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:
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Hull City manager Liam Rosenior said he couldn’t have been prouder of his players following last night’s 3-3 draw with Town which keeps the Tigers hopes of making the play-offs alive going into their final match and wished the Blues well for the remainder of the campaign.
Highlights of yesterday’s 3-3 draw with Hull City at the MKM Stadium.
Town midfielder Massimo Luongo says the squad are enjoying the ride of playing in high pressure games as the Blues moved a point closer to the Premier League following a pulsating 3-3 draw with Hull City at the MKM Stadium.
Town boss Kieran McKenna says left-back Leif Davis was limping heavily following tonight’s 3-3 draw at Hull City.
Town boss Kieran McKenna reflected on the wonderful position his side is in following tonight’s 3-3 draw at Hull City.
Town moved level on points with second-placed Leeds United following a pulsating 3-3 draw with Hull City at the MKM Stadium having been in front three times. Returning striker George Hirst put the Blues in front in the 19th minute but the Tigers levelled on 40 through Ozan Tufan before Omari Hutchinson put Town back ahead with the first of two brilliant goals. However, Hull equalised again through Liam Delap in the 56th minute, then Hutchinson’s second put the Blues ahead again, however, Tigers sub Noah Ohio grabbed a point for the East Yorkshire side with three minutes remaining and the Blues were unable to take late chances to win it.
If you saw the match, please give us your player ratings and a mini match report.
Goals from George Hirst and Omari Hutchinson have given Town a 2-1 half-time lead over Hull City at the MKM Stadium.
George Hirst and Wes Burns both start for the Blues in this evening’s live-on-Sky game at Hull City.