town haven’t beaten Watford, who are currently 10th in the Championship, three points and seven places above the Blues, in 12 games home and away since March 2004 when a Dean Bowditch hat-trick and a rarity from Jermaine Wright condemned the Hornets to a 4-1 defeat at Portman Road.
Despite this recent poor record, Town have still had the better of Watford historically, winning 24 times (21 in the league), losing 21 (20) and drawing 16 (16).
At Vicarage Road in October, David Norris’s second half goal wasn’t enough to prevent the Blues from falling to a 2-1 defeat. Town had been the better side up to a two-goal Hornets salvo just before the break from Stephen McGinn and Marvin Sordell.
The Blues got back on top in the closing stages after Norris’s goal, but were unable to grab the equaliser, Ronan Murray finding the net but with a linesman’s flag already raised.
At Portman Road last season, Watford sub Nathan Ellington netted a late equaliser to stretch the Blues’ winless run to 13 games. Town had gone ahead through Gareth McAuley early on and should have been well in front before again conceding a last-gasp goal.
Tamás Priskin joined the Blues from Watford for £1.7 million in the summer of 2009 and is the only ex-Watford player in Town’s ranks, while Hornets keeper Scott Loach was an academy schoolboy at Playford Road.
Watford goalkeeper-coach Alec Chamberlain was also a youth player with the Blues but never made a first team appearance, unlike Hornets first team coach David Kerslake, who made three starts and six sub appearances for George Burley’s side in the 1997/98 season.
Sunday’s referee is Grant Hegley from Hertfordshire, who has shown 20 yellow and two red cards in 16 games so far this season. Hegley’s most recent Town match was the 1-1 draw with Burnley in August in which he red-carded Clarets defender David Edgar.
Squad from: Fülöp, Lee-Barrett, Zuiverloon, Kennedy, Delaney, Smith, O’Dea, Brown, Peters, Norris, Leadbitter, Colback, Civelli, Edwards, Livermore, Hyam, Healy, Lambe, Scotland, Fallon, Wickham, Priskin, Murray.