Blues boss Paul Jewell gave little hint at his Thursday press conference about who might get the nod at the centre of the defence if Ibrahima Sonko isn’t fit enough to keep his place alongside Danny Collins due to his hamstring injury. Damien Delaney and Ãvar Ingimarsson are the contenders to replace the Senegalese international.
Jewell, who also reported a couple of niggles to other unnamed members of his squad, says as things stood yesterday morning, everyone was in his thoughts: "They all have to come into my thinking because we’ve got two days’ training before Saturday and I’m a big believer in how players train. If players are sharp and good in training, it takes my eye. If players aren’t then they don’t.
"Someone can play themselves out of the team or out of a place on the bench by a performance in training, or vice versa. That’s why training is vitally important, certainly the way I see it.
"I don’t think you pick any team, whether it’s the same team or a different team, without mulling things over in your mind.”
The Town manager says he has no problem with changing a winning team, having named the same starting line-up for the last six games, the first time a Blues side has been unchanged for so many matches since a record run of 12 in the 1991/92 Second Division championship-winning campaign.
"You can change a winning team, there’s nothing wrong with that,” he said. ”And you can keep a losing team. Whatever I think is best for the team on Saturday, whether that’s the right decision or otherwise, I will do that.
"If I think it’s the right decision to make changes, I’ll make changes, if I don’t, I won’t. That’s the way I see it.
"One or two of the players looked a little bit flat on Tuesday but they might come in full of bounce and, if I was thinking of making changes, by training properly they might just play themselves back into the team.”