Town should have defensive duo Tommy Smith and Gareth McAuley available for selection for Saturday’s live Sky game against Sheffield Wednesday (KO 5.20pm). The return of Smith and McAuley gives manager Roy Keane a selection dilemma with Alex Bruce and Damien Delaney impressing at centre-half in recent weeks.

Smith is involved in this afternoon’s reserve game at Luton after recovering from his hand injury, while McAuley is over the thigh problem which kept him out of Northern Ireland’s friendly with Serbia at the weekend.

Keane told the club site: "Hopefully Gareth should be available for Saturday and we will see how Tommy is, but he should be OK.

"The squad is getting stronger with the only two missing being David Norris and Luciano Civelli, who are both doing well."

Norris is set to return before Christmas, while Civelli is likely to be back in the new year. Both midfielders have been out with knee ligament injuries, Norris since the opening day of the season and Civelli since March.

Meanwhile, former Blue Jai Reason is set to make his England C (Conference level national side) debut this evening in a friendly against Poland in Grodzisk Wielkopolski. Reason joined Cambridge United from Town in the summer on a free transfer after a loan spell last season.

Photo: Action Images

tort63 added 12:53 - Nov 17 Personally I'd stick with Bruce & Delaney in the middle after 2 solid performances together but it'll be good to have a bit more strength in depth.
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ITFC4EVER added 13:06 - Nov 17 i agree with you tort63. should stick with bruce and delany so we can get a partnership going
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COPOSTCODE added 13:13 - Nov 17 Leave as is at Moment Roy )
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itfc1970 added 13:15 - Nov 17 Keep Delaney at centre half as he has impressed - don't change what has worked in recent weeks. McCauley on the bench and then load the other options with pace and goals (if we have any...)
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NW10_Tractor added 13:27 - Nov 17 Knowing Keano which his chopping and changing, he is probably going to put Delaney and McAuley on the middle. Move Brucey to the bench and Smithy might not even travel?... what ever he decides, they all need to maintain their high standard as Richard Wood could be on his way to Town!
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devontractorboy added 13:34 - Nov 17 Changing 2 centre backs who have performed well in the last few games is madness, utter madness and shows Keane doesn't have a clue who is best 11 are!!
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nobrain added 13:35 - Nov 17 If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
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Surco72 added 13:46 - Nov 17 Lets all calm down slightly they have performed ok against Derby who struggled to get a side out and had only one up front and Reading who havent won at home for nearly a year and are near bottom of the form table . MaCauley was playing well before his injury and is a better player than both
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tort63 added 14:14 - Nov 17 Devontractorboy your persistent berating of the manager at every opportunity is getting very boring. You are criticising him for a decision that he hasn't even made yet! And even if he does plump for Smith & McAuley it's because he DOES know who his preferred central pairing is and no doubt would have continued to play them in the last 2 games had they not both been injured.

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VemundBrekkeSkard added 14:22 - Nov 17 Personally, I'd keep it as it has been. Bruce and Delaney might actually be on the verge of forming a proper defensive partnership (rather than the 'any two from the set' situation we've had up until now). At centre-back, consistency is key. You can't be confident as a defender unless you know who you're playing alongside very well - where's he's going to be, what he's going to do, how you can cover if he makes a mistake, etc. Sometimes a settled pairing can even be more important than the individual quality of the players, hence why some of our better defensive performances last year came with Naylor partnering McAuley, even though Bruce is a much better player. It's because they had formed a consistent partnership. Surely Keane will keep things as they are (well, until one of them makes a shocking error, then we'll be back to defensive musical chairs again). Bruce and Delaney all the way for me (until we sign Wood from Shef Wed anyway).

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nobrain added 14:23 - Nov 17 Point taken Surco72 - GM has certainly shown a great improvement since his earlier wobbles. But if RK does change things at the back and it doesn't work out, I bet there will plenty of people who accuse him of messing around with a winning (sorry, not losing) team.
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UEFA81 added 14:31 - Nov 17 He'll change things - he always does. The man knows nothing about stability either on or off the pitch and he will never know who his best 11 are as long as he has got a hole in his a*se. In fact, there can never be a best 11 for Roy because nobody wants to play for him - that's obvious. And can we blame them?
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VemundBrekkeSkard added 14:39 - Nov 17 That's a bit harsh UEFA81. People do want to play for him. Edwards and Leadbitter liked it so much at Sunderland that they wanted to come to Ipswich to play for him all over again. What you mean is that nobody with a "bad attitude" who won't "give 110% each and every week" wants to play for him. There's no problem for players who keep their mouths shut and pointlessly run around like idiots.

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nobrain added 14:49 - Nov 17 VemundBrekkeSkard - Edwards and Leadbitter "pointlessly run around like idiots", do they?
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rockstar1981 added 15:00 - Nov 17 UEFA81 why have you nothing constructive to say ever? We are now 5 games unbeaten and only 2 players away now from a fully fit squad. We have had such rotten luck with injuries and the occasional player spitting his dummy out when the going gets tough (not mentioning any names but OG comes to mind) I have full confidence in 3 points on Sat and will even do a bet with you. If we lose then I won't add any more comments to this site but if we win the boot is on the other foot and no one will have to listen to your whining schoolgirl drivel anymore. Accept?

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yorksblue added 15:01 - Nov 17 Should have kept Reason. He's quality. But then again, there's quite a few that we should have kept.
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NW10_Tractor added 15:05 - Nov 17 Now that is a challenge....
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VemundBrekkeSkard added 15:10 - Nov 17 Hmmm. Sorry, that last post didn't come out exactly as I intended. What I meant was he has no problem with you AS LONG AS you pointlessly run around like an idiot AS WELL AS obviously being good players as well. They are both great players (as they should be for what they cost), I'm not debating that at all, but if they showed a bad attitude and stopped pointlessly running around like idiots, even for a second, then they would be dropped. Hence also why he hates Garvan, and why you see Pablo running around a lot more these days, and chasing down loads more lost causes than he used to (and it has definitely improved his game, no doubt about it). Hope that clears things up a bit. Geez, I posted it to point out the flaw in an anti-Keane post and to point out how some players DO want to play for him, not to say "Keane out" or he's an idiot or anything. Remember the days when you could say things without people accusing you of hating the club?

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jamie22 added 15:42 - Nov 17 Lets not jump to conclusions people! Devontractorboy just be quiet.. where does it say he has done it? Has this anti Keane balls really gone this far? It really is a dilemma in my opinion! McAuley is the best CB out of the 4 with Bruce 2nd however Delaney catching up with Smith last purely because he is inexperienced but very good and promising! Smith and McAuley seemed to have a partnership going but disrupted may take a game at least recover it? Smith is going to Luton for reservers today so we can probably say that he won't be in the Sheffield Wednesday game so I hope that Keane does stick with the two however if he does change it we will still have people complaining that he knows nothing most probably! I am behind Keane all the way.... I'm not manager... none of us are and for that reason I will only listen to him! And ignore silly anti-Keane comments!

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UEFA81 added 16:27 - Nov 17 rockstar - a daft bet really isn't it? I hope it wasn't a serious suggestion. Let's be honest, no matter what the result I don't think either one of us could resist posting on this site. And why should either one of us not post on this site (or anybody else for that matter?). We are all Town fans at the end of the day and all have our own opinions. As i have stated before, I think Roy Keane at ITFC is like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole and will only lead to complete disaster. Your opinion obviously differs to mine but that doesn't make either one of us any more or any less loyal Town fans. So you bet is daft talk, but I do appreciate the gesture. Btw, what would have happened if we drew? Split the posts 50/50?

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UEFA81 added 16:28 - Nov 17 If I'm disgruntled with the choice of manager then I have a rights to voice my opinion about it.
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UEFA81 added 16:30 - Nov 17 Which I will continually do until he has gone.
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fizzyblue added 16:33 - Nov 17 I regret to say this but I think UEFA and CG amongst others are infact very good for this site (although i have slated them both before and will probably enjoy doing so in the future). They all spark a bit of debate and bring out loads of passion in the fans which is good to see. Would love us to shoot up the table in the forthcoming month so we can all give them a good battering, but not sure if its gunna be as easy as that.

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bedsitfc added 16:39 - Nov 17 mac in for bruce, and smith on the bench. let bruce drive garvan down to loftus road
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rockstar1981 added 16:49 - Nov 17 UEFA81 not suprised that you didn't take me up on the offer, if out of curiosity we extend this current unbeaten run to 10 maybe 15 games will you still continue with this "I hate Roy Keane he kills little pupppies" campaign? I'm not his biggest fan but at times like these we should all be pulling in the same direction and giving the club our 100% support. BTW if you want the draw I'm happy to give you it, i'm so confident of the 3 points on Sat

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