Boss Mick McCarthy is looking for his second-placed Town side to record their fourth away win of the season at Bolton on Saturday, but admits that he wouldn’t be too unhappy with a draw against the resurgent Trotters. The Blues will go top of the Championship for the first time since the opening day of the 2011/12 season if they beat Bolton and leaders Derby fail to win away against fourth-placed Middlesbrough.
"You know my philosophy on that, if we got a point I’d take it now,” McCarthy said before reflecting on his side’s last-gasp 1-0 away win at the Valley a fortnight ago.
"And that was probably the case at Charlton, actually. We’d got a point, I was happy with it and it was just our good fortune to have Jonny on the spot, or Hunty on the spot, and ended up with the three points.
"We’ll be going up to try and win, but if we end up with a point I won’t be complaining.”
So far this season two of the Blues’ three defeats have come on the road, at Reading and at Cardiff, while five of their away trips have ended in draws.
They have lost just one of their last nine away games and are unbeaten in their last three on their travels, seven overall and have lost just once in their last 16 matches.
Bolton, who are unbeaten in their last five games home and away, have won all four of their matches at the Macron Stadium under new manager Neil Lennon, who took over in October and has seen his team out of the bottom three and up to 17th.
McCarthy expects the Trotters to be a far more difficult proposition than they would have been only a short time ago: "They’re five unbeaten. It’s funny, isn’t it? A new manager comes in, changes it around, does whatever he does, finds some sort of formula, some shape, some team, does something and suddenly it picks up.
"And then with that performances pick up, results pick up, the atmosphere picks up, the team spirit picks up and I’m sure they’ll be a tougher prospect for us than they would have been a few weeks ago.”
McCarthy says he knows Lennon although not well and was impressed with the job he did at one of the clubs where he spent time as a player: "Neil Lennon’s quite clearly a good manager, he did well at Celtic.
"The championships he won are one thing but he did well in the Champions League as well.”
He added: "There’s no doubt that they’ve always had good players. For whatever reasons it doesn’t work out, we all know that, I’ve been at clubs myself and it ends up not working out.
"Somebody just finds whatever it is that changes it, but they’ve got good players and they’ve had good players since they came down from the Premier League.”
McCarthy is unlikely to stray too far from the side which beat Leeds 4-1 at Portman Road last week.
Bartosz Bialkowski will continue in goal with skipper Luke Chambers at right-back, Tyrone Mings on the left and Christophe Berra and Tommy Smith at the heart of the defence.
The Town boss will have to decide whether to employ a three or four-man midfield. If he sticks with the 4-4-2 system utilised last week then Jay Tabb could move out to the left with Stephen Hunt missing the trip having picked up a virus.
Kevin Bru and Teddy Bishop, who scored for the U21s in their 3-2 victory over Brentford on Tuesday, will be in contention for the central role alongside Cole Skuse - Luke Hyam is still sidelined due to his achilles injury - with Paul Anderson on the right and David McGoldrick and 13-goal Championship top scorer Daryl Murphy up front.
If McCarthy returns to his 4-3-3 formation then Bru or Bishop could join Skuse and Tabb in the midfield with Anderson perhaps moving back into the front three role he occupied at Bournemouth recently.
Noel Hunt, who is available again having been ineligible against his parent club Leeds, and Conor Sammon are other alternatives as the third frontman alongside McGoldrick and Murphy.
Winger Cameron Stewart, still to make his debut having signed for the Blues in the summer, could be amongst the subs having impressed his boss when also scoring for the U21s on Tuesday.
Bolton manager Lennon has a lot of time for McCarthy and says it's the most difficult game since he took over.
"Personally I think they have got the best manager in the Championship,” he told the Bolton News.
"Mick has been there, done that a couple of times with Sunderland and Wolves. He not only qualified for a World Cup with Ireland but also took them to the last 16.
"He has built Ipswich up again. It has taken a bit of time but he seems to be in a good place with the team right now. This will be the toughest test we’ve had since coming into the club.”
The 43-year-old knows Town’s front two will be a threat: "McGoldrick is a very, very good player. I saw him play for Ireland a few weeks ago and he was excellent.
"I know Daryl Murphy well from my time at Celtic. It didn’t really work out for him there but he seems to be really happy under Mick and he gets the best out of him. They play the way Mick wants them to and they have been very successful.”
Bolton will be without striker Craig Davies, due to a hamstring problem, with on-loan Cardiff man Joe Mason his probable deputy. Youngsters Conor Wilkinson and Zach Clough are other options.
Veteran Icelander Eidur Gudjohnsen, who rejoined the Trotters earlier in the week 14 years after moving on, is expected to be on the bench.
The final appearance of his previous spell with Bolton was the first leg of the 1999/00 play-off semi-final against Town in which he scored his side’s second goal as the game ended 2-2. He was later subbed and missed Town’s dramatic 5-3 victory in the second leg through injury.
The 36-year-old was subsequently targeted by Town that summer and was also linked on a number of other occasions.
Full-back Kevin McNaughton remains out with a hamstring injury, while Mark Davies (knee) and Marc Tierney (leg) are longer-term absentees.
Historically, the Blues just have the edge, having won 16 times (14 in the league), Bolton 13 (nine) and with eight (seven) games between the teams ending in draws. Town are unbeaten in their last four games against the Trotters.
The teams last met at Portman Road in February when McGoldrick’s 55th minute penalty saw Town to a 1-0 victory.
The striker had been hauled back by Trotters’ keeper Andy Lonergan after he had dropped a high ball.
In October last year at what was then known as the Reebok Stadium, McGoldrick netted his first ever away goal for Town to see the Blues to a 1-1 draw.
After a first half in which Ryan Tunnicliffe should have put the Blues in front, Medo Kamara opened the scoring for the home side with a freekick in the 65th minute, McGoldrick equalising with a left-foot strike eight minutes later.
Former Blue Liam Trotter joined Bolton from Millwall in January, initially on loan before the switch was made permanent in the summer.
The Ipswich-born 26-year-old, who was a member of the Blues’ 2005 FA Youth Cup-winning side, hasn’t featured for the Trotters since a sub appearance on October 31st and has made only one league start this season.
Owen Garvan, also in that Town FA Youth Cup-winning side, is currently on loan with Bolton from Crystal Palace having spent time training with the Blues in the summer. The Irishman, 26, made the last of his three Trotters appearances in September.
Former Town loanee Keith Andrews, 34, is still a Bolton employee but is spending the season on loan at Watford.
The Town ticket office sold 700 seats for the game with tickets available for cash only on the away turnstiles on the day of the game with no price increase.
The match is the featured game on BBC1's The Football League Show on Saturday night.
Saturday’s referee is Gary Sutton from Lincolnshire, who has shown 46 yellow cards and three red in 16 games so far this season.
Sutton’s last Town match was the 3-1 defeat at Watford in April when he booked three home players and no Blues.
Squad from: Bialkowski, Gerken, Chambers (c), Parr, Mings, Berra, Smith, St Ledger, Skuse, Tabb, Bru, Bishop, Anderson, Ambrose, Stewart, Henshall, McGoldrick, Murphy, N Hunt, Sammon, Bajner.