Boss Paul Jewell is weighing up whether to make changes to his side for his former club Derby County's visit to Portman Road this evening (KO 7.45pm). Three points tonight would appear vital to the manager's hopes of keeping his job with the Blues 23rd in the Championship, without a home win since March and without a victory of any sort in 10 games.
Having lost 2-1 at Hull on Saturday, Town take on the Rams this evening, then face another of Jewell’s old sides Sheffield Wednesday at home on Saturday.
With three games in a week and with several players lacking in match fitness, Jewell says he is considering his recently increased options: "It’s a difficult situation. I remember we played Crystal Palace here last year and we’d played on the Saturday and the Tuesday and had got two good results [2-2 at Cardiff, 1-0 home victory over Portsmouth].
"I rested a couple of players for the Palace game on the Saturday and we got beaten 1-0 and you wondered whether it was the right thing to do.
"The only thing that proves you right is whether you win the game or not. But we’ve got a decent enough-sized squad now to have options on the bench or for players to come in or go out.”
Amongst those short on games are Nigel Reo-Coker, who made his debut at the KC Stadium, and Richie Wellens, who played the second game of his one-month loan spell against the Tigers.
Jewell says he’s not sure whether they will be up to three games in a week but believes they will have benefited from the weekend match: "I spoke to them all [on Sunday and yesterday] and I think Nigel will be a lot better for the 90 minutes, as will Richie.
"Ideally, we might have been able to take one of them off, but they ended up playing the 90 minutes and they’ll be better off for the outing. I think they’ll be able to start.”
He says all the recent loan signings have been impressed by their new team-mates: "I think they were surprised by the quality that we’ve got.
"They can obviously see that there’s a little bit of a lack of confidence in the team when we haven’t been able to go on and win games from winning positions.
"When you’re a team full of confidence and on a roll, when you go 1-0 up, you expect to go 2-0 up. At the moment you can feel the tension about us when we go a goal up.
"We could have scored a second goal [in the last two games], Jay had a good chance against Cardiff to go 2-0 up and DJ had a good chance on Saturday.
"It’s getting that second goal. It’s all right me talking about it, we’ve got to go out there and do it.”
Keeper Stephen Henderson was Town’s man of the match at Hull and will keep his place between the sticks, while the back four is likely to be unchanged with skipper Carlos Edwards on the right, Aaron Cresswell on the left and Luke Chambers and Danny Higginbotham at the centre of the defence.
In midfield, Reo-Coker and Wellens appear set to continue in the centre, but Jewell could switch around his widemen and strikers.
Michael Chopra could come into the reckoning, either in place of DJ Campbell or alongside the on-loan QPR man. Daryl Murphy may also be considered for a front role with Lee Martin perhaps moving to wide left with Jay Emmanuel-Thomas likely to continue after his excellent goal at Hull.
The former Arsenal man played much of Saturday’s game in the role behind the lone striker usually filled by Martin and Jewell may be contemplating using him there again.
Massimo Luongo may again miss out on a place in the 18 with the Blues only permitted to name five of their six domestic loanees in the matchday squad.
Elliott Hewitt, who is recovering from tonsillitis as well as his hip surgery, and Paul Taylor, who has a cracked bone in his foot, are Town’s only absentees.
Derby defender Gareth Roberts is back after a hamstring injury but striker Jamie Ward (also hamstring) and keeper Frank Fielding (groin) aren’t yet ready to return. Midfielder Jeff Hendrick is a doubt with an ankle knock.
Rams boss Nigel Clough says his side are in a confident mood as they make the trip to Suffolk having gone four matches without a defeat, winning once and drawing three times: "Looking at the last four games, we would have liked a few more points but it is a four-game unbeaten run.
"It is also one defeat in six. That builds confidence, as does the fact we are scoring late goals."
He was pleased to see his team grab an 88th-minute equaliser during Saturday’s 1-1 home draw with Blackburn: "It is a good sign we got a point out of the game and rather than go into the Ipswich game on the back of a 1-0 defeat, there is a different feeling altogether.
"We've not scored too many late goals in the last three years but we've got a few this season and that's a good sign.
"It shows there is a belief among the players that right up to the end of games we can get a goal."
Historically, Town have had the better of Derby, winning 31 games (29 in the league), drawing 19 (17) and losing 23 (22). The Rams are currently 14th on 14 points, seven points and nine places above the Blues.
In April, both sides hit the post in the second half as they played out a 0-0 draw at Pride Park. Ben Davies struck the woodwork for the Rams, then Emmanuel-Thomas did the same for the Blues a few minutes later.
At Portman Road last December, Keith Andrews’s ninth goal of his loan spell saw Town to a ground-out 1-0 victory. The Irishman netted just after the break of a hard-fought but not always quality game.
Blues boss Jewell was manager at Pride Park between November 2007 and December 2008 with Chris Hutchings was his assistant.
Coincidentally, Jewell resigned after a 1-0 defeat to Town at Pride Park.
Hutchings was then briefly caretaker-manager before current boss Clough was appointed. Blues scout David Hamilton also worked for Jewell at Derby.
Nathan Ellington spent 2008/09 on loan with the Rams, making 17 starts and 15 sub appearances, scoring nine goals.
Blues loanee Danny Higginbotham was at Pride Park between July 2000 and January 2003, making 92 starts and six sub appearances, scoring four goals. The Rams are one of DJ Campbell's loan clubs, the striker having made eight appearances for them in 2009/10, scoring three goals.
Derby centre-half Richard Keogh was an academy schoolboy and Portman Road ballboy during his formative years.
Tonight’s referee will be Andy Madley from West Yorkshire, who will be taking control of his first Town match. Madley has shown 20 yellow and no red cards in eight games so far this season.
Squad from: Henderson, Loach, Edwards, Cresswell, Higginbotham, Chambers, Smith, Mohsni, Reo-Coker, Wellens, Drury, N’Daw, Hyam, Murphy, Emmanuel-Thomas, Martin, Carson, Campbell, Chopra, Scotland.