Town boss Paul Jewell has confirmed that he’d like to keep Saturday’s two-goal hero Grant Leadbitter at Portman Road beyond the end of his contract which is up this summer. Leadbitter, who struck two second half goals to grab a 2-2 draw at Hull on Saturday, turned down the Blues’ initial offer of a new deal in October.
Jewell said: "We would do, but that’s something that can be out of our hands. The player’s out of contract like three or four others are and they’re quite free to see what the market is.
"I’d like to keep him but I’d like to keep all our good players, and we’ve got plenty of them.”
While former skipper Leadbitter has been on the end of a fair bit of criticism from fans, the Blues boss says the player himself has been critical of his lack of goals: "He’s had a bit of stick off himself because he should get more goals. He gets a good strike on the ball.
"He’s a good professional, he always tries his best every day in training. He’s been out of the team, like a few other people have, but he hasn’t moaned and groaned, he’s just got on with it. Unfortunately, he’s picked up a bit of a [groin] injury and we’ll have to see how that is.
"At the moment, whether players are in contract or out of contract, you can’t question their attitude, and I think that’s a credit to them.”
Meanwhile, former Blues striker Jordan Rhodes, who has scored 33 goals for Huddersfield so far this season, was named the League One Player of the Year at last night’s Football League Awards. Southampton’s Rickie Lambert picked up the Championship gong.