Town will not be offering a contract to 33-year-old former Tottenham and Portsmouth defender Ricardo Rocha, who was on trial at Playford Road last week. However, assistant manager says trialist keeper Rhys Taylor does stand a chance of winning terms with the Blues, while the search for a loan striker goes on.
Hutchings says that with Danny Higginbotham having come in on loan from Stoke, Rocha won’t be required: "He did OK. I think he’s gone back now.
"It was something that we looked at regarding defensive cover, but then we got Danny Higginbotham in and he’s filling that gap at the moment. I don’t think that will be progressed.”
http://www.twtd.co.uk/ipswich-town-news/21551/trialist-keeper-in-u21s-side-facin keeper Rhys Taylor played in yesterday’s 3-2 U21s victory over Barnet and the 22-year-old has impressed the Blues assistant boss: "He’s done OK. He’s in for a couple of days. We’re going to assess things and I’m sure that we’ll probably want to look at him again.
"On first impressions, he made a couple of good saves and we’ll just have to see how that develops from there.
"It was an opportunity to get him in and play him in the game and with this week having been busy - we’ve been away for a couple of days - I’m sure we’ll probably get him back in.”
Town recently took former Real Madrid youngster Aleix Manzano on trial and Hutchings says they are looking for someone to come in between senior keepers Scott Loach and Arran Lee-Barrett and Norwegian Michael Crowe, who joined the academy this summer: "We’ve got a void at this club at the moment of a goalkeeper for an U21 role. Whether he steps on to be a number two as well [would remain to be seen].
"We’ve got young Michael who plays for the youth team and then we’ve got a void and it’s something that we’re trying to eradicate.”
Despite Michael Chopra being in with a chance of returning to the side at Brighton after his thigh injury, Hutchings says the Blues are continuing their search for a loan striker having failed to land QPR’s DJ Campbell last week.
He says no deal is currently close but that things can change quickly: "You never know, 24 hours is a long time, something could happen, it may not, we’re just having to wait and see how things develop.”