Town boss Mick McCarthy is confident that his squad is strong enough to compete for a place in the top six — as long as they can avoid injuries in the weeks and months to come.
The transfer window closed last night with the Blues having been unable to add a replacement for departing loanee Ryan Tunnicliffe with Leeds midfielder Paul Green understood to have been the target. McCarthy will now look to make the signing when the loan window opens in a week’s time.
"If we keep our players fit, we’ve got a really good squad,” McCarthy said. "And there’s Sylvan Ebanks-Blake to come back, there’s Luke Hyam to come back. We had 16 players out there at training today.
"It’s not a big squad but they can all play, it’s very rare there’s anybody sat up in the stand, they’re all involved and they’re likely to get a game.
"I think that helps give a tight-knit group with a good spirit in them. I’ve not complained about it ever. I like my squad of players, I think I’ve got a good squad players, providing we keep them fit. March is a bit bonkers with games, to be fair, that could be testing, but we’re fine.”
He admits Ryan Tunnicliffe’s departure has had some effect but doesn’t think it’s been too unsettling: "Of course, it’s slightly destabilised things as he would have been playing tomorrow and he’s not, so that’s destabilised it. But has it destabilised the whole ship together? No, I’ll just play somebody else.”
While Jay Tabb appears likely to come into today’s team, the current lack of a replacement for Tunnicliffe pushes Anthony Wordsworth up the pecking order, perhaps giving him a chance to stake his case for a more regular role having recovered from his recent illness.
"He was off with tonsillitis for a while and he’s been back for around two weeks now,” McCarthy said. "He’s OK.”
The Town manager is in no doubt about what he sees as his ultimate target in the remaining months of the season: "My hopes? Playing in the Premier League next year. Simple as that. I might as well not be here if that’s not what I’m doing.
"We’re seventh in the league, we could nick in the play-offs, who knows, and if we do I think we’d be a threat to anybody. We could end up finishing 12th, 14th, I’ve no idea, that’s the way the league is.
"We’ve got 16 players and if I keep them all fit I’ve got a good squad. If I don’t, I could suffer a little bit. I don’t know what’s in front of me, unfortunately.
"We’ve a chance. My hopes are Premier League football and a nice holiday in the summer. That would do me fine.
"I think the players have done remarkably well and are doing well as a squad. I’ll see what happens. We’ve got Bolton next, who have got good players. Let’s see. We’re doing all right. My aspiration is to eventually get promoted.”
A victory today will take the week’s total to a more than decent seven points with McCarthy particularly pleased with the 2-0 win against Reading last Saturday: "I thought the Reading game was a really top result for us because we haven’t beaten too many teams up towards the top of the league, I think someone said they were the first ones we’ve beaten.
"It was a tough game, they’ve got some good players. They had one or two chances, we defended well and scored two really good goals.
"I thought that was a really good, significant result having lost three games including the cup game. And I thought Leeds on Tuesday night was a good performance.
"We had the game by the scruff of the neck when we scored and I think we should have gone on and won it.
"But I can’t really see whether it was a penalty or not but I said to Chambo, ‘if you slide in, you make the referee make a decision’.
"And that’s what happened and the game was fairly even after that. But prior to us scoring we were definitely the dominant team and I think [now former Leeds manager] Brian McDermott would complain about his goalkeeper, to be honest with you.
"Once we’d scored, it was about five minutes afterwards they got the penalty, but we dominated for the next five minutes as well and we should have kept it and we let them off the hook. But a point at Elland Road is never a bad thing.”
Town have now dropped 25 points from winning positions this season, the most in the division, but McCarthy says there’s been no inquisition and is keen to avoid doing anything which might lead to his players putting themselves under additional pressure.
"We don’t talk about it,” he said. "You don’t want to put it in their heads. No, not at all. You know what we could do [to stop it]? Not give a penalty away. That’s the thing.
"But I thought we should have won the first header, I thought we could have nicked the subsequent bouncing ball and it ends up with Chambo one v one [against Cameron Stewart].
"I don’t know, could we be a bit more ruthless on occasions? I’d pull him down, foul him before he gets there, on the halfway line, deal with it. I’m sorry, but that’s the way it is, then it doesn’t end up in the back of our net.
"But that’s not always been the case with the goals we’ve conceded. They’ve generally come from mistakes, it’s not teams dominating us and carving us up.
"Anything we can do about it? No, we‘ll just keep playing. I think Reading had better chances than Leeds and yet Leeds end up getting a one-all draw through a penalty. We’ll just keep picking up points.”