Ipswich Town
Preview: Town -Burnley
By Martin
March 17 2009
Town will be looking to keep the pressure up on the top six, with a win against fellow play-off hopefuls Burnley at Portman Road tonight. Jon Walters and Moritz Volz are long term casualties while Jaime Peters and Danny Haynes will be hoping to make the final 16.
Town manager Jim Magilton: "Burnley are flying at the moment and are where we want to be, in the top six, they will probably start favourites at kick-off. We beat them at their place though earlier in the season and we need to repeat that performance and get a result against them.
"It's the biggest game of the season for us and if you look at the table, you'd probably have to say it's a must win game for us, although you never know in this division.
"I hope Portman Road is absolutely rocking tonight. I think the players deserve that after two terrific displays on the road.
"We need more of the same now on home soil over the rest of the season. If we are to finish in the Play-Offs, our form at Portman Road over the five games we have left here is going to hold the key.
"I'm the first to admit that we have not got anywhere near the levels of consistency we had last year at home but we have to find that again now when it really counts.
"We have one or two players that have become a little nervy at playing at Portman Road but we have to be brave on the ball and take our chances that come our way.
"The fans have been left frustrated as much as we have been by the way our results have gone at home but we need everyone right behind the players now. We had 2000 fans at Reading on Saturday and they gave all the players such a lift. I want the same again tonight. We need the supporters generating a great atmosphere. They can make the difference."
Possible Town squad: Ipswich Town: R Wright; D Wright, McAuley, Balkestein, Thatcher; Norris, Miller, Quinn, Civelli; Lisbie, Stead. Subs (from): Supple, Campo, Garvan, Dos Santos, Counago, Haynes, Bruce.
Burnley have doubts over the fitness of Rhys Williams and Martin Paterson, but will definitely be without striker Steven Thompson, Alan Mahon will also miss out after going on-loan to Blackpool.
Burnley boss Owen Coyle: "It was a good week's work, culminating in six points and some very good goals, that has put us in a nice position and it's up to us to kick on from there.
"We have to take that into our next game at Ipswich, which will be tough, but we will look to be positive.
"It's a game in hand we have got over a couple of teams who are round and about us and we want to go capitalise on that.
"Ipswich are a quality side, they have shown that by drawing with Wolves and winning at Reading and to go and achieve four points from those games was tremendous.
"They have got some terrific players and have spent decent money on some quality acquisitions; they bought Dos Santos in on loan from Spurs the other day too, so it's going to be tough.
"We have to stay on the run we are on, keep focused and make sure we deliver the quality when we get the chance.
"We have still got an awful lot of work to do though"
Possible Burnley squad: Jensen, Penny, Williams, Carlisle, Caldwell, Kalvenes, Alexander, Akinbiyi, Gudjonsson, Eagles, Blake, McCann, Elliott, Paterson, Rodriquez, McDonald.
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17/03/2009 14:10
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