Keeper Neil Alexander is Town's only doubt ahead of Saturday's trip to West Brom with his wife Joanne still close to give birth to their second child. Striker Alan Lee is fine after aggravating a hamstring in training earlier in the week.

Alexander will travel to the Midlands with the rest of the squad later today, but may be called back to Suffolk if his wife goes into labour. The Scottish international was in a similar position ahead of the Watford game.

If Alexander does make the return trip home before the match, Shane Supple will take over and academy keeper Andy Plummer will be called upon to make the journey to the Hawthorns to sit on the bench.

Town's back four is again expected to be unchanged with Dan Harding on the left, David Wright on the right and Jason De Vos and Alex Bruce in the centre. Fabian Wilnis serves the final game of his three-match ban for his sending off at Plymouth, while Richard Naylor is still a little way off a return to action after his summer toe surgery.

Owen Garvan and Tommy Miller are likely to continue in central midfield with Sylvain Legwinski on the bench. Gary Roberts was once again less than effective at Watford but, with Matt Richards again left out of the squad, looks set to keep his place on the left of midfield.

Jon Walters will be on the right with Jaime Peters probably coming off the bench at some point in the second half. Gavin Williams is out of action until December with ankle ligament damage.

Top scorer Lee was forced off by a hamstring problem at Watford a fortnight ago and was expected to be OK until he aggravated the injury earlier in the week. However, the Irishman was back in training yesterday and will start alongside Pablo Couñago.

Dean Bowditch has been called into the first team squad for the first time this season with Danny Haynes serving the second game of a three-match ban for his recent red card in the reserves. Bowditch, who netted a hat-trick for the second string against Southend on Monday, could join Billy Clarke on the bench.

Magilton says he wants his side to be more positive than they have been on recent trips: “We have to attack games away from home as we do at home. I believe we have enough about us to take teams on away from home.

“We want to start quickly at home and we should expect us also be doing that away too.

“We don't train any differently before an away game than we do for a home match, so there is no reason not to approach the game differently.”

Saturday's match sees Magilton come up against former Town team-mates Tony Mowbray and Mark Venus, manager and assistant boss at the Hawthorns respectively.

The Blues boss says he speaks to the pair frequently: “Tony and Mark are two good lads. They are desperate for me to do well and I am desperate for them to do well.

“We are regularly exchanging views on football, but I won't be making calls to them this week.

“I enjoy way they play and they will be judged on this season. For me, Tony is the brightest young manager around - and he will prove it. Joining West Brom will prove a good move for them both. I rate Tony very highly.”

Mowbray is similarly confident of a big future for Magilton: "I would imagine that when Ipswich chairman David Sheepshanks interviews and employs people he's aware of the philosophies and ideals of the football club and what the support base expect.

"I think with Jim Magilton being a player who only ever wanted to play, pass and move, he knew the football team would be bred in that image.

"I know Jim very well because we played a lot together and he will put those sorts of demands on his players.

"Jim Magilton is a great football man who loves the game with a passion. He could keep you there for hours just talking football. It seeps out of him, he loves it and can't get enough of it.

"He is a different person to me because I'm a bit more laid back than he is. He's a more vociferous character who says what he thinks and lets everybody know what he thinks.

"That's his style and I love talking to him because you can hear the passion in his voice when he's talking football. I'm sure he will go a long way and enjoy a successful career."

It has been a summer of flux at the Hawthorns after their failure to win promotion back to the Premiership at the first attempt, despite having the advantage of parachute payments and a relatively unchanged squad.

Mowbray brought in 13 players, while eight left and the former Town skipper and coach says this was necessary with several members of his squad not committed to the cause: “The vibes had been very much there of a little bit of discontent within the dressing room.

“I don't think it was advisable, even during the week building up to the play-off final, that there were players' advisors talking about players leaving.

“There was a lack of focus from certain areas and it was pretty evident that needed to change and the chemistry had to improve.

“I have to give great credit to the chairman for achieving the value on players, some of them, that I was happy to facilitate.

“The chairman got good prices for them which enabled us to bring in the quality footballers that we have and hopefully the club moves on and moves forward.”

Mowbray has had five players away with international sides this week - Chris Brunt (Northern Ireland), Carl Hoefkens (Belgium), Zoltan Gera (Hungary), Craig Beattie (Scotland) and Robert Koren (Slovenia) — but all returned without new injury problems, leaving him with a full squad from which to pick his side.

The West Brom attack is expected to be led by Kevin Phillips, scorer of a hat-trick in the Baggies' 5-1 hammering of the Blues at Portman Road last season, who was very close to joining Town in the summer of 1997 before signing for Sunderland. Keeper Dean Kiely was on loan at Portman Road in 1989 but failed to make a first team appearance in his month with the Blues.

Last season's corresponding fixture ended 2-0 to the home side with Diomansy Kamara, now with Fulham, scoring both goals. The Baggies currently sit in 10th place in the Championship table on six points after two home wins and two away defeats. TWTD's West Brom counterpart on the new ClubFanzine network is WBAlbion.com.

Saturday's referee is Jonathan Moss from West Yorkshire, who has shown eight yellow and no red cards in four games so far this season. Moss's previous Town match was the 3-0 home victory over Plymouth in March in which he red-carded Pilgrims defender Mathias Doumbe after just two minutes. Moss was also in charge of last season's games at Leicester, which Town lost 3-1, and the 0-0 FA Cup draw at Chester.

Squad: Alexander, Bruce, Bowditch, Casement, Clarke, Couñago, De Vos, Garvan, Harding, Lee, Legwinski, T Miller, Peters, Roberts, Supple, Walters, Wright.

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