Boss Mick McCarthy has confirmed that midfielder Ryan Tunnicliffe will be available for Town’s New Year’s Day game against Charlton at Portman Road. The Manchester United man’s initial loan spell was due to end today and there had been concerns that the paperwork on his new deal until the end of the season might not go through in time for him to feature against the Addicks, but McCarthy says he will be involved.

The Town manager says Tunnicliffe, who celebrated his 21st birthday yesterday, briefly returned to Old Trafford yesterday: “He went back up to Manchester United to see David Moyes but he was back in here this morning, he’s back in and he’ll be signed up and ready for us for January 1st, for the Charlton game.

“He’s fine, he’s back with us. I think they all went back just to have a chat and to see what was happening and just to see their manager and see what he was thinking.

“I think they’ve all had that discussion and he’s happy with him here, he’s playing every week and he’s come back.”

Winger Stephen Hunt, who has been out with a hamstring injury, will miss the Charlton game, as will recent signing Sylvan Ebanks-Blake, but both will feature in the FA Cup tie against Preston at Portman Road on Saturday.

“Hunty’s doing fine, he trained with Andy Liddell today, he did quite a session, actually," McCarthy said. "I’d expect him to train fully on Thursday with a view to being involved on Saturday in the FA Cup.

“Everyone else is fine. Sylvan will be involved on Saturday, we’ve earmarked that for his debut and he won’t be involved, but everybody else is fine.”

McCarthy says he will weigh up whether to make changes having named the same XI for the last five games.

Meanwhile, the Blues and Sheffield Wednesday are reported to be keeping tabs on former Town loanee Massimo Lunogo, who is now with League One Swindon.

The 21-year-old was on loan with the Blues in the early stages of last season from Spurs before being sent back to White Hart Lane by Mick McCarthy soon after he took over as manager. The Australian subsequently joined the Robins for £400,000 in the summer after a loan, signing a three-year deal.

Elsewhere, Watford have been fined £5,000 by the FA after accepting misconduct charges relating to their appeal against Town's penalty in the recent 1-1 draw at Portman Road.

Photo: Action Images

kuyski added 14:54 - Dec 31 Well done MM and Happy New Year all of you.
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ntoms97 added 14:57 - Dec 31 Happy birthday Tunners and happy new year everyone
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essextractorboy93 added 14:58 - Dec 31 Good news about Tunnicliffe, he has that bit of quality in his game which hopefully we will see more of. Need to get some goals from the centre of midfield. Will be exciting to see Ebanks-Blake in the match against Preston, really good signing on a free transfer.
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jrebrooklands added 15:00 - Dec 31 Personally i would like to see jordan graham get a start and while i wpuld say him to swap with luke hyam i dont know if that would help with recent form im thinking a 4-4-2 because lately we have been beaten in the midfield its between murphy and.nouble who both had.good apperances last time out
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PimsNumber1 added 15:12 - Dec 31 why would mick look at lunago again having sent him back to spurs . amazed he ended up in league one from PL reserves and they paid 400k for him which is alot to a league 1 team .Was a sort of creative midfielder and maybe he has improved
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PimsNumber1 added 15:13 - Dec 31 Tunners has had a hatfull of fairly easy chances since being with us and has not converted. started off well on the left , went dead in the middle and revived a bit the last few games in the middle. strange pattern of form .
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irishtim added 15:13 - Dec 31 Tunnicliffe has improved. Glad he is staying on. 3 points tomorrow would be brilliant. SEB to score saturday my bet of the weekend. Hope everyone has a safe & Happy New Year. Good Health to All.
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jollyroger added 15:46 - Dec 31 Happy birthday tunners celebrate with a goal tomorrow . And a happy new year to all town fans
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Garv added 15:51 - Dec 31 Gerken Chambers Berra Smith Cresswell Hyam Skuse Tunnicliffe Taylor Mcgoldrick Murphy
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megamoth added 15:51 - Dec 31 That's a big "no-go" to your spelling of Luongo
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Tractamatt added 16:02 - Dec 31 That's great news. Happy new year to all
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Mark added 16:25 - Dec 31 I'm glad Tunnicliffe is staying. If he can push on in the second half of the seasaon, it will really help our bid for the play-offs.
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IpswichLewis added 16:26 - Dec 31 Gerken Chambers smith Berra mings Tunnicliffe Skuse Cresswell Taylor mcgoldrick Murphy
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StowTractorBoy added 16:29 - Dec 31 If you saw the Jordan Graham cameo at Doncaster you would not pick him to start. True it was difficult for him to make an impression but the little time he was on he was totally ineffective. Only my opinion. Good news about Tunnicliffe he is the one midfield player who does drive forward and take opponents on. Happy New Year to all at TWTD and all its subscribers.

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masetheace added 16:31 - Dec 31 Not more of these Taylor lovers . Please someone tell me what he has done to earn a start.
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IpswichLewis added 16:34 - Dec 31 Taylor hasn't been given a chance?
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IpswichLewis added 16:35 - Dec 31 He has to be better than 50p head frank Nouble who is 6ft 5, built like a brick sh*t house (no racism intended), and can't head or hold up the ball...?
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RYITFC added 16:52 - Dec 31 I thought Luongo looked a very good player when he was here, was unlucky to have come here at the wrong time! But lets be honest he isn't the type of player Mick would typically go for and he did end his loan spell early so a move for him would seem highly unlikely!
2

Karlosfandangal added 17:00 - Dec 31 Everytime I say about Taylor i get shot down. The Posh fans were not impressed with him on his loan spell and when we signed him they said he is not a team player and too hot headed, yet most Ipswich fans have only seen him play about 7 games and think he is a goal machine who will light up this league and send Ipswich to the top of the table. Have a feeling that McCarthy has an idea of players and i think Gerken is a good point. Play Loach he is a local lad got Ipwich in his blood and yet the same fans are now voting Gerken as MOTM 3 out of the last 4 games. Murphy has done more for Ipswich than Taylor yet he still gets bad press on here

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yorksblue added 17:24 - Dec 31 Agree that Graham looked liked a prima donna at Donny, and was found out every time he touched the ball, even tho he was on for a few mins.
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gcasselton1 added 17:39 - Dec 31 I think people calling for Taylor to be given more of a chance are just desperate to see a bit of flair in the Ipswich side, plus it's hard to watch a player who cost more than our first team line-up sat on the bench. We might not be much to watch but we're not losing and I think that's the most important thing at this stage.
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Tractamatt added 19:07 - Dec 31 Ipswich Lewis: No Cresswell are we so sure he's going I'm not infact if McCarthy let him go I'd be more than surprised.
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