The Ipswich careers of midfield duo Cole Skuse and Luke Hyam are set to run in tandem through to the end of the 2015/16 season.
New boy Skuse agreed a three-year deal upon his summer arrival on a free transfer from Bristol City, while partner Hyam signed a new deal of a similar length yesterday.
Skuse, 27, likes what he has seen so far of Hyam, the former Northgate High School pupil who will be 22 in October.
He said: "Luke’s a top lad and he has a lot of admirers within the game, not just at Ipswich. There are a lot of lads outside the club who think he’s a very good player and he’s a nice boy as well.
"He’s quite a quiet lad but with a bit of devilment about him, which I like. He’s not afraid, he’s not one to shirk a challenge or a bit of confrontation, which is alright. I’ll leave that bit to him I think.”
Skuse feels the duo’s differing styles complement one another: "From the word go me and Luke have struck up quite a good balance and sussed each other out quite early and it’s worked okay.
"I don’t mind if he wants to get himself forward and get some goals. He’s more than entitled to do that and on the flip side, if there’s a situation where I want to go forward, he’ll just fill in for me.
"You can’t sit down before a game and say ‘Look, when this happens you do such and such’. You can do all the work you want in training but when it comes to the games it’s more off the cuff and that’s when you suss each other’s games out.”
Skuse hopes to be over the Achilles’ injury which forced him off at half-time at Loftus Road on Saturday in time to face Leeds United at Portman Road this weekend. He says QPR’s late winner had an inevitability about it: "It was all a bit cramped at Loftus Road so I watched the second half inside on a monitor thanks to one of the media guys. "I was saying to myself ‘Come on lads, we’ll take a point here’ but for some reason you could sort of feel the goal was going to happen when it did. "It was such a hard one to swallow because a point there would have put us on four points and that would be a decent return when you consider the two away games would be seen as two of the toughest we will face all season.” Skuse described the mood in the visitors’ camp afterwards when he added: "We are all professional athletes who are bred to get results and when you suffer a defeat like that it is hard to swallow. "There were a lot of words said in the dressing room but it hasn’t hampered the lads and they came in on Monday morning with a lot of positives and there was still plenty of optimism around the place. "The manager touched on it in his interviews — you can match any team but it’s the results that you want. It’s a positive to know that we can match the bigger teams but we’d like to turn the performances into a few more points.”What to read next:
Highlights of last night’s dramatic 1-1 draw with Birmingham City at St Andrew’s.
Birmingham City manager Chris Davies felt the Blues profited from two harsh decisions by referee Andrew Kitchen during last night’s 1-1 draw in the Championship’s season opener at St Andrew’s.
Nottingham Forest are reported to be readying a bid for Town left-back Leif Davis.
George Hirst felt referee Andrew Kitchen made the correct decision in awarding Town a stoppage time penalty in the 1-1 draw with Birmingham City at St Andrew’s.
Town boss Kieran McKenna felt his side found a way to battle for what he believes could prove to be an important point his side drew 1-1 at Birmingham City and revealed that the club has reported the incident in which Jack Taylor was assaulted by a fan following George Hirst’s late, late penalty to the authorities.
Town boss Kieran McKenna has explained why Jaden Philogene, Jens Cajuste and Omari Hutchinson missed tonight’s 1-1 draw at Birmingham.
Town boss Kieran McKenna says his understanding is that the Chuba Akpom loan move from Ajax is something all parties are trying to push through.
If you saw the match, please give us your player ratings and a mini match report.
George Hirst’s 95th-minute penalty claimed an unlikely 1-1 draw for Championship favourites Town in their opening game of the season at Birmingham City. The newly promoted home side looked set for all three points courtesy of Jay Stansfield’s goal on 55 until sub Lyndon Dykes handled in the area and Hirst confidently found the net to grab a share of the point.
Town’s opening game of the season at Birmingham City remains 0-0 at half-time.