John McGreal and Marcus Bent are set to step into Joe Royle's starting line-up facing Wolverhampton Wanderers at Portman Road on Wednesday night. McGreal is definitely returns after a knee ligament injury while Bent clearly impressed his manager as a sub in the dramatic comeback against Sheffield United.

Town have only Finidi George out of training at the moment, the highly-paid Nigerian has a persistent hip injury and he will have a scan on the injury which has not cleared up as expected.

Manager Joe Royle, whose squad trained late on Tuesday due to frozen pitches, feels that the club going into administration has had little real effect on his players: “I think they were a little bit strange for a day. There've been meetings, but footballers are quite focussed, or at least they should be. It's about kicking a ball around. They've got to leave the politics to other people to some extent.

“It's not nice what's happened, it's not nice for a lot of people attached to the club as well as the people in the club, but we have to deal with it and the players have to get on with it.

“I thought that they came through the Sheffield United game, when there had been so much emotion about Dale, well and this is another one they've got to come through and I'm sure they will.”

Royle hopes that the rest since the game against the Blades will do his side good: “You can look at it two ways, when you've had a game like that you're desperate to get out on the pitch again, but equally one or two had little knocks and bruises, and certainly Chris Makin was helped by the extra three days. Chris would not have made it for Saturday but he is fit now.”

Makin, who picked up his knock during the Sheffield United game, seems set to start on the left of a back four with McGreal replacing the suspended Hermann Hreidarsson alongside Thomas Gaardsøe. Fabian Wilnis looks certain to remain at right-back with Matt Holland moving into the midfield.

Royle has ruled out bringing young Matt Richards into the side now that Makin is fit: “Had Chris not been fit then Matthew would have been a prime candidate. He's doing well but we must remember that he's a year behind the two Darrens in terms of age and experience.

“We're delighted with his progress and hopefully he'll be pressing soon. Our Academy has done very well for us, to say that we've got three lads who could be playing U19 football with the Academy in the first team squad is excellent.”

Marcus Bent's second half performance against Sheffield United was widely praised, not least by his manager: “He did do well. It's his best 45 minutes since I came here and Pablo is going to have a holiday [four-match suspension due to his red card], so there is all that to consider before picking the side.”

Royle says that Newcastle's recent bid for Darren Ambrose and Darren Bent has not affected them unduly: “They never stop smiling, they've got stick-on grins the pair of them. They are a joy, they just get on with it. They've not mentioned it to me, I've not mentioned it to them, there's nothing to mention. Newcastle haven't mentioned it to me, so why should I?”

The Town boss watched Wolves in action against Rochdale in the FA Cup at the weekend and felt they didn't have too much of a hard time: “They won fairly comfortably, they got nervous at 1-1 which is often the case when bigger clubs are playing against potential knock-out sides. We had a similar situation against Morecambe; you always worry about what might happen, but I think they won fairly comfortably in the end.

“I think you have to take a line between that performance and the Newcastle performance which was obviously their best. To beat Newcastle the way they did, shows that they can play.

“We know about Ince and Irwin and Kennedy, Ndah and players like that. They'll probably feel a little bit like we do, that on their day there's no one they fear in this division. So it's got the makings of a good game. I certainly feel they are one of the better teams.”

The Wolves side has a number of faces familiar to Royle: “Dennis Irwin was the best free I ever had. I can't believe we [Oldham] got him on a free and he went on to become the most expensive full-back in the country. He is the complete full-back over the last 10 years.

“He's a the dream pro, he missed very few games and when Alex Ferguson said that of all the players he bought he was the best one, you've got to listen.

“There's also Mark Kennedy who was a major influence on our promotion to the Premiership. He spent most of that Premiership season with City injured. He does seem to have troublesome hamstrings, but if he's playing he's their main source.

“When he didn't play at the end of last year their results suffered. When he does play their forwards are a lot happier so we've got to get hold of Mark.”

Wolves boss Dave Jones is hoping to have a full-strength squad ahead of their trip to Portman Road. George Ndah and Mark Kennedy are slight doubts but were expected to train today.

Jones has been impressed with Town this season: “Ipswich are still a very good side. They are a Premiership team, still having Premiership players and while it may have taken them that bit longer to adjust to this division than the others that came down, they are fighting and will certainly be wanting the points, just like us.

"All games are important when you get to this stage of the season and I'm sure both teams will be scrapping it out for points to make the play-offs.”

Photo: Action Images

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