Town boss Paul Jewell is looking for his side to bounce back to form when they visit Peterborough United for this season’s first live TV game on Saturday evening (Sky Sports Two 5pm, KO 5.20pm). Despite their poor home performances, the Blues’ only away trip so far this campaign yielded a 3-0 opening day win at Bristol City.
Jewell was struggling to explain why his side had been so defensively poor during the 5-2 defeat to Southampton straight after the match, but says he, his staff and the players reviewed the performance on Wednesday: "When you give a press conference 15 minutes after a defeat like that you are very raw and you’re hurting.
"But we came in the next morning and went through the DVD and it was some very, very poor defending, there’s no doubt about it, and we got punished for that.
"We got back in the game at 3-2, you were thinking that if we got a point or even three points out of the game it would be a terrific comeback. But unfortunately we’re getting punished every time we make an error, whether defensively or when we miss a chance.
"It’s like everything in the game, you’ve got to cut out the basic errors, and if we do that, we’ll be all right.”
The Blues boss says the issue is not just with much-criticised central defensive pair Damien Delaney and Tommy Smith but with the manner in which his entire team defends: "There’s a lot of work to do here, there’s no doubt about it.
"We’ve got to defend better as a group, it’s as simple as that. It’s been our Achilles’ heel since I’ve been here; at home when we attack we get caught on the break. It’s happened time after time.
"We work and work on it, but we still make the same mistakes. We know we have to cut them out.”
The Blues boss is expecting the usual tough Championship encounter against a Peterborough side which has won one, drawn on and lost once since promotion via the play-offs after one season in League One: "I saw them the other night against Millwall when they came back from 2-0 down.
"They’re a very good footballing team, Darren Ferguson’s done well there. It’ll be a very tough game. I think the results the other night, when Bristol City won at Leicester, Brighton went to Cardiff and won 3-1, after Cardiff had gone to West Ham and won, show that there are no games in this league that you can call. There are no ‘gimmes’ in this league.”
Jewell may well be tempted to return to the 4-5-1 formation which served his side so well at Ashton Gate, having switched to his favoured 4-4-2 against Southampton. However, with Peterborough lining up 4-4-2 he may choose to match Posh like-for-like rather than reverting back to a single striker.
Either way, with no injuries aside from central defender Ãvar Ingimarsson, who is out for two weeks with a thigh strain, David Stockdale will be in goal with Aaron Cresswell and Carlos Edwards likely to be the full-backs.
With no new defensive addition to the squad, the Blues boss again faces the choice of whether to bring Jack Ainsley — mainly a right-back rather than a centre-half - in for his full league debut on the right of Damien Delaney at the centre of the defence. Jewell though, may well again go with the greater experience of Tommy Smith, who like the Irishman is more comfortable on the left rather than the right.
Academy second-year scholar Joe Whight is understood to have impressed at centre-half for the reserves in their behind-closed-doors friendly against Luton in the week but is also left-sided. However, the 17-year-old could well be in Paul Jewell’s thoughts for a role on the bench. If he does get a surprise first team debut, it’s more likely to be at full-back, allowing Cresswell to push into midfield.
If Jewell starts with a midfield four, he will have to decide between skipper Grant Leadbitter, Lee Bowyer and new signing Keith Andrews for the two central roles. Veteran Bowyer might be the man to drop out of what would be his third game in a week. Mark Kennedy also seems likely to switch to place amongst the subs.
Lee Martin and Josh Carson could take up the wide berths with Jay Emmanuel-Thomas behind Michael Chopra up front. If Town go with a midfield five, Emmanuel-Thomas could well be on one flank with Bowyer probably keeping his place in the centre.
Posh boss Darren Ferguson is expecting a Town side stung by Tuesday’s heavy loss, a match he attended: "I’m never sure how to view results like Ipswich suffered on Tuesday. Southampton were very good and Ipswich didn’t play very well, but teams tend to react positively to defeats like that.
"I know Ipswich manager Paul Jewell very well and there’s no way he will accept another performance like that so I’m expecting them to be very difficult opponents tomorrow.
"It could be that they are better suited to away matches anyway, so we will have to wait and see what happens. I do know we are full of confidence after our start to the season.”
Centre-half Gaby Zakuani is a doubt with a toe injury and striker Nick Ajose is in a similar position due to a hamstring problem. Left-back Ben Gordon has signed on loan from Chelsea.
The last game between the sides was in February 2010 when relegation-bound Posh deservedly came from behind to beat the Blues 3-1 at London Road.
Daryl Murphy’s third goal in three games put Town in front with the Blues comfortable before the break but having missed chances. However, in the second half the Posh hit back with goals from Liam Dickinson, Lee Frecklington and Craig Morgan.
The 0-0 draw at Portman Road earlier that season had been the first league match between the sides.
In cups, the teams have met on five occasions with Posh winning three times, the Blues once — an FA Cup victory in January 1972, still the Blues’ only victory over the Cambridgeshire side - and one game ending in a draw.
The most recent of those matches came in August 2010 in the second round of the Carling Cup at London Road when Peterborough came from behind to win 2-1 after Tamás Priskin had netted his first goal for Town and had also missed a penalty. Lee Frecklington and George Boyd scored for the home side.
No current Town player has appeared for the Posh and no member of the Peterborough squad has played a first team game for the Blues, although defender Ryan Bennett was released at 16 by the Town academy.
Saturday’s referee is Graham Scott from Oxfordshire, who has shown 12 yellow cards and one red in three games so far this season. Scott’s only previous Town game was as a late replacement in the 2-1 loss at Watford last October when he booked only David Norris.
Squad from: Stockdale, Lee-Barrett, Edwards, Cresswell, Whight, Delaney, Smith, Ainsley, Kennedy, Leadbitter, Bowyer, Andrews, Emmanuel-Thomas, Martin, Carson, Healy, Drury, Chopra, Scotland, Ellington, Priskin.