By Aston
October 19 2004

Ipswich Town will be hoping to maintain there early season push for the top of the table with three points against Leicester City tonight.

Leicester City Preview

Ipswich Town will be hoping to maintain there early season push for the top of the table with three points against Leicester City tonight.

Ipswich Town manager has two small doubts ahead of the game at the Walkers Stadium tonight, Darren Bent will start if he passes fit after a hamstring problem which forced him to miss the game against Burnley on Saturday and Jason De Vos is expected to play despite a small fracture in his toe. Fabian Wilnis is expected to return to the squad after a three match ban.

Town manager Joe Royle speaking ahead of the game has said: “Leicester have not started as well as they would have liked but with the sheer strength of their squad they will be up there.

“They have virtually two teams and you will see the difference on the benches, but I do believe our best XI is as good, if not better, than anything so we hope to get the chance to prove me right.

“There will be a contrast in styles. They had something like nine six foot-plus players on Saturday, and I'm told even the ball boys are taller than six foot.

“They could have probably the biggest wide midfielders you have ever seen in Scowcroft and (Trevor) Benjamin.

“But, at the same time, you must respect they have good players who have played in the Premiership.

“So it will be down to us to get the ball down and play.”.

Temporary Leicester City manager Dave Bassett will be with out the services of Ian Walker, Peter Canero, Lee Morris and Jason Wilcox and possibly Scott Gemmill who has an ankle problem. Danny Tiatto is back from a one match ban and is expected to play.

Speaking ahead of the game Bassett has said: “Ipswich are up at the top of the table and that doesn't surprise me. At the start of the season I thought that they would be one of the teams up in the top six challenging for promotion.

“They have got an experienced management team in Joe Royle and Willie Donachie who have been around the block and know what they are doing. It doesn't surprise me that they are doing as well as they are, but having said that these are the games that we have got to win.

“Ipswich are certainly a team who pass the ball well and they have got some creative players. They've got one or two youngsters up front who have managed to score goals so they've got quite a nice blend.

“They have got Shefki Kuqi who is a tall sort of Paul Dickov type player. They have also got some good youngsters like Dean Bowditch, Ian Westlake and Darren Bent. They have replaced the stars that have gone like Darren Ambrose. So it doesn't surprise me that they are doing ok.”.

Leicester could of won their game against Coventry City on Saturday if it had not been for the intervention of former Town defender Chris Makin who turned the ball into his own net, Makin is one of three players in the Leicester City side who have worn the Ipswich shirt as well as the Leicester one, the other two being James Scowcroft and Matt Elliot and we couldn’t let the preview go with out a few words from Scowie : “The atmosphere is always fantastic at the Walkers Stadium for night games and let's hope that is the case again on Tuesday night.

“It is a huge game for us and one which we must look to win if we are going to make a serious challenge for promotion this season.”.

Ipswich Town squad Darren Bent, Dean Bowditch, Aidan Collins, Pablo Couñago, Jason De Vos, Drissa Diallo, Kevin Horlock, Shefki Kuqi, Jim Magilton, Tommy Miller, Scott Mitchell, Richard Naylor, Lewis Price, Matt Richards, Shane Supple, Ian Westlake, Fabian Wilnis.

Sources: EADT and Leicester City - the official website.

Talk about Town on our message board.