Town manager Joe Royle is hoping that Tommy Miller and Darren Ambrose will be back in contention ahead of Saturday's home clash with Brighton and Hove Albion. The pair are due to be back in full training on Friday.

Miller has missed the last three games due to a hamstring injury while Ambrose has been struggling since the Norwich game with a knock to the knee, and has been left out of the last two matches.

Royle has no new injuries to worry about from training since Tuesday's win against Reading. Thursday morning saw the Town boss take his players for a jog along the river at Woodbridge.

Those players with lengthy problems, John McGreal, Finidi George, Hermann Hreidarsson and Mark Venus, are still continuing their recoveries. The club are awaiting the results of John McGreal's back scan.

Better news is that Alun Armstrong will be out of plaster next Tuesday after breaking his wrist in a recent reserve game. The striker will be put in a lighter cast and should be OK to play in the reserves match against Nottingham Forest at Playford Road next Wednesday afternoon.

The latter half of the season has seen Steve Coppell, who attended the same Liverpool schools as Royle but a few years later, turn Brighton's season around.

The Town manager is aware of their upsurge in form: “They're doing well. They were unfortunate, so our reports say, against Sheffield United the other night. Steven gets sides organised, he's got a great record with ‘lame ducks' as it were; he takes over when there's no money and a few players, and he does great.”

Bobby Zamora's hamstring injury will be a big blow to the Seagulls, however Royle says he's sceptical about some of the recent mentions of injuries from opposition managers: “He's struggling with a hamstring. If he's only out for ten days, as reports say, then it can't be that bad. But, we've heard all this before and I'll believe it when I see it. We heard that the other week from somebody and they turned up with everybody fit!

“They look a decent side. They are very hard working, for a half a game down there they had us on the rack and then we had the second half. It's not going to be an easy game. We've seen in this division that there's no such thing. I hope they stay up but not at our expense.”

Royle has words of praise for young midfielder Ian Westlake who came on as sub at Hillsborough last week: “When he came on at Sheffield Wednesday I thought he did excellently, I was very pleased with him. I'm told he was star man for the reserves last night as well.

"Being with the first team has given him a boost and he's taken his career on another step and joined the others. We've got a very promising crop of youngsters at the moment.”

With Zamora out Steve Coppell is hoping that Paul Kitson will be fit. Another striker, on loan Anthony Rougier, is also expected to miss out against the Blues before returning to Reading.

Likely Town Squad: Ambrose, D Bent, M Bent, Bowditch, Couñago, Gaardsøe, Holland, Makin, Magilton, Marshall, Miller, Naylor, Pullen, Reuser, Richards, Westlake, Wilnis and Wright.

Photo: Action Images

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