Town boss Joe Royle says bringing in a new midfielder is his main target. Town have seen Chris Bart-Williams and Jermaine Wright leave the club, while Martijn Reuser looks set to move to Dutch side Willem II.

Royle said: "I need to get a midfield player in. With Jermaine going, and possibly Martijn too, it will leave us a bit short.

"We will only have Tommy Miller, Jim Magilton and Ian Westlake, so there is an obvious vacancy in that area.

"As I said yesterday, I am looking to bring in a maximum of two new players before the new season gets under way."

Royle says his squad is smaller than he would like and hopes that more youngsters will make progress: "We are down to about 15 experienced or seasoned professionals and it's 18 if you add people like Ian Westlake, Dean Bowditch and Lewis Price.

"We've hardly got a big squad for what we all hope can be another promotion-challenging campaign.

"We have high hopes for a number of youngsters but you cannot underpin a promotion challenge with high hopes.

"On the other hand we have had so many bonuses in the past. Look at Westy -he went from nowhere to player of the year."

Royle expects the likes of Scott Barron, Aidan
Collins and Scott Mitchell to make their mark during 2004/05.

Photo: Action Images

Ipswich Town Polls