Town new boy Alex McCarthy is looking to make an instant impact after arriving on a three-month loan from Reading.

The England U21 cap said he hopes to make his debut at Birmingham this evening and insisted he was not put off by the club’s miserable defensive record.

McCarthy, who was 22 last month and stands 6ft 4ins tall, said: “Obviously, I have seen that Ipswich have conceded quite a lot of goals.

“But I am hopeful that will soon change. I want to keep clean sheets and it would be nice to get one on my debut.

“I’ve had a couple of days training with the lads and I am hoping to play at Birmingham, although I know that no manager can guarantee a player anything.”

Town may have conceded more goals — 47 — than any of their Championship rivals, but McCarthy’s record during a recent six-game loan spell with Leeds was impressive.

He only once featured on the losing side, shipping a mere four goals in 540 minutes of football in just over a month at Elland Road.

McCarthy said it was an easy decision to join Ipswich, adding: “After Leeds I wanted to carry on playing — that was my main priority.

“My long-term future is at Reading. I have signed until 2015 but for the time being the most important thing is coming here and playing games.”

He consulted his England Under-21 colleague, ex-Town striker Connor Wickham, and was encouraged with what the Sunderland star had to say.

McCarthy said: “Connor was here for a few years and he said it was a great club to play for. He said there was a good bunch of lads here and a good staff, which made it an easy decision.

“Players need to play and goalkeepers are the same. There is only so much you can do in training and you need to be playing if you are going to reach the next level.”

Photo: Action Images

footballfriend added 09:00 - Jan 11 good luck boyo, a few clean sheets will do us a world of good
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bigfish added 09:00 - Jan 11 All the best a clean sheet would be ace.
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oldelsworthyfan added 09:02 - Jan 11 Some leadership in our penalty area would be a great help against set pieces.
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Karlosfandangal added 09:05 - Jan 11 Still have no idea why we have got this lad on loan if our keepers are that bad we need to be looking for a new one for the long term. All these loan players dont work, Andrews and Collins did well for us but we are still near the bottom and they have now gone. We are not offering new contracts out except for Leadbetter and Carson so we could end up with no team at all come the end of the season and then it will be another 13 or 14 players coming in on short term deals

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bluelady added 09:12 - Jan 11 Karlos agree but NO keeper is going to want to join us permanently at the moment. lets get out of this rut, move up the table then look to sign a keeper, have much chance of getting someone decent in then and not a desperation buy..... I am not really sure this lad has any idea what he is letting himself in for, a majority of the goals were conceeded with Stockdale in goal and they dont come an awful lot better than him in this league anyway!

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irishtim added 09:19 - Jan 11 Best of luck u will need it
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Legend added 09:20 - Jan 11 Best of luck son. You will need it with the four you have in front of you.
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JimmyJazz added 09:37 - Jan 11 Leeds didn't have a great defensive record before he arrived - not as bad as ours - and he did make a difference
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itfc1981 added 10:02 - Jan 11 I am sure you will get plenty of practice.
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oldelsworthyfan added 10:15 - Jan 11 What better place for a goalkeeper to hone his skills than behind our 'defence'!
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Surco72 added 10:28 - Jan 11 Karlosfan.. i think we all realise Jewell doesnt see ALB as a long time solution or now even a short term one .This young keeper is a lot better and will benefit us till the end of the season and then i believe Loach will join in the summer as he is out of contract and it seems a done deal
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Karlosfandangal added 10:49 - Jan 11 Bluelady and Surco 72 Agree My worry if the fact as you said Bluelady Stockdale was a very good keeper and if we sign St Ledger, who IMO is not in the same class as Collin, I can see how they will push us out of this mess. Better or no worse than what we have but with the Stockdale, Collins and Andrews we still find us near the bottom.
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scooterblue added 11:58 - Jan 11 Good luck , you'll get plenty of practice.
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casanovacrow added 12:48 - Jan 11 Good luck, you'll need it
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