Town boss Mick McCarthy has reminded skipper Luke Chambers that he heads for Charlton tomorrow just one yellow card away from incurring a one-game suspension.
But while Chambers admits he had overlooked the fact, he is adamant it will not lead to him altering his approach at The Valley for a game that kicks off at 12.30pm and will be played in front of the Sky Sports cameras.
Chambers said: "I didn’t know I was on four bookings until I came in this morning and the gaffer pointed it out.
"He said that if I didn’t get booked again this year I would be clear again. I’ve only had that situation once in my whole career, where I’ve had five bookings and missed a game, and it’s not something I’ll be looking at doing.
"Middlesbrough next Friday night isn’t a game I want to be missing. I don’t think you could say I have a bad disciplinary record — I’ve only had a couple of sendings off in my career and both of them I completely disagreed with!
"But we don’t want to be a team that doesn’t make tackles or isn’t physical, which is what we possibly were after our first five games of the season. We weren’t tackling or getting about teams as much but we’ve been back at it in recent weeks.
"We went to Blackburn and they did to us what we usually do to teams. I think that was a bit of a wake-up call and we thought about it. Also, I think teams looked at us from last year and based their game on what we did to the opposition.
"It’s always going to be difficult the second season around. Over the Christmas period we’re going to have an even stronger squad in my opinion, with lots of options for the gaffer.
"We’re in a good place at the moment, albeit after a disappointment last Saturday when we only got one point from the game against Wolves, despite dominating it.”
Chambers is the only Town player currently on four bookings but Jonas Knudsen, Christophe Berra, Jonny Parr, Jonathan Douglas and Cole Skuse are all on three.