Town boss Paul Jewell says that if central defender Danny Collins continues to play as well as he is at present he’d be foolish not to try and extend the on-loan Stoke man’s time at Portman Road. The 31-year-old, who was called into the Wales squad yesterday, is on a 93-day loan which ends after the game at Barnsley on December 10th but could rejoin the Blues either on another loan or on a permanent basis when the transfer window opens in January.
Jewell said: "If he continues to play as he has done I’d be foolish not to [try to extend his stay]. I think he’s been terrific for us, not just in matches but around the training ground.
"He gives us that experience and him and Sonko have been a base for our clean sheets and I’m really pleased with Danny.”
Collins, whose Stoke contract is up next June, and free transfer Sonko have been key to Town’s first three clean sheets on the trot since March 2005, when they beat Nottingham Forest 6-0, Cardiff City 1-0 and then drew 0-0 with Gillingham.
If the Blues prevent Brighton from scoring on Saturday they will stretch their clean sheets streak to four matches for the first time since April 1997. Then, George Burley's men actually managed five in a row when they beat Oldham Athletic 4-0 at home, Swindon 4-0 away, Norwich City 2-0 at home — with Seagulls assistant manager Mauricio Taricco netting the first goal - Manchester City 1-0 at home and then a 1-0 victory at Portsmouth.
Town’s new central defensive duo were both at Stoke together, although they never partnered one another in a first team game, and Jewell admits that this didn’t come into his thoughts when he signed them: "I have to say that wasn’t the thinking, I’d like to say it was, but it wasn’t. Sonko was injured quite a bit at Stoke, I think.
"I think Sonko will get better because he's still hardly trained. He’s played four matches and he’s trained three times. We’ve almost wheeled him on the pitch off the treatment table.
"Hopefully after this weekend we can give him some training because he’s getting his match fitness in games. You can see late on he starts to drop a little bit deep and get a little bit tired, but he’s been terrific for us.”
He says the Senegalese international’s no-nonsense, row Z approach to defending was what the Blues needed after the thrashings against Southampton and Peterborough: "Sonko ain’t Beckenbauer, but he’ll head it, he’ll kick it, he’ll defend it and he’ll get his blocks in. I’ve been looking for a centre-half all summer who can head it or kick it.
"There’s always room for people like that in football. He’s not a mug with the ball, he’s not as bad as some people might think.
"Sonko is a just a man mountain, well I thought he was until I saw John Carew come on the other night. He looked like a molehill!
"Danny Collins is a good footballer but he can also do the other side of it, having been brought up at Stoke in the last few years. He knows what the Premier League’s about.
"Those two have done really well, but in fairness to them, what’s gone on in front of them, from the front players to the midfield players has made their job easier as well.”
Jewell says the clean sheets don’t just come from the addition of the two central defenders but from the entire team stepping up their defensive game: "Against Southampton and Peterborough it was like a knife through butter, people were just running through. Everyone looks at the centre-halves but the centre-halves had no protection.
"It’s not just about the back four, it’s about the whole team, closing down and being difficult to play against.
"I think at times we were too easy to play against and teams have cut us open. It’s something we’ve worked hard to try and improve, and also when we get the ball we need to try to be more inventive. That comes with confidence and you can see in our team that players are full of confidence.”
Full-backs Aaron Cresswell and Carlos Edwards have also played a huge part with the Trinidadian one of Town’s top performers at West Ham on Tuesday despite his much publicised off-field concerns: "I got him in the office on Monday and asked him if he was OK to play. There’s no point him saying he was and then being a shivering wreck with things on his mind, but he said ‘yes, no problem’.
"I can’t talk about what’s gone on, it’s not a cop-out, I’ve been told I can’t. He played as good a game in the first half as he has all season. Sometimes a game of football for these guys is a way to escape from a problem they’ve got off the pitch.”
Photo: ITFC