Boss Paul Jewell looks likely to make a number of changes to his side for Scunthorpe’s visit to Portman Road on Saturday but says his options are limited until he can bring in his own players in the summer. TWTD understands that Arran Lee-Barrett is set to come into the side in goal, while academy youngster Josh Carson will also be in the squad.

Jewell, who is likely to be without skipper David Norris with an ankle injury, while Colin Healy could return from his torn stomach muscle problem, says he always reflects on his starting XI regardless of the previous result: “I always consider the team selection whether we win, lose or draw, it doesn’t matter. Every game is taken on its merits.

“We’ve not got that many real options. We haven’t got the biggest squad in the world, but that’s the way it is for the time being.

“We’ve just got to make do with what we’ve got and try and get through to the summer and then try and improve the squad to have a fresh outlook for next season. I may make changes or I may not.”

Whether that might include a switch from his 4-3-3 formation was also still to be decided when the Blues boss spoke at Thursday’s press conference: “I haven’t made my mind up. We’re a couple of days before the game and I’ll decide on that on Friday.”

Jewell says this week’s sacking of Scunthorpe manager Ian Baraclough is a sign of football's short-term thinking which rarely leads to success: “I’m not surprised because nothing surprises me in football, but I’m disappointed for Ian because he’s a young manager who was having his first go and had some decent results.

“They beat Forest the other week, they beat Swansea as well, so they’re no mugs Scunthorpe.

“They’re typical of the league really. We’ve got three out of the bottom four to play at home. On paper people think that’s easy but it’s very, very tough this league, because it’s very even.”

The Town boss says he doesn’t know caretaker-boss Tony Daws well, although he has faced him on the field: “I’ve played against him when he was at Bury and Scunny, he was a good little striker.

“It’s an opportunity for him. The circumstances in which you get the job are never the right ones, but hopefully he’ll get beaten on Saturday and then from then on he’ll be OK.”

Amongst Jewell’s selection dilemmas will be whether to give loan midfielder Kieron Dyer his first home start for the Blues in 12 years, the 32-year-old having come off the bench on Tuesday: “With Kieron’s situation we have to be guided a little bit by him.

“He was fairly stiff on Sunday and Monday after 70 minutes at Leeds and didn’t think he was ready to start and that’s why we had him on the bench.

“Obviously we have to treat him with kid gloves to a certain extent because we don’t want to break him down. In an ideal situation he’ll start and come off with 10 or 20 minutes to go when we’re 3-0 up. That’s utopia, isn’t it?”

As he seeks to make that utopian vision a reality, TWTD understands that Arran Lee-Barrett will come into the side in goal in place of Márton Fülöp in goal. The former Hartlepool man will be making his first appearance for the first team since February 2010.

Mark Kennedy and Carlos Edwards as his full-backs. Gareth McAuley and Damien Delaney will continue in the centre with Tommy Smith having joined Colchester on loan for the season.

In midfield, the Blues boss again seems set to start with a central three with skipper Norris appearing unlikely to return, despite being available again after suspension, due to a recurrence of the ankle injury he sustained at Barnsley.

Dyer will probably come into the side for Andy Drury, playing ahead of Grant Leadbitter and Jimmy Bullard, although his partner Josie is still to give birth to their fourth child, something which could potentially rule him out. In which case, Drury or Colin Healy, who was back in training this week after his stomach injury, will play.

We also understand that Northern Ireland U21 international midfielder Josh Carson, an academy second-year scholar, is in the squad having travelled to Leeds last week, although a first senior start would be a shock. The 17-year-old, who has impressed in the reserves this season, was previously on the bench at Exeter earlier in the season.

Lee Martin has had a quieter couple of games and Jewell might consider resting the former Manchester United man, perhaps giving Luciano Civelli or Shane O’Connor their first starts under his management.

Connor Wickham will continue in the other wide role, probably starting on the right if Civelli or O’Connor come into the side.

Jason Scotland could take over from Tamás Priskin in the lone central striking role, the Hungarian having failed to impress since taking over from the Trinidadian at Leeds.

Iron caretaker-manager Daws says he should have Andy Hughes available despite the former Norwich midfielder suffering a facial injury in Tuesday’s 3-0 home defeat to Preston: "Andy trained on Tuesday morning and he's keen to play. He kept contacting us on Wednesday to tell us he was fine and available for Saturday.

"He was on the training pitch on Thursday morning so that's looking quite promising. He hasn't broken his nose, he has stitches in and it's quite swollen but hopefully he will be all right."

Midfielder Sam Togwell and left-back Ben Gordon have had hamstring problems but both should be back: "Sam was on the training ground too and said that he wasn't feeling his hamstring.

“He's coped fine with everything that we've done in training on Thursday so hopefully, fingers crossed, there will be no reaction.

"I spoke to Ben, and he feels fine. He joined in with training on Thursday morning and got through plenty of work with no reaction."

The caretaker-boss has hinted that goalkeeper Joe Murphy (ankle), defender Cliff Byrne (calf) and midfielder Garry Thompson (groin) are all closing in on a return to first team action but all seem unlikely to be involved on Saturday.

Daws says his assistant Lee Turnbull saw the Blues in action on Tuesday: "Lee went to watch Ipswich lose 3-0 at home to Watford on Tuesday night and they are a side who are a little bit inconsistent.

"They're in a position where they are relatively safe. They have some good players there and we have to make sure we deal with them right on the day.

"I think, from our perspective, what we've got to concern ourselves about is us. If we can get the right players on the pitch, with the right mentality and the right game plan then it's about what we do.

"We're going to go and attack them. We need to win games to get out of trouble. We're not going to go there and sit back hoping for a 0-0 or to sneak a win because if you just defend for 90 minutes you will invariably concede a goal.

"I think at this stage of the season we're playing catch up in terms of points and we have to go for it.”

Scunthorpe have only beaten the Blues once in history, a 4-0 win at the Old Showground back in Town’s 1960/61 Second Division championship season. Other than that, the Blues have won eight (six in the league) and drawn four (four).

In September, second half sub Jaime Peters netted Town’s equaliser in a hard-fought 1-1 draw at Glanford Park. The home side had gone ahead in the first half through David Mirfin with both teams having more than a few opportunities to win it late on.

At Portman Road last season, Connor Wickham struck his first league goal for the Blues in injury time to give Town a 1-0 win.

Both sides ended the match with 10 men, Iron defender Cliff Byrne was red-carded for an off the ball elbow on Jack Colback, then Damien Delaney was more harshly sent off for a trip on halfway, a dismissal which was subsequently overturned. No member either current squad has played for the opposition.

Saturday’s referee is David Webb from Lancashire, who has shown 74 yellow cards and four red in 24 games so far this season. Webb has never previously taken control of a game involving the Blues.

Squad from: Lee-Barrett, Fülöp, Edwards, Kennedy, Delaney, McAuley, O’Dea, Leadbitter, Bullard, Dyer, Healy, Drury, Peters, Hyam, Carson, Martin, Wickham, Civelli, O’Connor, Scotland, Priskin.

Photo: Action Images

bluelady added 16:24 - Mar 18 Jas id prefer O connor to Civelli not sure he is up to 90 mins yet? lets hope Healy is fit been one of our better more reliable players.
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BlueMoolay added 16:35 - Mar 18 Yep I agree too bluelady. Same team as Jas but with O'Connor for Civelli and Healy in for Norris, as he's still not fit.
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denhamblue added 16:36 - Mar 18 does it realy matter whos in whos out,most are tin pot players anyhow.
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jas0999 added 17:00 - Mar 18 Yep - O'Conner, good call. Played well in that role against Leicester (MOM in fact). Not sure if he is 100% fit either - but probably as fit as Civelli.
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brogansnose added 17:13 - Mar 18 Who he puts out where is immaterial in a certain sense. Look them in the eye and ask them if they REALLY want to play, if there is any sense of doubt then send them shopping with their missus. Fed up of seeing supposedly talented ex- premier players vaguely running around with their heads up their backsides. Play the young uns who have something to prove who may be a bit raw but clearly want it more. I'm thinking of Hyam, O'Connor, Peters and Murray if he was here. we have an awful amount of players who didnt do it for Keane and now they are not doing it for Jewell, let alone us.

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braveblue added 18:19 - Mar 18 What 433? We are playing with one up front and seven or eight defenders most of the time. It is an absolute shambles. Kennedy and Edwards have been simply awful and why ythey keep their places is beyond me. Leadbitter is a complete liability. This is no better than RK.
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fourth added 18:31 - Mar 18 Of course about a third of our players are in psychological limbo. Daddy has gone and they now look for another hiding place. The question is...should work be put in to bolster their sense of personal responsibility or should they be let go? In my experience this sort of work is long term and has no guarantees. I think they need to be let go.
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chripswich added 18:41 - Mar 18 zzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZ!
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fourth added 19:24 - Mar 18 How many new first team players exactly? 11?
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n5normy added 19:27 - Mar 18 Come on phil put the breaking news up that dyer is injured and on he's way back to green street
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blues1 added 19:34 - Mar 18 n5normy. clearly ur source isnt that good, as some hours later thers etill no announcement of dyer being injured. so dont spread rumours unless u konw theyre a fact. while i agree with those of you saying that our squad is bigger than being suggested, i can only presume that pj has made his mind up that certain players have no future here next season & thats why theyre apparently not being considered for 1st team action. as for kennedy bein g rubbish? i have to say that i had some sympathy with him on tuesday, as every time he had the ball, he looked for someone to pass to, but there was noone available to him, thus he had to just hoof the ball long into no mans land, yet he got the stick rather than those players just standing around waiting for the ball, instead of moving into space.

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depressed added 19:48 - Mar 18 Hyam and O'Connor now fit, should both be regular starters
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blues1 added 20:23 - Mar 18 n5normy. theres not even nething on the west ham website suggesting this, so just stop talking rubbish. or are you a scum fan just trying to wind us town fans up
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n5normy added 20:43 - Mar 18 Blues1 you sound like Vicky Pollard, go and do your school work....my first comment last Friday was to give a big clue as to who we had just signed, one kieron dyer,...
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harlingblue added 20:58 - Mar 18 We need a Captain ie Manager on the pitch...neither Norris or Leadbitter should have been near the armband, perhaps not even in the team? That is the first major signing required, someone with the intelligence to get angry with some players and encourage others? Also give Hyam, Peters and O'Connor a run out, it would certainly add some pace to the team. ME: buy MS from Peterborough now...thorn in our side, but would be a great addition...turned down Norwich...waiting for us to come in?

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blues1 added 21:09 - Mar 18 n5normy. just bcse u rite last week not mean u got it rite this time. think if u had then this news would be on a website somewhere, but it not on here, w. hams, bbc sport or indeed sky sports neither, so unless u heard it dirct from the club itself it seems you have been misinformed on this, as for ur attempted put down of me. i havent had schoolwork 2 do for abt 35 years, so dont try knocking me just for having an opinion abt ur post. if indeed u prove to be correct i will happily stand corrected, but as of now i see no reason to believe this story at the moment

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n5normy added 21:22 - Mar 18 Calling me scum Mr or Mrs Blues1 is far more offensive than what I said about you...let's just wait and see on the kieron dyer 'rumour' COYB for tomorrow Fulop Edwards mac delaney o'conner Bullard healy leadbitter Wickham priskan martin
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Garv added 21:32 - Mar 18 Now now ladies, if I remember correctly (which I do) when wickham got injured at the start of the season it took even a couple of days to be announced after I heard about it. Obviously we'll know about dyer (if true) sometime tomorrow as we have a game. Hopefully he's fine. All this criticism of Edwards and Kennedy is rediculous to be honest, Kennedy has been one of our best players in recent games before Tuesday and even then like someone else has said he didn't often have someone to give it to. He's calm and controlled on the ball and can pass, same goes for Edwards who is better on the ball than peters and goes forward just as much as peters would. Fulop Edwards McAuley Delaney Kennedy Martin/Peters Bullard Drury/Healy O'connor/civelli Wickham priskin

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blues1 added 22:15 - Mar 18 n5normy, i didnt call u scum, i said mayb ur a scum(norwich) supporter trying 2 wind up us ipswich supporters. as i also said at end of my last post, if u are proved to be right then, i will gladly stand corrected.
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blues1 added 22:21 - Mar 18 garv. you are correct over the wickham injury. the difference here is that dyer isnt our player, so would expect if hes returned to w.ham that there would be something on their website, but there isnt. with wickham, it was a case of pj not wanting the public to know who the player was that was injured as that may have affected the gate for the match that saturday. lets hope this rumour is just that. would be a great shame if he is injured again. coyb

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bluelady added 22:22 - Mar 18 Know what who really cares anyway, whilst it would be a shame as he is ipswich through and through he had hardly come in and set the world alight and you can't miss what you haven't had.......
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h32 added 23:27 - Mar 18 I have no doubt that this will be termed as 'moaning', and I couldn't care less - but we may just be seeing why Mr Jewell has been out of the game for two years, and previous to that whilst at Derby, didn't exactly set the world alight. Not exactly making the most of this squad of players (as per example's quoted in other post's ) is a debatable issue. It cannot be denied that he needs time - but playing players out of position, as he is doing, i.e. Wickham - is achieving very little at present.

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blues1 added 23:55 - Mar 18 h32. the reason hes not able 2 make the most of this squad of players is that they simply. with 1 or 2 exceptions. arent good enough. no1 should be judging pj until sometime into next season, once hes got his own squad together( if things not going well). until then folks, just back him. after all, hes pretty much achieved the 1st target he was set, by keeping us in this div(barring a disastrous end 2 season).

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Garv added 00:01 - Mar 19 H32 regarding Wickham he had his first game out wide when McParland was in change, Jewell watched in the stands and was obviously impressed. Why fix it if it ain't broke? It is only now that people have started to question him playing out there, after a couple of 'iffy' performances, still not dreadful mind. He'll have learnt a lot about the game playing there, defending and attacking which is important. Jewell has said he will eventually play up top, so what's the problem?

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blues1 added 00:11 - Mar 19 well said garv. think wed all agree wickham would b better off playing up front, but if pj wants him 2 do a job on the left 4 now, then so be it. all good 4 his education in the game as well
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