Preview: Town – Stoke

By Aston
December 22 2006

STB brings you team news, manager previews and betting odds ahead of Towns game against Stoke City tomorrow (KO 3:00pm).

Town have minor doubts over the fitness of Billy Clarke, Gavin Williams and Gary Roberts but all three are in the squad.

 

Town squad: Bruce, Casement, Clarke, De Vos, Garvan, Harding, Haynes, Lee, Legwinski, Macken, Naylor, Peters, Price, Richards, Roberts, Supple, Walton, Williams.

 

Town manager Jim Magilton: “The Christmas and New Year schedule is always a heavy one, and a vital one as well, and with 12 points up for grabs, I'm looking for a good return in those games to act as a springboard for us to go on and make an impact on the Championship over the rest of the season, Stoke will provide a stern test as we open our festive campaign and they will have been hurt by their defeat at Colchester last week, which saw them concede for the first time in eight games.

 

“Tony Pulis has got them very well organised, as you would expect. They have a solid defence and a good goalkeeper behind them and have used that as strength on which to build.

 

“He has also brought in some very good players on loan, so we will have to be right on our game to get three points from the 90 minutes ahead.

 

“It will probably need a better performance than we showed against Leeds last week to get the win we want. It was a scrappy affair, settled by the one bit of excellence in the game, and I'm looking for the quality that Gavin Williams showed with his goal to become a regular feature of our play.

 

“I want positive performances from everybody in our side, passing the ball at a good tempo.

 

“I want every one of the players in a Town shirt to be demanding the ball. If we have that, we won't go far wrong.”

 

Stoke will be missing defender Michael Duberry who is suspended unlike former Town loanee Ricardo Fuller who only picked up his 4^th yellow card of the season at Colchester last week not his fifth as widely reported elsewhere although. On-loan Liverpool midfielder Salif Diao could be fit again after a leg injury.  

 

Expected Stoke squad: Simonsen, Hoefkens, Hill, Higginbotham, Dickinson, Lawrence, Diao, Russell, Brammer, Hendrie, Fuller, Sidibe, Eustace, Berger, Pericard, Sweeney and Buxton.

 

Stoke manager Tony Pulis:

 

Betting Odds (found using Sportsnetwork Odds Checker):

Town: 7/5

Draw: 12/5

Stoke: 15/8

 

Officials:

Referee: U Rennie

Assistants: S Artis and M Scholes

Fourth Official: J Singh

 

Source: Ipswich Town – the official website

 

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