Town boss Mick McCarthy is hoping for favourable weather as the Blues go into a rare period of 10 days between Championship fixtures. Next Saturday’s home game against Reading has moved to the following Tuesday - February 2nd - as the Royals are in FA Cup fourth round action against Walsall at the Madejski Stadium.
The free week means McCarthy and his staff will have more time to work with the players on the training field, as long as the weather doesn’t throw a spanner in the works as it already has done on previous occasions this month.
"If we could get on the pitches, that would be handy,” the Blues manager said. "If they’re not frozen or flooded that would be a real help.
"[When games come Saturday-Tuesday] you just turn around and get playing. It’s unusual but nevertheless [the Reading game will] come around pretty quickly.
"We’ll have a couple of days in the week but then we’ll be back to Tuesday-Saturday again.”
When they face Reading the Blues will be looking to stretch their remarkable winning run at Portman Road on Tuesday nights to 16 games, their last Tuesday home non-victory having been the 2-0 defeat to Watford in February 2013.
Town could have another free weekend due to their scheduled opposition’s FA Cup commitments in February.
Blackburn, who are currently down to visit Portman Road on Saturday 20th February, the weekend of the fifth round, face Oxford United at the Kassam Stadium in a fourth round tie this Saturday.