Skipper Jim Magilton is Town's only doubt ahead of Saturday's trip to Gillingham. The Northern Irishman was substituted with a small calf tear at half-time in the 6-0 destruction of Nottingham Forest and missed the 1-0 win at Cardiff on Tuesday.

Manager Joe Royle, who watched upcoming opponents Derby draw with QPR on Wednesday night, says that his captain's condition is improving: "Jim was a lot better yesterday and I am expecting him to train tomorrow. He has a chance because he's Jim and because he is always desperate to play his part."

If Magilton is fit, Royle will have to decide whether to drop Darren Currie from his new role in central midfield. The former Barnet, Brighton and Wycombe man was amongst Town's best players at Ninian Park. The Blues will almost certainly carry on with the 3-5-2 formation which has served them so well in the last two games.

French loanee Jimmy Juan will drop out of the 16 should Magilton return but will again take his place on the bench in the skipper's continued absence. Juan seems to be over his foot injury and played the full 90 minutes of the 6-1 reserve thrashing of Cambridge United.

Central defender Drissa Diallo remains Town's only long-term absentee. The Guinean international's stop-start recovery from his torn hamstring looks set to keep him out of action for much of the rest of the season. Youngster Gerard Nash continued his progress after his latest knee problem with an impressive 90 minutes in the Cambridge match.

Gillingham are without midfielder Alan Pouton, who has a back problem, and central defender Barry Ashby, who has sprained an ankle. Keeper Jason Brown and midfielder Danny Spiller could both be in the squad after recovering from injury.

More good news for manager Stan Ternent is that the FA have rescinded the red card striker Darius Henderson's picked up in the brawl against Leeds United last week.

The Gills have improved of late but assistant boss Ronnie Jepson says his side are still the underdogs: "We've had some good results but if you looked at the fixed odds coupon, there's no way we'd be favourites. Ipswich have got some great players and have won their last two games.

"But our confidence levels are quite high and our players will look forward to pitting their wits against Ipswich. We've had a good run of form recently but so have the other teams around us, so we need to keep getting results."

Saturday's referee is Brian Curson from Leicestershire who has shown 79 yellow and eight red cards in 31 games during 2004/05. Earlier in the season he refereed Town's 1-1 draw at Burnley. Curson awarded the Blues a controversial last minute penalty in the game at home to Reading on the opening day of last season.

Squad: Davis, Price, Wilnis, Richards, Unsworth, Naylor, De Vos, Magilton, Miller, Westlake, Currie, Horlock, Juan, Bent, Kuqi, Scowcroft, Couñago.

Photo: Action Images

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