New signings Mark Kennedy and Conor Hourihane are expected to make their Portman Road bows on Saturday afternoon when the Blues take on Premier League West Ham (KO 3pm).

Ex-Cardiff man Kennedy looks likely to start having been a sub at Bury Town on Wednesday, but Hourihane, who signed from Sunderland earlier in the month, will probably be on the bench having started both midweek matches.

Manager Roy Keane says he is conscious of not overplaying the 19-year-old: “We want to be careful with Conor. His transfer dragged on a little bit but these things happen sometimes.

“He’s done well, he had an hour at Leiston but we had to play him at Bury because Garvs went for talks [at Crystal Palace].

“It was unfair on the boy really to play two games in two nights, but I remember when I was his age, you want to play every night, but we took him off because we didn’t want to push him too much. Conor’s got a good chance of being a player, he’s got a good attitude.”

Keane is looking for his team to up their game a level against the Hammers: “We’ll hope to move on another step against West Ham, that’s the plan. We’ve picked up some injuries in the last few days when a week ago we were really pleased with the squad we had.

“But we’ve picked up the injuries and we’re down to the bare bones considering there’s only a week to go to the start of the season.”

David Norris will probably return after his back problem, but the Blues will be without Damien Delaney (thigh), Connor Wickham (ankle), Luciano Civelli (knee) and Alan Quinn (groin), while Colin Healy has recently been sidelined with a hamstring problem.

Jon Stead could be in the squad after his move to Blackpool apparently broke down, while Alex Bruce is expected to complete his switch to Leeds and Owen Garvan is continuing talks with Crystal Palace.

The absence of several senior players will see youngsters such as Luke Hyam, Jack Ainsley and Troy Brown playing significant roles.

New Town coach Gary Ablett is expected to be back on the Blues bench having missed the visit to Bury with a virus.

West Ham, who have sold 2,000 tickets for the game, will include ex-Blue Kieron Dyer and Suffolk-born England World Cup defender Matthew Upson in their squad.

Upson, born near Eye, says he expects plenty of requests for seats at Portman Road: "I'll have a couple of people texting me for tickets. It's a good fixture for us. They're a good team with a good manager and I think they'll be up for it.”

The Hammers skipper was a schoolboy with the Blues’ centre of excellence before moving to Luton’s youth set-up.

West Ham, now managed by Avram Grant, are expected to include new signings Thomas Hitzlsperger, Pablo Barrera and Frederic Piquionne in their squad, along with the likes of Robert Green, Carlton Cole and Scott Parker.

The sides last met in a pre-season friendly at Portman Road ahead of the start of the 2008/09 season when the Hammers won 5-3 with Dean Ashton netting a hat-trick and Craig Bellamy and former Town loanee Mark Noble, who is also likely to be involved this time around, adding the other two. Veliche Shumulikoski, Owen Garvan and Alan Lee scored Town’s goals.

Photo: ITFC

Story syndicated from TWTD.co.uk

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