It’s another game against Bristol Rovers who will likely be sick of the sight of Ipswich Town having faced them in League One two seasons ago, in the Carabao Cup last year, when Town knocked them out with a 2-0 victory, and now the clubs face each other again in the third round of the FA Cup.

Only three players that started that Carabao Cup defeat at the beginning of last season are still at the club and it’s the same with Town with just Cieran Slicker, Omari Hutchinson and Jack Taylor still on the books or not out on loan.

Rovers have stabilised in League One since promotion in 2021/22 finishing in 17th and then 15th place but are struggling this season. The vice-president of the Rovers board said in a recent interview with podcast Gascast that their aim for the season was to finish between eighth to 12th. However, from the fan perspective expectations were lower. Lots of new players came in over the summer with 16 signings in total and a lot of those were young players who have taken a bit of time to bed in.

A bad run of recent form has seen Rovers slip to 20th and Matt Taylor, who replaced Joey Barton in November last season, has been sacked at a similar point this season.

His replacement, Inigo Calderon, is an interesting choice with no first-team managerial experience to date. The Spaniard spent six years playing for Brighton between 2010-2016 and returned to the club as U18s head coach in 2023 having previously been assistant manager at Spanish club Alaves.

Tactically, the Spaniard will look to implement an aggressive press, looking for overloads out wide with quick switches of play. He often plays a back four with holding midfielder and will likely implement this in his first senior managerial role.

Rovers have progressed to this round having beaten Weston-super-Mare in the first round before knocking out Barnsley in a 4-3 penalty shootout victory at Oakwell with the game finishing 0-0 in normal time.

Goalkeepers

Joshua Griffiths, on loan from West Brom, is Rovers starting goalkeeper. He’s made the most saves in League One with 79 and his save percentage of 70.5% puts him safely in the middle of the pack for all keepers.

He’s kept a respectable seven clean sheets, which is a solid number for a team struggling against relegation. He’s started both FA Cup games so far and saved one-time Town loanee Josh Earl's penalty in the shootout to put them through to this round, in addition to making a number of other saves in the game itself.

That means back-up keeper Matthew Hall is unlikely to play having made just two appearances this season, one in the EFL Trophy and another in a surprise league rotation in the 4-0 defeat to Swindon.

Defenders

Rovers have switched between a back four and a back five across the season but with Calderon coming in that looks set to be a consistent back four. Clinton Mola and former Town defender James Wilson had been the two ever-presents in the league before Calderon came in.

They are the top two defenders in the league for interceptions with 59 and 56 respectively. Wilson has been playing on the right side of a back three in a lot of games and should look more comfortable on his favoured left-hand side.

Mola on the other hand seems to be out of favour with Calderon and could be moved on in January.

Conor Taylor and Taylor Moore and the most likely to fill positions the right-hand side. Twenty-three-year-old Taylor joined from Stoke City in 2023 and the 6ft 8in tall defender has arguably been Rovers best player this season. A key part of that is his ability to win duels with a success rate of 74% and understandably an even higher rate for aerial ones.

Taylor Moore has featured at both centre-back and right-back this season. The 27-year-old returned to Bristol in the summer following a brief spell at Valenciennes in the French equivalent of League One having spent the majority of his career at rivals Bristol City without ever making the grade.

Bryant Bilongo and Lino Sousa are two names who could provide a more attacking option at left-back. Bilongo is more of a left midfielder who was utilised as wing-back in Matt Taylor’s formation and may have defensive vulnerabilities in a flat back four despite looking comfortable there in the 0-0 draw with Crawley earlier in the season.

Sousa is on his second loan away from Aston Villa having failed to get much game time for Plymouth in the Championship last season. He’s only 19 and with Calderon’s background being in the U18s he may be looking to try and get more out of his young players.

One of the players that Calderon seems to have liked since joining the club, Sousa has started the last two games at left-back. He’s comfortable on the ball and is great at progressing it down the left but has been guilty of dwelling on it for too long on occasions and losing it in his own half.

Twenty-five-year-old Joel Senior, who was picked up from Morecambe on a free, and the experienced Jack Hunt are the other options at the back.

Midfield

With Calderon preferring one defensive midfielder and two further forward, the obvious choice to play in that position for him is Kamil Conteh. The versatile midfielder was signed from Grimsby in the summer and has been a tackling machine. His 34 tackles won are the sixth-highest in the league which, along with his positioning, mean he has the perfect attributes to sit and protect the backline.

He is liable to give away fouls though with 37 conceded so far this season. He’s not featured recently due to a mysterious injury with no return date so is doubtful for this one.

Playing alongside Conteh for most of the season has been Jamie Lindsay, a player former manager Taylor knew from the pair's time at Rotherham. His recent form and a double yellow red card in the recent game against Stevenage won’t have helped his case for inclusion under the new manager and that took his total of yellows to six for the season.

A midfield three could also create more starting opportunities for another former Town player, Grant Ward. The 30-year-old has made 18 appearances but only nine have been starts. He scored the final goal, right at the end of extra-time, in the 3-1 win against Weston-super-Mare. Under Calderon he has made more starts, often as the deepest lying midfield dropping in to collect the ball from the goalkeeper.

The more attacking options in that area are Luke McCormick and Isaac Hutchinson. McCormick has been around league one for a while with his best spell coming for AFC Wimbledon in 2021/22 with seven goals and eight assists in 40 appearances. He’s struggled with consistency since then going goalless the following season and has just two goals this season.

Hutchinson, 24, was signed from Walsall in the summer. That move came off the back of an excellent season in League Two with 12 goals and 11 assists. He’s not quite made the same impact having stepped up a level with just one goal and one assist so far this season but he has been used largely out on the left wing under Taylor, whereas his productive season last year came in a more central role which Calderon seems to have reverted him to.

Romaine Sawyers is the only January transfer that is likely to be through the door for this one having left AFC Wimbledon by mutual consent at the beginning of the month. The 33-year-old comes with 233 Championship appearances and looks like a good signing.

Forwards

Shaquai Forde is another of Rovers new signings, joining from Watford in the summer. He has completed 1.6 successful dribbles per game (fifth in the league) and is another of the promising young players that the Gas have brought in. He made an impact from the bench in Rovers 3-2 defeat to Leyton Orient with an assist for his fourth goal involvement of the season.

He has competition for places on the wings in Luke Thomas, Scott Sinclair and Ruel Sotiriou.

Thomas is another in the squad with Town connections having spent the 20/21 season with Town but making only five appearances as he ended up taking a break from football to deal with personal issues. He’s become a regular for the Gas now making 37 appearances last season, scoring five times and assisting six. Gascast described him as a “fast, direct winger who chips in with the odd goal”.

Sinclair is entering the twilight of his career at 35 years old but has showed no signs of losing his pace. The Olympian (he played three games for Great Britain in 2012) provided experience down that side and has made 20 appearances, ten of which have been starts and contributed two goals so far, whilst also providing the assist for Thomas in their win against Cambridge with a well weighted cross to the far post.

Sotiriou is a 24-year-old Cypriot who had spent his entire career at Leyton Orient before being released in the summer. Rovers swooped in to pick him up on a free transfer. He scored 38 times in 172 appearances for Orient but only has one so far in a Rovers shirt.

Gatlin O’Donkor, 20, is on loan from Oxford and although is naturally a striker he has been used by Calderon on the wings providing more strength than some of his more diminutive wingers. Gascast described him as “very strong, fast and positive on the ball”. He’s only made three starts but may be needed more in this period with 24-year-old Irishman and Bristol Rovers top goalscorer with four goals, Promise Omechere, picking up and injury in the defeat to Leyton Orient.

That’s left a familiar face, 36-year-old former Canary Chris Martin as the only fit out and out striker in the squad. The Scotsman stepped off the bench against Orient to score a brace and his first two goals of the season and will no doubt be itching to score in this one and add to his four goals the he’s netted past the Super Blues in his career.

The Teams

You would expect Kieran McKenna to rotate heavily for this one as he did in the Carabao Cup first round against AFC Wimbledon. Cieran Slicker, Connor Townsend and Jack Clarke could all get rare starts with Clarke in particular having a lot to prove. New signings Ben Godfrey and Jaden Philogene are also likely to get minutes.

Of the Rovers team, Gascast think it’ll be a mix of players. “I think there will be an element of rotation due to a few injuries we have at the moment and our priority being surviving in League One. However, I think our starting XI will still probably feature five or six of the side that started our last league game - so more like a half and half side.”

Prediction

Rovers were on just one win in 11 prior to victory against Cambridge United but there are green shoots of promise appearing under Calderon. That and a more stable line-up makes this less of a walkover than you’d think.

Town looked disjointed with a number of changes and players bedding in against AFC Wimbledon and suffered a penalty exit there but will have the benefit of not having to travel and some added quality with the new signings, so I think they’ll have enough despite rotating heavily. I’m going for a 2-1 victory but as we know in these competitions, anything could happen.

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