Blues boss Paul Jewell says his new look side is very much a team in progress and isn’t getting too excited or carried away by last week’s 3-0 victory at Bristol City. The Town manager says the Blues have a much greater attacking threat this season with the likes of Michael Chopra, the resurgent Lee Martin and Jay Emmanuel-Thomas in the side.
Jewell said: "It was a great result last week but it’s definitely a work in progress this. I think when I look back on the game on Saturday we had six players making their full debuts, which is a lot of players, virtually half a new team.
"We don’t want to get too excited or too carried away. We feel as if we’ve got good players. We feel we want to improve the squad even more, all the time and try and improve the players that we’ve got here.
"It was a great result and we’re looking forward to the game on Saturday and it’s important to get off to a good start.
"We’ve got two home games in three days, both very difficult, like every game will be, but we think we can beat Hull, we think we can beat Southampton and vice versa. That’s what makes this league wide open.”
The Blues boss admits that at times Town are better away from Portman Road than they are on their own turf: "I think sometimes we find it harder at home because teams come and sit back against us and sometimes the formation that the opposition play we’ve found difficult to break down.
"But I think in the team now Jay Emmanuel-Thomas will open the door. Obviously he’s a young player learning the game, but also Lee Martin’s looked sharp and obviously we’ve got Chopra.
"We’ve got more of a threat up front than we have had in the past. Maybe more of a threat from midfield in terms of goals. There are more goals in the squad than last year. Certainly last year if we went a goal behind, we struggled to peg that back.
"With Chopra, with Emmanuel-Thomas, with Lee Bowyer, people will know that we’ve got goals in the team.”
Martin has been one of the big success stories of Jewell’s time in charge, having been recalled from a loan spell at Charlton soon after the current manager replaced the midfielder’s one-time Manchester United team-mate Roy Keane: "He’s done well. When I came here he was on loan at Charlton and was out of the picture, but since I brought him back in he’s done well.
"We’re always at him to try and do better. He seems to have been around quite a long time, he’s been at a lot of clubs on loan and when he found himself at Ipswich he found himself shipped out on loan again.
"He’s been a big plus for us Lee. But he should score more goals because technically very good, so it’s one area where we’re always after him to do better.
"All wingers, Jay Emmanuel-Thomas too, they can drive you up the wall at times. They can be inconsistent. But Lee’s got good energy. I didn’t bring him here but since I’ve been here, he’s done well.”
Jewell says Emmanuel-Thomas epitomises youthful unpredictability: "He’s one of those people that sometimes goes from world beater to panel beater, but that’s inconsistency in young players.
"He does things where you think ‘how’s he done that?’ then at other times he can be a little bit sloppy.
"He’s a got a lot to learn. He will get a lot fitter as time goes on and, again a bit like Lee Martin, when you’re going here, there and everywhere on loan, it’s difficult to settle down.
"He’s left Arsenal having had three loan clubs, Blackpool, Doncaster and Cardiff, and now he’s an Ipswich player. The comfort of going back to Arsenal isn’t there any more, so now he’s an Ipswich player and knows he’s got to do it day-in and day-out to get in our team.
"It was a lovely pass for the second goal at Bristol City and some of the stuff he did on Tuesday was terrific but like all young players he lacks concentration at times. But he will get better as the season goes on."