Ipswich Town
Preview: Town – Reading
By Aston
September 12 2008
Town will be continuing the hunt for their first home win of the season when Steve Coppell brings his Reading side to Portman Road tomorrow. Town will be without Ben Thatcher who has a dead leg, Alex Bruce who is suspended and Jordan Rhodes is on-loan at Rochdale but David Wright and David Norris are back in the squad but unlikely to start.
Town manager Jim Magilton: "I think Steve (Coppell) was their best signing of the summer, if I can put it that way, I have huge admiration for him and the way he conducts himself. He talks a great deal of sense and I'm looking forward to facing him as a manager for the first time.
"I think his team replicate the way he is, with a tremendous work ethic and a lot of quality and I expect them to be among the frontrunners for promotion this season.
"Steve's players have had a taste of the Premier League and they will be desperate to get back to that level. We have to match that and come back with more on Saturday.
"It's an opportunity for us to get up and running at home and it's a game that the players will be relishing.
"They (David Norris and Wright) are both eager to play but maybe we need to ease them back in because they've not had much football lately, we also have to look at the lads that have been away on international duty. Shumi has played in two tough World Cup games and Owen has played for the Ireland U21s as well so we need to be careful with them.
"I know from personal experience that playing international football in midweek can take it out of you mentally and physically, with the travelling that is involved as well, but we will see how they are.
"We have three games in the week coming up and we will use the squad accordingly."
Reading will be without Kalifa Cisse who is training again but has only recently returned from a toe injury, Brynjar Gunnarsson is in the same boat after a knee, Marek Matejovsky and Michael Duberry are out while Graeme Murty is doubt with an injury he picked up playing for Reading's reserve side.
Reading manager Steve Coppell: "Ipswich are a different team now to the one that started the season. They've brought in masses of experience with Ivan Campo and Moritz Volz who have played loads of games in the Premier League.
"They're a bit older than they were and we have used a lot of young players this season so it will be interesting to see who comes out on top.
"Portman Road is never an easy place to go either. They're quite detached over in that part of the country, the atmosphere is always hot and they have a great tradition of being one of the 'Big Boys'. We can't consider ourselves as one of those."
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