Town boss Mick McCarthy will be looking for the Blues to continue their excellent recent away form when they visit AFC Bournemouth on Sunday (KO 3pm). McCarthy’s men, who won their Boxing Day fixture 3-0 at Doncaster, are unbeaten on their travels since September’s loss at Wigan.
In just over three months since that defeat, the Blues have drawn at Derby, Sheffield Wednesday, Bolton and Nottingham Forest and have beaten Blackpool and Charlton as well as Doncaster.
McCarthy is hoping for that run to continue against the Cherries, who are 15th in the Championship on 28 points, six behind the Blues in seventh, although he stresses that that’s easier said than done.
"More of the same is what we want,” he said. "And we’ll be doing our best to achieve that. But Bournemouth will want to slap us when we go down there.
"It’s just too glib and simple to say ‘More of the same’ because it just doesn’t happen. You’ve got to go down and win the scrap and have it with them, do all the dirty jobs and be professional.
"Tiny detail that wins and loses games and tiny detail for us [on Boxing Day was] two corner kicks that we scored from when they’ve not marked properly. I’m sure Paul Dickov will have been going mad at that, people who are supposed to be marking.”
Despite being handed two lengthy trips in the games immediately after Christmas McCarthy wasn’t too critical of the fixture list in the wake of the Doncaster victory: "Have you seen where Ipswich is? Our nearest game is Rotterdam! Rotterdam and then Bruges.
"We are geographically challenged. We have to travel everywhere, and if you’re going to play [games a long way away] you might as well travel [over Christmas] and get them over and done with. There’s nobody on the road, it’s quicker getting there and getting back.
"I tend to look on the bright side of life. If we’d lost 3-0 I might have been saying different, but we won 3-0!”
McCarthy has said he’ll probably need to utilise his squad over the festive period, but after the Doncaster match hinted that he’ll not look to make changes until the New Year’s Day visit by Charlton: "I think there’s a difference with the game we’ve got on Sunday and then the one we’ve got on the 1st. I’ll see how they all are.”
With the Blues unbeaten in six matches, unless anyone has suffered a knock or is feeling the pace, the Town boss may decide to stick with the XI which has started the last four games.
Dean Gerken will continue in goal with skipper Luke Chambers at right-back, Aaron Cresswell at left-back and Christophe Berra and Tommy Smith at the centre of the defence.
In midfield, Cole Skuse will sit behind Luke Hyam and Ryan Tunnicliffe, who will be playing his final game before his loan spell is up. McCarthy expects it to be extended to the end of the season, although perhaps not in time for the New Year’s Day game.
Up front, top scorer David McGoldrick will be joined by Frank Nouble and Daryl Murphy.
Stephen Hunt is not expected to be available until the Charlton match due to the hamstring problem he suffered in training last week, although has travelled with the squad, while Elliott Hewitt is sidelined with the ankle injury which ended his loan spell at Gillingham, who he will rejoin once he is fit.
Anthony Wordsworth missed the trip to Doncaster due to illness but may well be in the squad travelling to Bournemouth.
McCarthy says he doesn’t expect to include recent signing Sylvan Ebanks-Blake until the FA Cup tie with Preston next week with the former Wolves man having been sidelined with injury since April.
The Cherries, who beat Yeovil 3-0 in their Boxing Day fixture, will be without one-time Town trialist Harry Arter, who is suspended after amassing five bookings. Centre-half Steve Cook has a torn hamstring, while keeper Darryl Flahavan has a thumb injury.
In addition to midfielder Arter’s couple of appearances for the Town reserves in 2009, former Blues loanee Stephen Henderson was on loan with the Cherries earlier this season but suffered a shoulder injury in his second game which ruled him out for six months.
Lee Camp, who held talks with Town in January before a proposed deal broke down, was drafted in on loan from West Brom as the Irishman's replacement.
David McGoldrick spent three months on loan with the Cherries at the end of the 2006/07 season, scoring six goals in 12 games, but no other current Town player has represented the Dorset club.
The teams last met in the League Cup first round back in the 1996/97 season when Town ran out 2-1 victors in the home first leg via goals from Paul Mason and Ian Marshall, Steve Fletcher scoring for the Cherries, and 3-0 winners at Dean Court when Alex Mathie, James Scowcroft and Mick Stockwell were on the scoresheet.
The last league games between the sides were back in the old Division Two during John Duncan’s time in charge in the 1989/90 season.
At Portman Road in the September Jason Dozzell scored for the Blues and Peter Shearer for the Cherries as the game ended 1-1.
In the January at Dean Court, the Dorset side won 3-1 with Luther Blissett netting a hat-trick and Neil Thompson scoring the only goal for the Blues.
Overall, Town have won 14 (10 in the league), the Cherries 11 (11), while nine (seven) games have been draws.
The Blues’ last league win at Dean Court was a 3-2 Division Three (South) victory in September 1953 under Scott Duncan’s management in which Tom Garneys scored twice and Alex Crowe once.
Sunday’s referee is Philip Gibbs from the West Midlands, who has shown 36 yellow cards and two red in 13 games so far this season.
Gibbs’s last Town match was the 2-0 defeat at Middlesbrough in September last year in which he yellow-carded only one Boro player.
Sunday’s game is all-ticket with no tickets available to Town supporters on the day of the game.
Squad from: Gerken, Loach, Chambers, Veseli, Hammond, Cresswell, Mings, Smith, Berra, Skuse, Hyam, Tunnicliffe, Edwards, Anderson, Tabb, Graham, Murphy, McGoldrick, Nouble, Taylor.