Young striker Dean Bowditch will make his first Town start when the Blues travel to Notts County for their Carling Cup second round tie on Tuesday night (KO 7.45pm). With injuries hitting his squad Joe Royle includes a number of other youngsters in his 16.

Town have a long list of unavailable players including Chris Makin (thigh muscle tear) and Tommy Miller (bruised knee bone) who are both out for three weeks.

John McGreal and Martijn Reuser are still recovering from back and groin injuries respectively, while Nabil Abidallah has been suffering from tendinitis.

The weekend's win at home to Wimbledon saw Drissa Diallo and Darren Bent join the ranks of the injured, both picking up medial ligament problems. Bent is an outside chance for the game at Watford on Saturday while Diallo is out for a fortnight.

In addition to the injury problems, loanee Chris Bart-Williams has not been made available to Town by Charlton Athletic. Better news is that Alan Mahon has been given permission to line-up for the Blues.

Into the squad come for the first time come Northern Irish striker Sam Morrow, central defensive youngster Gerard Nash while midfielder Matt Bloomfield returns for the first time this season after a succession of injuries.

Manager Joe Royle has confirmed that two other academy products will be in his starting eleven: “Bowditch will make his full debut and Westlake will also play.

“That doesn't mean we're not taking the game seriously, we've got six seniors out at the moment. Four of them are long-term but we don't think Drissa and Darren will be long-term but they're certainly not fit for tomorrow.

Royle is keen to extend his side's winning run to three matches against the Magpies: “We desperately need to go on in this competition. I don't want to be losing a game after winning two. Winning is a good habit and we'd like to keep that going.

“We certainly don't want to be giant-killed by a side who are struggling. We seem to be playing someone in administration every week at the moment.”

Town have had scouts keeping an eye on Billy Deardon's team: “We've had them watched a couple of times. There's one of my old players there, Nick Fenton, who I sold when I was at Manchester City.

“The lad Mark Stallard has been a good striker around the leagues and Tony Barras is an experienced centre-half who I know from his Walsall days. We know all about them and they have improved lately. They're getting better, but so are we!”

One option Royle might have had on Tuesday was to hand Lewis Price a senior debut in goal, however he feels it is important for Kelvin Davis to get a second clean sheet of the season: “I'd like us to get a clean sheet tomorrow. Kelvin's played exceptionally well, making one mistake in eight games. He was certainly very annoyed on Saturday that he didn't get his clean sheet.”
Tuesday's referee is Paul Robinson from East Yorkshire who has shown 19 yellow cards and one red in six games so far in 2003/04. He reffed Town's 1-0 home defeat to Gillingham last season.

Squad: Armstrong, Bloomfield, Bowditch, Couñago, Davis, Magilton, Mahon, Morrow, Nash, Naylor, Price, Richards, Santos, Westlake, Wilnis and Wright.

Photo: Action Images

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