Blues boss Paul Jewell goes into Saturday’s home game against Reading looking to arrest an alarming run of four successive defeats which has seen his side drop to 16th in the Championship. The Town manager has midfielder Keith Andrews and striker Daryl Murphy available again after injury, but defenders Ibrahima Sonko and Damien Delaney again miss out.
Jewell felt his side were unlucky not to get a least a point from last week’s 3-2 defeat at Nottingham Forest, particularly as they were 2-1 up with six minutes remaining on the clock: "I think on Saturday we were a bit unfortunate not to get something out of the game. We had lots of possession without really threatening their goal.
"But as an away performance goes, up to the last 10 minutes, it was quite comfortable. It wasn’t as if our goalie was making saves.
"We gave a bad goal away on half-time, came back and we were quite comfortable really. Then they scored from the set piece that wasn’t cleared. The third goal took a deflection off Grant, which took it right off Danny Collins’s head and it fell to them.
"At the moment, it’s not falling for us. We played poorly against Millwall for large periods of the first half, or defended poorly, and obviously the first half hour against Doncaster was poor.”
The Blues boss feels the biggest issue is not the increasingly controversial diamond formation but individual errors: "People can go on about the system or whatever, it’s about players making mistakes or cutting out mistakes at vital times.
"When we come under pressure we’ve got to try and be stronger. We’ve just wilted a bit when we’ve come under pressure.”
He says he is confident his team can get over what is their second poor run of the campaign: "At the moment we’re going through a sticky patch. I defy anyone to name any team that hasn’t gone through a sticky patch. We’ve been through one already this season and got over it, now we need to get over this one.
"There are 30 games left yet, so there’s a long way to go, there are three games over the next week. The table can look completely different this time next week.
"We’ve having a tough spell at the moment, but we’re not hiding behind that, I’m not hiding behind that. We’ve had tough spells before and we’ve come through them and I’m sure we’ll come through this one.”
Jewell says 14th-placed Reading will present a threat, despite losing a couple of their higher-profile names in the summer: "They’re a good team, they play 4-4-2, they have certain way of playing, they have two wide players.
"They’ve lost Shane Long and and Matt Mills, who are big misses for them, they’ve been a little bit inconsistent but they’ll be a tough nut to crack on Saturday.”
Jewell is likely to stick with David Stockdale in goal, despite his error on the first goal at Forest last week and Richard Wright’s return to the club on Wednesday. The 34-year-old may well take over from Arran Lee-Barrett on the bench, however.
The defence seems unlikely to be changed with Carlos Edwards and Aaron Cresswell the full-backs and Danny Collins and ex-Royal Ãvar Ingimarsson the centre-halves.
Town’s other former Reading central defender Ibrahima Sonko is back in training after his hamstring injury but is not yet ready to return to the squad. Damien Delaney is still out having undergone foot surgery.
Keith Andrews will be back in the midfield having undergone surgery on his broken nose with the Blues boss again having to decide whether to switch his midfield from its diamond.
Given that he felt his side did relatively well at Forest, he may continue with the current system and personnel, in which case Andrews will probably replace Josh Carson, who was quieter at the City Ground than he had been in a wider role when coming off the bench against Doncaster.
Grant Leadbitter, Jimmy Bullard and Lee Bowyer could keep their places, although with three games in a week, there may well be changes to the starting line-up from match to match.
If he decides to switch his system, the Town manager is likely to go to 4-4-2 and would probably have to drop two of Bullard, Bowyer or Leadbitter, having said that Andrews will return to his side.
That's likely to see Carson keep his place with either Lee Martin or Jay Emmanuel-Thomas coming into the starting line-up in wider midfield roles.
Up front, Daryl Murphy could come into Jewell’s thoughts having been given only the first 45 minutes of the reserves victory over West Ham after recovering from his hamstring problem and with the Blues having looked little threat up front last week.
Michael Chopra is unlikely to lose his place, but Jason Scotland is without a goal in four games and is more likely to drop to the bench alongside Nathan Ellington.
Reading boss Brian McDermott is aware of what awaits his side at Portman Road and is confident that his team has what it takes to come away with three points: "We know we can win there and we know what we can expect. They have a good side that can pass the ball. They spent good money and have players with talent.
"We’re looking forward to going to Ipswich and the game can't come quick enough after losing [2-1 at home] to Cardiff as we want to put that right.
"I was gutted after that, you always are when you lose. I thought the players gave an honest performance and you can’t question that.
"We’re working on things in training and we’re trying to find the solution to scoring the goals we need.
"We’re three points away from where we were last season, so if we win at Ipswich we will get a real lift."
Left-back Joseph Mills faces a fitness test on an ankle injury with former Republic of Ireland international Ian Harte his deputy if he doesn’t make it.
Midfielder Brynjar Gunnarsson is out with a calf strain, while defender Bongani Khumalo has returned to training after an ankle injury but may not be ready. Striker Nicholas Bignall is out having undergone knee surgery.
Over the years Town have had the edge over the Royals, winning 22 times (21 in the league), drawing nine (nine) and losing 16 (16).
In March, in Paul Jewell’s first game under the Portman Road floodlights, goals from Irish trio Shane Long, Ian Harte and Noel Hunt consigned the Blues to a deserved 3-1 home defeat to Reading.
Town striker Connor Wickham netted a consolation in the final moments, Long having put the Royals in front in the first half and Harte and Hunt adding the second and third late on.
At the Madejski Stadium earlier in the season, Town fell to their first away defeat of the season as Royals' sub Simon Church netted in the 86th minute with his first touch to give his side a 1-0 victory in a game which ended 10 v 10.
The Blues ought to have been in front by half-time with Jason Scotland missing when through on goal, while Luke Hyam and Reading’s Matt Mills saw red for second bookable offences in the second half.
Town central defenders Ãvar Ingimarsson and Ibrahima Sonko were both big heroes as they were part of Steve Coppell’s squad which reached the Premier League. Ingimarsson was the Royals’ skipper until joining the Blues after leaving the Berkshire club in the summer. No current member of Brian McDermott’s squad has previously played for Town.
Saturday’s referee is Eddie Ilderton from Tyne and Wear, who has shown 45 yellow and two red cards in 17 games so far this season. Ilderton’s most recent Town match was the 1-0 defeat at Preston last December in which he booked two players, both from the home side.
Squad from: Stockdale, Wright, Lee-Barrett, Edwards, Wabara, Cresswell, Collins, Ingimarsson, Smith, Bullard, Andrews, Bowyer, Leadbitter, Carson, Emmanuel-Thomas, Martin, Chopra, Murphy, Scotland, Ellington.