Preview: Coventry

By Aston
January 15 2005

Ipswich Town have the chance to go five points clear at the top of the table if they can beat Coventry City at Portman Road tomorrow.

Preview: Coventry

Ipswich Town have the chance to go five points clear at the top of the table if they can beat Coventry City at Portman Road tomorrow.

Ipswich Town manager Joe Royle is with out midfielder Ian Westlake who is suspended after picking up 5 yellow cards, defender Drissa Diallo is still out injured while Richard Naylor has recovered from the hip injury that forced him to miss Towns FA Cup tie against Bolton last week and should return to the starting line up.

Town midfielder Tommy Miller should make his 100th league appearance so this weeks words from the Town camp come from him, Miller: “It will be nice to reach 100 League games but all I am really concerned about is that we get back to winning matches at home, after a long run unbeaten at Portman Road, we have lost our last two games and it's important that we put that right against Coventry.

“They need the points themselves to get away from the relegation zone so it's going to be a tough game for us.”

Coventry City caretaker boss Adrian Heath will have to cope with out the services of right-back Louis Carey who is suspended and Tim Sherwood is a long way of a return, Neil Wood is a doubt with an ankle injury and Andy Whig is pushing for a re-call.

Adrian Heath will be hoping to get the Coventry job full time and a win at Portman Road tomorrow would do him a world of good, but he knows his team are in for a tough time: “We know we're going into a very difficult game, they've scored 52 goals - the most in the league by a long way. They average over two a game at home so we're going to have to go with a plan that makes it difficult. Whether that means changing the shape, changing the formation, changing the personnel we'll wait and see but that's something we're working on.

“You've got two ways of looking at it - we can either go more cautious and the longer we're in the game the more chance we've got off frustrating them. Or we go the other way and then we could be 2-0 up or down after 10 minutes and it'll be a long 80 minutes for one of the teams. But we'll come up with something and we'll be ready for them.

“I want the players to play with the drive and desire that they did last week at home. There's no difference - the pitch is the same and the ball's the same. We can't do anything about Ipswich. What we can do is make sure we approach it in the right way. What I have said is that they can't stop us running, it doesn't matter who you play against, they can't stop you running.

“The important thing is that we don't drop that level of performance, that has to be the norm. We need that week in, week out.”

Other games of interest to Town fans this weekend are Wigan’s trip to Rotherham and Sunderlands’ trip to Derby County’s pride park on Sunday.

Sources: Ipswich Town and Coventry City - the official websites.

Talk about Town on our message board.