Boss Roy Keane is waiting on the fitness of Hungarian international keeper Márton Fülöp ahead of Saturday’s trip to his old club Nottingham Forest. Fülöp has a back injury and missed the Watford game in midweek, but Keane says he has no problem if Brian Murphy is again required between the sticks.

Keane, who rates Fülöp at 50/50 for the visit to the City Ground, says Murphy has the chance to make the starting role his own: “I thought Murph was OK the other night. It wasn’t a case of panicking because Murph has done brilliant for us in the League Cup, so if he plays on Saturday, I have no problem.

“With the two keepers, and with Arran as back-up, I think I’m very lucky. I think Márton and Murph are as good as any other keepers in the Championship.”

Keane confirmed that some of the six team changes he made at Watford related to resting players during what is a busy period of fixtures. The Blues boss says he is conscious that several members of his squad aren’t at full match fitness but is anxious not to let this influence him unduly: “We’ve got to be careful we don’t overanalyse the sports science.

“But Jack’s not played much football, we’ve got to look at that, Andros hasn’t played many full games, so you’re trying to get the balance right of giving players minutes on the pitch.

“Tamás hasn’t played many minutes over the last few weeks, Connor had some minutes with England last week. It’s always a balancing act and sometimes you get it wrong, and I think we probably got it wrong in the last couple of games.”

Keane says his side need to improve on their last few games during which they have started to concede poor goals and lost back-to-back matches for the first time since August 2009: “First and foremost, particularly when you go away from home, you’ve got to be hard to break down.

“Looking at the team we might set out, we’ve got to be better in terms of possession, on the break and we want to cause Forest one or two problems.

“If you think you can defend for 90 minutes it’s nigh on impossible. It’s getting the balance right and being hard to break down, which we were until the last few weeks, and doing better in terms of possession and creating better chances. We can be critical of our strikers, but I think they could do with a touch better service.”

Forest are unbeaten in 25 regular Championship games at the City Ground, a run which Keane says is hugely impressive: “That’s some home record. I think we did OK up there last year, particularly in the first half, but then a bit like the other night we had a silly spell in the second half and we ended up losing the game 3-0. We certainly need to do better than we did last year at Forest.”

Brian Murphy looks set to keep his place in goal with Keane unlikely to risk Marton Fülöp. The Blues boss says he will assess whether Damien Delaney is able to play two games in quick succession after his spell out and may rest the Irishman until Tuesday’s Carling Cup tie against Northampton.

Tommy Smith will probably move back into the middle alongside Gareth McAuley with Tom Eastman perhaps in with a shout at coming in on the left, although the more attacking Shane O’Connor will also hope for inclusion.

Keane was pleased with Troy Brown’s performance at Watford and the former Fulham trainee may keep his place ahead of Jaime Peters.

The Blues boss will probably revert to a three-man central midfield with Forest operating a similar system. Keane has plenty of options but may have half an eye on Tuesday’s Carling Cup when Jack Colback and Jake Livermore are unavailable as they are cup-tied.

Keane may choose to use Grant Leadbitter in the holding role with Colback, whose influence on the Watford game grew as the match progressed, and skipper David Norris ahead of him. Livermore could be used from the bench with Colback short on match time having been playing only reserve football at Sunderland.

Andros Townsend and Carlos Edwards are set to return in the wide roles having been rested at Watford, while Keane could choose to start Connor Wickham in the lone striker’s role after his promising display in the second half at Vicarage Road. The Blues boss admits the England U19 international is in his thoughts and Jason Scotland may be rested given the current busy run of games.

Ronan Murray will again be amongst the subs having impressed his manager at Watford, while Darren O’Dea (knee) and Mark Kennedy (ankle) remain the Blues’ only players sidelined with injuries. Alan Quinn and Luciano Civelli are continuing their recoveries from groin and knee injuries and will play in Wednesday’s reserve game at Stevenage. Midfielder Reggie Lambe is currently away with the Bermuda U20 squad.

Forest, who sit in 13th in the Championship, two points behind the Blues, will be without on-loan left-back Ryan Bertrand, a one-time loanee at Norwich, due to the Chelsea man having accumulated five bookings.

Another ex-Canary, Robert Earnshaw, is currently sidelined with a thigh injury, while fellow frontman Nathan Tyson has a knee problem.

Manager Billy Davies has missed the last two games due to a viral infection and is pleased he will be back in his technical area on Saturday. "It's good to be back involved again - I've been a bit agitated waiting for the go-ahead to return to the club.

"I've been thinking about the preparation for games, team talks, picking teams and talking to players, but there's nothing like being hands-on.

"Having said that I've got a very competent staff who have been there and seen it all and I had every confidence in them doing an excellent job in my absence.

"From what I have heard we could easily have got something against Barnsley and followed it up with three very good points in what was a dangerous game for us against Middlesbrough on Tuesday night.

"Any club losing its manager is a dangerous animal but we came through a difficult game and we've worked hard now to prepare for taking on Ipswich on Saturday."

Davies says Roy Keane’s side is starting to come together this season: "It takes any manager time to build a squad but now he's put down a mark and you can see that things are shaping up.

"We all know what Roy is all about as a character and what he will expect of his players and we fully realise that we are facing another very difficult Championship game at the weekend. But we have prepared well - as we always do - and we're really looking forward to the challenge."

Aside from Keane having spent three years at the City Ground under Brian Clough at the start of his career, Lee Martin — who is currently with Charlton - was on loan with the Tricky Trees in 2008/09 and coach Tony Loughlan was a Nottingham Forest player between 1989 and 1993, injury limiting him to only two appearances and a goal scored after 36 seconds of his debut.

Coach Ian ‘Charlie’ McParland also worked at Forest as a coach and was caretaker-manager at the City Ground. No current Forest player has played for Town.

Historically, the home side very much have the upper hand, winning 29 of the games between the two sides (26 in the league), 14 (13) ending in draws and Town winning 18 (17).

In last season’s corresponding fixture, second half goals from Luke Chambers, Guy Moussi and Robert Earnshaw saw Nottingham Forest to a 3-0 victory. The first half had been an even affair but Chambers’s fortunate goal which deflected of him past Brian Murphy just after the break from a contentiously awarded freekick set the home side on their way to what was eventually a comfortable win.

Earlier in the season Forest left Portman Road with a 1-1 draw. The Blues took the lead in the opening minute via Grant Leadbitter, but sub Robert Earnshaw hit back in the second half immediately after coming on, while Gareth McAuley was red-carded close to the end for a professional foul.

The match is screened live in TV in various countries, including Norway, Denmark and the Czech Republic as well as being shown with a delay in the US. More details here.

Saturday’s referee is Andy Woolmer from Northamptonshire, who has shown 26 yellow and two red cards in 11 games so far this season. Woolmer’s most recent Town match was the 2-1 home defeat to Cardiff City in December 2008 in which he booked Pim Balkestein, Owen Garvan and Ben Thatcher and no Bluebirds. Thatcher was given the game’s fourth yellow card and its only red midway through the second half.

Squad from: Murphy, Lee-Barrett, Brown, Peters, Eastman, O’Connor, McAuley, Smith, Delaney, Norris, Leadbitter, Colback, Hyam, Livermore, Healy, Townsend, Edwards, Wickham, Scotland, Priskin, Murray.

Story syndicated from TWTD.co.uk

Photo: Action Images

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