 Tuesday, 12th Apr 2011 12:35 Town boss Paul Jewell has hinted that he could recall midfielder Lee Martin to his side when the Blues take on Middlesbrough at Portman Road tonight looking to win four league games in a row for the first time since 2004. Martin has missed the last two matches having been suspended after picking up his 10th booking of the season. Jewell says Martin has impressed him while he’s been out of the side: “Lee’s trained very well since he’s been out suspended and I will seriously consider the team, as I do every game. “I think that just because you’ve won it doesn’t automatically mean that the next team picks itself, although I’m not one for making huge changes for the sake of it. “But if there’s something that in my opinion needs tweaking, whether we win, lose or draw, I think I have to do that.” The Blues boss is happy with the progress his team has made since he took over at Portman Road in January but says there’s always scope to get better even for the best teams: “I think you can say that about Manchester United — there’s always room for improvement. Since I’ve been here the lads have done terrifically well. “I watched the tape of the Millwall game last night and the team is unrecognisable. There haven’t been too many changes really, but I think the players have responded well. “They were looking down the barrel at relegation, to be brutally honest. They were three points off the bottom three and looked like a team which was going to slip into it. “We’ve fought our back and have had some decent results, but we’ve also had a few hiccups on the way. “I don’t know what points per game we’ve got but someone told me the other day that we’d be somewhere near the play-offs if we could repeat that over the season. If we can hang on to that, and improve the squad, it should give us hope for the future.” Since Jewell took over ahead of the Millwall match on January 15th, the Blues have scored 27 points in 16 games at 1.69 points per match, which would put them 0.04 of a point off the play-off pace over that period. Jewell says restoring the squad’s belief was one of the major tasks when he took over: “I think there’s just been a big improvement in the players’ demeanour. They were low on confidence, they’d been beaten by seven at Chelsea, although they’d had a great win against Arsenal. “They just needed picking up. Every manager does his own thing, we all do things differently. I’d never be as crass as to comment on other managers because we’re all different - there’s no right way or wrong way, it’s our way. “There’s no magic wand, we’ve just got the players enjoying training, enjoying playing football and I think in a lot of our performances you can see that.” The Town manager says he’s not faced his Boro counterpart from the dug-outs before: “I don’t think I have. I played against him when he was in a good Middlesbrough team when he and Gary Pallister were the centre-halves. “He was there when they closed the gates and all that. They had a good team with Peter Beagrie, Gary Parkinson, Stephen Pears, Stewart Ripley, Bernie Slaven and Gary Hamilton. He was a good player in a good team.” The man known as Mogga took over at the Riverside after Gordon Strachan’s departure in October and Jewell empathises with the job he has had to do on Teesside, having been in a similar position at Town: “It’s difficult to take over a team halfway through the season, especially when you’re down the bottom of the table fighting. “You just want to make sure you stay up and then try and get your squad together over the summer months if you can. “People would have expecting Boro to be near the top of the division, I know I was, but it hasn’t worked out for whatever reason. I’m sure Tony will keep them up. They had a good result on Saturday against Sheffield United and they’ll be a force next season.” As ever, the Blues boss is expecting a tough match: “There are no easy games in this league. Look at Scunthorpe on Saturday, they beat QPR. They also beat Forest and they beat Swansea and they’re bottom of the league. It’s madness, it really is. “That’s what makes it so tough. There’s no game you can go into thinking you can just get through it, you have to be full tilt.” Jewell is likely to stick with Arran Lee-Barrett in goal, the former Town academy schoolboy having earned a new contract with his home-town club. Carlos Edwards and Mark Kennedy will probably be the full-backs with Damien Delaney and Gareth McAuley at the centre of the defence. In midfield, Jimmy Bullard and Grant Leadbitter are likely to play just behind David Norris with Josh Carson on one flank - if he remembers - and Lee Martin perhaps returning on the other. That would see Connor Wickham move up front and Jason Scotland drop to the bench. Kieron Dyer, who came on as a sub in the second half on Saturday, has returned to West Ham at the end of his loan. Mowbray, whose side are seven points and four places behind the Blues in 17th having played a game fewer, says the match won’t be much like their 2-1 win at Bramall Lane on Saturday: “Ipswich are a completely different team to Sheffield United and so we have to approach the game accordingly. “It means that we will be making changes. Ipswich play with two wingers and pass the ball around. Their full-backs push forward and they’ve also got Jimmy Bullard back who’s a very talented midfield player. I saw Ipswich score six at Doncaster so I know what they are capable of. “We have to go out there with a fit team and play in a different way than we did at Sheffield United, but still set our stall out to try to win the game.” Midfielder Nicky Bailey is a doubt with an ankle ligament problem sustained at Bramall Lane, while Scot Kevin Thomson could return after a long spell out with a leg injury. Another Scottish midfielder, Barry Robson, misses out with a hamstring injury, as does Leroy Lita, while fellow striker Jonathan Franks has an ankle problem. Keeper Jason Steele has a torn muscle in his side and defender Justin Hoyte, a Town loan target during his days at Arsenal, is another one with a hamstring injury. Youngster Luke Williams has an ankle problem and Willo Flood’s not yet ready for a first team return having injured his knee in the game against Town on the opening day but Merouane Zemmama could be in contention after a thigh strain. Stephen McManus, who Roy Keane tried to bring to Portman Road from Celtic on a number of occasions during his time in charge at Portman Road, is expected to be fine despite having stitches to a head wound on Saturday. Boro defender Matthew Bates spent time on loan with Town in the 2006/07 season, making two appearances before a cruciate knee ligament injury saw him return home. Teessiders boss Tony Mowbray is a former Town skipper, coach and caretaker-manager and netted the Blues’ first goal in the play-off final victory over Barnsley at Wembley in 2000, his final game as a player. Mowbray’s assistant is Mark Venus, who was also part of George Burley’s Blues side. No current member of the Town squad has played for Boro. Town have had the better of Middlesbrough over the years, winning 27 games (25 in the league), drawing 11 (11) and losing 16 (15). On the opening day of the campaign at the Riverside, goals from Tommy Smith, Tamás Priskin and Jon Stead saw Town come behind to win 3-1 against then-Championship favourites Boro having been a goal down at half-time. Despite Scott McDonald putting the home side in front, the Blues were the better side throughout and the result hardly flattered Roy Keane’s men. At Portman Road in February last year, loan striker Daryl Murphy netted in the first minute of his debut and David Wheater scored just after the hour mark in a 1-1 draw. The Blues, who have won three Championship matches on the trot, last won four league games in a row in October and November 2004 - Preston (H), Sheffield United (H), Burnley (A) and Leeds (H). Tonight’s referee is Mick Russell from Hertfordshire, who has shown 74 yellow and four red cards in 36 games so far this season. Russell’s most recent Town match was the 2-0 home victory over Bristol City earlier in the season in which he booked Robins winger Ivan Sproule and no one else. The Blues are yet to be beaten in their eight games in which Russell has officiated. Likely squad: Lee-Barrett, Fülöp, Edwards, Kennedy, Delaney, McAuley, O’Dea, Bullard, Leadbitter, Norris, Healy, Peters, Drury, Martin, Carson, Civelli, Wickham, Scotland.
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