Town have named an 18-man squad for Saturday's trip to Leicester City. Only Owen Garvan is on the sidelines, the Irishman having a post-viral infection and a knee injury.

New manager Jim Magilton has started his career with two defeats but feels the Blues are unlucky not to have had something from the season so far: “The morale and the spirit are still high. We really don't think we are far away and everyone is looking forward to the game at Leicester.

“They have also started with two defeats and both sets of players will be fired up for this one. I know my lads are definitely keen to turn the corner.

“We have watched the tapes of the two games we lost and I honestly believe we deserved to get something out of both of them.

“Against Wolves we missed a penalty and Dean Bowditch scored what I thought was a perfectly good goal, only to have it disallowed.

“But we are not going to cry over spilt milk. Hopefully, lessons have been learned but the players know we must have more impetus, belief, shots and crosses, plus a bit more quality, if we are going to get the points.”

Magilton is set to make changes to his starting line-up, perhaps giving Sam Parkin his first start of the season alongside Nicky Forster, Town's only goalscorer so far. That would see Bowditch, unlucky not to open his account at Wolverhampton, drop to the bench.

The midfield is also likely to see changes with Jaime Peters having had two quiet games after his promising pre-season. Darren Currie could come back into the side on the right after being dropped for the Wolves match, with Matt Richards on the left.

Gavin Williams has been Town's most impressive player up to now and is likely to continue in central midfield with Alex Bruce, who has also impressed since signing on a free transfer from Birmingham.

At the back, Magilton has limited options, although he could move Bruce out of the midfield to right or even centre-back where the Irish U21 has played most of his football. However, with Garvan out and Mark Noble not yet at the club, the Town boss is hardly spoilt for choice when it comes to central midfielders either. If Magilton goes down this road then testimonial man Richard Naylor may be the man to drop out.

The Foxes are also without a point from their first two games and manager Rob Kelly, like Magilton in his first managerial job, says they have to improve: “We obviously have to do better - that is something we are well aware of. But rather than just hope that happens we are doing something about it.

"We have got some time, which is the good thing. We are only a couple of games into the season.

"They have started the season in a similar fashion to ourselves, but that doesn't concern us. We will be concentrating on doing better ourselves - that's all you can do.

"We haven't created enough opportunities. When you pick apart the ebbs and flows of the two games then you could say we have lost both of them to set pieces. That is something we work hard on but we need to work harder to be better and maybe smarter.

"Football is a simple game - we haven't created enough at the other end. That's not just the forwards - that's us as a team. We have looked at that and we will be trying to rectify it.”

Kelly is waiting on midfielders Gareth Williams (knee) and Andy Johnson (calf), and striker Matty Fryatt (head wound), but has had better news regarding former Norwich defender Darren Kenton, who is OK after a slight knock earlier in the week, and James Wesolowski who is back after breaking his lag towards the end of last season.

Saturday's referee is Jonathan Moss from West Yorkshire who showed five yellow cards in his opening match of the season, Grimsby's 3-2 victory over Boston last week. In 2006/07, his first as a Football League ref, he showed 108 yellow and eight red cards in 31 matches. Moss has not previously taken control of a Town game.

Squad: Bowditch, Bruce, Clarke, Currie, De Vos, Forster, Harding, Haynes, Lee, Naylor, Parkin, Peters, Price, Richards, Sito, Supple, Williams, Wilnis.

Photo: Action Images

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