Keeper Brian Murphy looks set to retain his place in the Town side when his former club Swansea visit Portman Road for Saturday’s live Sky game (KO 12.45pm). Murphy was with the Swans between 2003 and 2006 but made only 18 appearances for the Welsh club before returning to Ireland to join Bohemians.

The 27-year-old, who left the League of Ireland club to sign for Town a year ago, is expected to make his third league appearance of the season with Hungarian glovesman Márton Fülöp still struggling with an ankle injury.

Boss Roy Keane says Murphy won’t let him down having again impressed during the midweek Carling Cup quarter-final victory over West Brom: “Márton is still very much doubtful. But we’ve got no problem with Murph and Arran Lee-Barrett being involved.

“Murph kept a clean sheet the other night and I thought he did reasonably well, not just with his goalkeeping but with setting us up for one or two counter-attacks. His overall play was good.

“Márton had a scan on Monday or Tuesday and there’s a little bit of damage there. Márton’s a big, strong man and you’ve got to be careful with the ankles on the boys who are 6ft 4in tall, particularly the goalkeepers with their kicking and twisting and turning.”

In addition to Fülöp, the Blues are also without Gareth McAuley, who recently underwent an achilles operation, Connor Wickham (thigh), Mark Kennedy and Luke Hyam (both hamstring). All three could be back in time for next week’s trip to Preston North End.

Keane says he was as pleased with his team’s display against West Brom as he was with the result: “It’s always nice winning football matches, but first and foremost the performance was very, very good. A good performance doesn’t always guarantee a good result, but it did the other night.

“We’re pleased and we’ve now got to take the cup form we’ve shown over the last few months into the league and try to get back up that table.”

The Blues boss, whose side is now 17th, is expecting a tough game against the team managed by his friend Brendan Rodgers, the two having studied for their coaching badges together: “We have to refocus and get ready for another tough game. Swansea play very good football, a bit like West Brom and we have to be ready.

“They are a very good team. They have been building well over the last few years. They missed out on the play-offs last year on the last day of the season.

“They keep the ball well, they have players who are suited to the system and they have a good manager in Brendan.

“It’s no surprise they’re near the top of the table. They certainly don’t concede many goals and it will be a tough ask for our players to produce another good performance.”

Keane, who denied that Rodgers had been lined up to come in as his assistant manager in the summer, says he has decisions to make with several players available again having missed out on Wednesday: “Damien’s suspension’s up, four of the lads who couldn’t get involved because they were cup-tied are available, but I want to be fair to the lads who did reasonably well the other night.

“It’ll be a tough job trying to pick our starting XI, whereas the other night we didn’t have many options. We’ll have a problem this weekend with a number of players available again.”

Rory Fallon, Jack Colback, Gianni Zuiverloon and Jake Livermore were all ineligible for the West Brom game having played in the Carling Cup for their parent clubs earlier in the season.

The Town manager says he will have to consider how the West Brom game will have affected players who haven’t been involved in too many recent matches: “We’ve got to remember the effort they put in the other night, it’s an early kick-off and we’ve got to look at the physical side for lads who perhaps haven’t played a lot of football -Troy, Jaime, people like that, Colin Healy’s looked sharp in the last week or two.”

In front of Murphy, Peters will probably get the nod ahead of Gianni Zuiverloon at right-back with Tommy Smith on the left of central defence. Damien Delaney is likely to return at centre-half after his ban, despite Troy Brown’s excellent performance against the Baggies.

Darren O’Dea’s girlfriend is still to give birth to their first child and the left-back could be called back to Glasgow at any time. Keane is hopeful that the baby will wait until O’Dea is given a few days off after Saturday before making its long-awaited appearance.

In midfield, Carlos Edwards will be back on the right from the start with Andros Townsend perhaps doing enough on Wednesday to get the nod ahead of Jack Colback on the left. Skipper David Norris and Grant Leadbitter will continue in the centre with former Swan Jason Scotland playing just behind Tamás Priskin in the Town attack.

The Blues’ third ex-Swansea player Rory Fallon is likely to play some part from the bench at some stage after making his debut late on in the Norwich match.

Swansea boss Brendan Rodgers says he and Keane talk often: "I speak to Roy regularly, but not this week!

"I did my Pro Licence with him and I have the ultimate respect for the man. We built up a friendship from there.

"Considering he was one of the top midfielders in the Premier League for a number of years, he could have taken a number of shortcuts to a coaching or managerial career. But he didn't, he went through the entire process of attaining his coaching badges - and that's the mark of the man.

"He wants Ipswich Town to be the very best they can be and he will push them all the way towards that.

"They have good players and are a good side. They started the season well, but have had more losses than wins recently. But they bounced back well in the cup against West Brom in the week and it will be interesting to see what Roy does on Saturday.

"It will be a tough game, but we will go there with confidence and looking to bounce back ourselves from the defeat against Portsmouth.''

Swansea sit in third in the Championship on 33 points, nine more than the Blues, having lost 2-1 at home to Portsmouth last week. Their away record this season is won four, drawn one and lost four.

Recently signed striker Jermaine Easter is sidelined with a thigh injury, but skipper Garry Monk is hoping to be back after missing the last two matches with a calf problem.

Over the years the results between the sides are neatly balanced, Town having won nine (seven in the league), Swansea also having been victorious on nine (nine) occasions, with nine (eight) matches ending in draws. Swansea last won at Portman Road in the 1981/82 campaign when they ran out 3-2 victors.

The teams last met at the Liberty Stadium in March when they played out a dull 0-0 draw. Earlier in 2009/10, the sides had drawn 1-1 at Portman Road. Craig Beattie put the visitors ahead in the sixth minute, but former Swans target Pablo Couñago equalised eight minutes later.

In addition to Murphy, Jason Scotland spent two years at Swansea before joining Wigan in 2009, netting 53 goals in 91 starts and 14 sub appearances during his time at the Liberty Stadium.

New Town loan signing Rory Fallon was with the Swans for a year between 2006 and 2007, scoring 13 goals in 40 starts and eight appearances from the bench. Shefki Kuqi is the only current Swan to have played for the Blues but is currently on loan at Derby.

In addition to being shown by Sky in the UK, the game is also likely be screened live around the world.

Saturday’s referee is our old friend Andy D’Urso from Billericay, who has shown 39 yellow and two red cards in 14 games so far this season. His most recent Town match was the Carling Cup tie at Millwall in which he booked Connor Wickham and two Lions players.

Prior to that, he took control of the 3-0 defeat to Sheffield United on the final day of last season in which he sent off debutant Tom Eastman for two bookable offences.

Squad from: Murphy, Lee-Barrett, Peters, Zuiverloon, O’Dea, Delaney, Smith, Brown, Eastman, Norris, Leadbitter, Healy, Livermore, Edwards, Townsend, Lambe, Colback, Civelli, O’Connor, Priskin, Scotland, Fallon, Murray.

Story syndicated from TWTD.co.uk

Photo: Action Images

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