Ipswich Town
Preview: Town – Charlton
By Aston
March 14 2008
Town have the chance the return to the play-off places if they can beat Alan Pardew's Charlton Athletic tomorrow afternoon. Town are without Jon Walters for tomorrow's game as the striker needs surgery on his knee, Richard Naylor and Alex Bruce are also out injured, while Danny Haynes will face a fitness test in the morning. To cover for the loss of two strikers Jim Magilton has drafted in Shefki Kuqi on-loan from Crystal Palace.
Town manager Jim Magilton: "We have a few lads who are feeling under the weather and we will have to see how everyone is on Saturday morning, Fabian would normally step up and take over from Alex but we will have to wait and see whether he can shake off the bug. Hopefully he will be okay.
"Chris Casement and Sito have come in and we have cover but obviously we'd like a full squad to pick from.
"It's strange that they (Charlton) have struggled at the Valley and I'm sure it's baffled Alan Pardew, just as it has me about our away form, success on your home ground is normally the foundation for a promotion assault and I'm sure they will get it right sooner rather than later.
"They were one of the pre-season favourites for promotion and I still feel that any team that finishes above them in the table will be there or thereabouts come the end of the season.
"We are coming into a crucial period of games now and whoever comes through the next few weeks in good shape will really have the platform to push on."
Charlton will be without Madjid Bougherra, Lloyd Sam, Svetoslav Todorov and Chris Dickson.
Charlton boss Alan Pardew: "We were terrific at Sheffield United and without actually getting a result against Burnley, I didn't think we were much different.
"We were solid and strong and controlled the game. Unfortunately we couldn't take one of our chances and perhaps that's where our problem lies - taking the opportunities that come our way.
"We've just got to keep focused on the next game and not get too down or too up. If we win at Ipswich we won't get carried away and if we lose we won't get carried away by that either.
"We need to stay on an even keel and treat every game as a winnable game and we're certainly viewing Ipswich as a winnable game.
"We need to come back on Saturday with a strong performance and a strong mental attitude.
"We haven't really been consistent enough this year to threaten the top two places. We got close a couple of times but we had some difficult results at key moments.
"But I do feel the group is strong and if we get in the play-offs I don't think many people will be betting against us. So the key is for us to focus and win as many games between now and the end of the season."
Match Odds:
Town: 5/4
Draw: 12/5
Charlton: 9/4
Officials:
Referee: N S Miller
Assistants: M Blackledge and I J Cooper
Fourth Official: S Burt
Got a prediction for the game? Leave it below.
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Ipswich Town - the pride of anglia
