Blues boss Mick McCarthy is considering whether to make changes ahead of the New Year's Day home game against Charlton having named the same side for the last five matches. Sunday's 1-1 draw at Bournemouth saw Town climb to sixth in the Championship.
McCarthy says the stats show his squad is fit, although having fielded only 22 players in the league this season, fewer than any other Championship club, he is weighing up whether to rest some of his regular XI.
"Physically we’re as good, if not better than any other team,” he said. "They’ve been outstanding in terms of the yards that they cover, and at high intensity, their recovery rates. They’ve been remarkable.
"I still think we’ve used the fewest players out of everybody. Their workrate, their energy levels, their recoveries are pretty good and I think they’ve done remarkably well, they have consistently every week.
"I guess the temptation is to have a look and do something because they do work hard, they do really put a shift in closing teams down.
"The game against Bournemouth was a really tough game. And bear in mind we’ve had to travel to Doncaster and Bournemouth, there are some hard yards which have gone in there. So I am considering it, we’ll see.
"We’ve had the cryotherapy chamber here this week, the ice chamber that helps them recover, and it does help them recover, there’s no question about that. But three games at the intensity that we have to work at is a hard shift for all of them to put in.”
While the lengthy Christmas treks weren’t ideal, McCarthy says they have their positive side, in particular with regard to team bonding and travel time: "I think so, when you get chosen to play away at Doncaster and Bournemouth you can either get on with it and go and do the best you can or whinge and moan and make a fool of yourself by getting beaten at both of them.
"That was never the case. I tend to take the glass half full view because it’s easier to travel on Christmas night. We got to Donny in two and a half hours, whereas if we were travelling on a Friday afternoon in February or March it might take five hours, and likewise with Bournemouth.
"The travelling was a lot easier, we were there and back pretty quickly and strangely enough it always seems quicker coming back when you’ve got points in your pocket.”
The Town boss is hoping for a big New Year’s Day crowd having been impressed by the Blues’ away following: "The two away supports have been outstanding. I thought they were brilliant and I’m sure they all enjoyed it.
"I met a couple of lads out on the front at Bournemouth when I was out walking. They’d been to Donny and they were down at Bournemouth and that’s a fair expense.
"We appreciate that and I thought the support was brilliant, so I hope there’s a good crowd and if there is I hope we can win and send them home happy.”
Charlton are currently in 19th position in the Championship, 13 places and 12 points behind the Blues, but McCarthy doesn’t believe they will be amongst this season’s strugglers: "I think they’re better than that.
"I think they’ve got some very good players, I think that was proven against us when we were excellent in the first half and had to be excellent in a different way in the second, we had to defend against a pretty good performance from Charlton. I don’t think they’ll be anywhere near relegation and it’ll be a really hard game for us.”
Even if he makes changes to his team, McCarthy is likely to stick with his usual goalkeeper, Dean Gerken, and back four: At right-back Luke Chambers, who will wear the armband, in the centre Christophe Berra and Tommy Smith, and Aaron Cresswell at left-back.
It’s in midfield where the Town boss may choose to shuffle his pack with Jay Tabb, Paul Anderson and Carlos Edwards all pushing for inclusion.
Edwards and Anderson may come into McCarthy’s thoughts if he decides to switch back to 4-4-2 but Tabb is more likely to come into the reckoning if the Town manager sticks with his 4-3-3 system but decides one of his regular central three — Cole Skuse, Ryan Tunnicliffe or Luke Hyam — needs a rest.
The Blues boss is likely to continue with his usual front three — David McGoldrick, Daryl Murphy and Frank Nouble — unless he changes his system, in which case the latter may unluckily drop to the bench.
Stephen Hunt, who has been out with a hamstring problem, won’t be fit enough to play until Saturday’s FA Cup tie against Preston when recent signing Sylvan Ebanks-Blake will also make his debut.
Young full-backs Frederic Veseli and Elliott Hewitt are on loan at Bury and Gillingham respectively, while on-loan Aston Villa winger Jordan Graham has returned to his parent club.
The Addicks have full-backs Chris Solly and Rhoys Wiggins returning having missed Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Sheffield Wednesday, but centre-half Leon Cort is sidelined with a knee injury.
Town just have the edge historically having won 20 games (16 in the league), Charlton 18 (15) and with nine (eight) ending in draws.
In November at the Valley, Tommy Smith’s fifth minute header saw Town to their second successive away win as they left Charlton Athletic with a 1-0 victory. The Blues started strongly and once in front defended resolutely to secure the three points.
The teams most recently met at Portman Road in September last year when Town fell to their second home defeat in a week as Charlton won 2-1.
Addicks skipper Johnnie Jackson and ex-Blues loanee Ricardo Fuller netted shortly after the break with a deflected Jason Scotland strike Town’s only reply.
Blues striker Frank Nouble spent two months on loan at Charlton when a West Ham player between March and May 2011, scoring one goal in four starts and five sub appearances.
No current Charlton first team player has made a senior appearance for Town, but young keeper Nick Pope was a schoolboy with the Blues academy, and a one-time Portman Road season ticket holder, before moving on to Bury Town and then the Addicks in 2011.
Charlton midfielder or right-back Lawrie Wilson had a trial at Portman Road in 2006 during his previous spell at the Valley. He moved back to Charlton in the summer of 2012 after impressing at Stevenage.
Wednesday’s referee is Stuart Attwell from Warwickshire, who has shown 61 yellow cards and six red in 19 games so far this season. Attwell’s most recent Town match was last season’s 1-0 home victory over Bolton in which he booked two Wanderers and no Blues.
Squad from: Gerken, Loach, Chambers, Hammond, Cresswell, Mings, Smith, Berra, Skuse, Hyam, Tunnicliffe, Edwards, Anderson, Tabb, Murphy, McGoldrick, Nouble, Taylor.