Town manager Roy Keane is looking forward to seeing his side finally get back into action when the Blues travel to Coventry on New Year’s Day (KO 3pm). The club’s first two holiday period matches against Watford and Doncaster were postponed due to frozen pitches.

Keane says the situation was less than perfect: “Certainly having the two games called off wasn’t ideal. If we’d had one of them off it wouldn’t have been the end of the world, but obviously there’s now going to be a pile-up of fixtures.

“We’re not looking it as a help to us, far from it, especially not with the cup games coming up and with loan players maybe going back and with the injuries we’ve picked up. It’s not an ideal time for these games to be called off.

“We have to look at the pluses and say we’ve had a chance to get one or two of our injured lads coming back. They’ve had a few extra days on the training pitch to maybe get fit for next week, people like Connor Wickham and Gareth McAuley, but it’ll be a big ask to throw those boys back in.”

Wickham missed a few days’ training after returning from his thigh problem against Leicester, while McAuley is closing in on a return after achilles surgery.

The enforced break has also seen the Blues pick up more injuries with Brian Murphy sidelined for three months with a broken ankle and Shane O’Connor out for six weeks with a shoulder problem, while right-back Gianni Zuiverloon was recalled from his loan by West Brom.

Keane says that all things considered, it’s not been a great fortnight: “It’s been a shocking couple of weeks for us in terms of losing two important players, particularly as they aren’t loan players and would have been available for the cup games.

“Andros went back a few weeks ago and Gianni was called back on Wednesday, so we’ve literally lost four players since we last kicked a ball, and obviously we still have other lads injured. It’s a been a disappointing couple of weeks for us really considering we’ve not played a game.”

Fitness problems have played a big part in the first half of Town’s season with 31 players used already, a figure which the Blues boss says is much too high: “That’s way, way too many, but to be fair we’ve had a disaster with injuries.”

Any more fitness woes could see the squad’s fringe players getting their chance: “We have players in the background who we know will come in and won’t let us down, people like Colin Healy, Luca’s still chomping at the bit, Luke Hyam might be available in a couple of weeks and we’ve used young players before. Billy Clark played at Newcastle, Jamie Griffiths came on against Northampton, Ronan Murray’s done OK for us.”

Keane is expecting a tough game at the Ricoh Arena: “We came up short against Coventry down here. Despite all the possession we had and some half-chances we lost the game 2-1.

“Coventry are having a good season, they’ve got some experienced players, players who are streetwise. They are physically very strong and they get results.

“I watched them the other day and thought they did very well against QPR and maybe could have got something there, but the way QPR are going there seems to be no stopping them.”

The Blues boss is hopeful his side can start to push their way up the table in the new year: “We know we can turn it around pretty quickly, we need a little bit of luck and some reinforcements. And if they don’t come, we’ve got some decent lads, let’s not take anything away from the players we have.”

Márton Fülöp will keep his place in goal with Mark Kennedy continuing at left-back. The Blues boss has decisions to make at right-back with Zuiverloon returning to West Brom, but Troy Brown looks likely to get the nod ahead of Jaime Peters — who might find it tough against Coventry’s aerial threat - and Tom Eastman.

In the centre of the defence, Damien Delaney and Tommy Smith will probably be paired, with Gareth McAuley still at least a week away from a return.

Keane has choices to make in midfield with Shane O’Connor out with his shoulder problem. Jack Colback could move to the left from the centre, while Keane is also considering using Carlos Edwards in that role with David Norris continuing on the right where he did well against Leicester in Town’s last game. With Colback having impressed in the centre alongside Grant Leadbitter in the Foxes game, the latter seems more likely.

Up front, Rory Fallon and Jason Scotland have formed a promising partnership in the two games and will probably start. Connor Wickham may be amongst the subs, while Tamás Priskin could get a recall to the 18 having been omitted in recent weeks after his poor showing from the bench at Preston.

Coventry are still seventh in the Championship despite a recent run of three defeats, seven points ahead of the Blues in 18th, having played two more games. Manager Aidy Boothroyd says it’s not too hard to explain away the defeats: "I don't think it takes a genius to work out why we have had the results we have had recently. We played three of the teams in the top four.

“Against Norwich we had a man sent off early but still very nearly got something out of the game, with Cardiff you get bad days at the office, and that was one of them, and with QPR I thought we battered them in the first half.

"We got behind them, I was really pleased with our patterns of play but we let ourselves down in the second half with a couple of mistakes.

"The season though is not about winning every game. It's about winning a few, losing less and making sure you constantly improve. At the start of the season I would've taken seventh, so now it's all about what we do in the second half of the season."

The ex-Watford and Colchester boss is expecting a difficult New Year’s Day: "I thought we had a tough game against them at Portman Road. They've had a couple of good results and a little bit of a resurgence and they've got players who can make goals and score goals, so we know it's going to be difficult.

"Myself and Roy are probably having the same press conferences and the same chat at the moment, about taking advantage of each other given our form and theirs, but I'm sure Roy will have his problems ahead of Saturday, I will have mine, so I've no doubt it's going to be a very good game."

The Sky Blues will be without winger Gary McSheffrey and midfielder Aron Gunnarsson due to suspensions.

Town have a good record against Coventry over the years, winning 36 games (34 in the league), losing 22 times (20) and with 22 matches (21) ending in draws.

Aidy Boothroyd, who played schoolboy football in Bradford against Blues reserves coach Chris Kiwomya, has a superb record against Town as a manager. The 39-year-old has won all seven games against the Blues, six with Watford plus the game between Town and Coventry earlier in the season.

That match in October saw Jason Scotland score his fourth goal for Town but it wasn’t enough to prevent Roy Keane’s side from falling to a 2-1 home defeat. The visitors, who had previously been without a win at Portman Road since 1994, went ahead through Clive Platt in the first half and went further in front via a Lukas Jutkiewicz penalty, before Scotland netted for the Blues, who pressed for an equaliser without success.

On the opening day of last season at the Ricoh Arena Clinton Morrison scored both Coventry goals as the Sky Blues beat Town 2-1, Jon Walters netting for the visitors.

No current Coventry player has appeared for Town’s first team, although defender Richard Keogh was a Blues academy schoolboy and ballboy as a teenager.

Midfielder Gary Deegan and defender Richard Wood were both strongly linked with Town before they joined the Sky Blues from respectively Bohemians — where Deegan played alongside Brian Murphy - and Sheffield Wednesday. Veteran midfielder Lee Carsley was amongst the experienced “streetwise” players Roy Keane tried to sign in the summer.

Town keeper Márton Fülöp made 33 appearances while on loan with the Sky Blues when a Tottenham player during the 2005/06 season.

Fellow glovesman Arran Lee-Barrett spent six months at the Ricoh Arena from January 2007, initially on loan from Weymouth, but failed to make a senior appearance. Midfielder Colin Healy was on loan with the Sky Blues in 2002 when a Celtic player.

Saturday’s referee is Russell Booth from Nottinghamshire, who has shown 23 yellow cards and one red in 11 games so far this season.

Coincidentally, Booth’s most recent Town match was last year’s corresponding fixture at Coventry in which he kept his cards in his pocket throughout.

Booth’s only other Blues game was the 1-1 draw with Cardiff at Portman Road in the 2007/08 season in which he controversially ruled out a last-gasp Danny Haynes winner for a push by Tommy Miller. Town’s Owen Garvan and Sito were both yellow-carded in that game along with Bluebirds defender Tony Capaldi.

Squad from: Fülöp, Lee-Barrett, Brown, Peters, Kennedy, O’Dea, Smith, Delaney, Eastman, Norris, Leadbitter, Colback, Edwards, Healy, Livermore, Fallon, Scotland, Wickham, Priskin, Murray.

Story syndicated from TWTD.co.uk

Photo: Action Images

Queens Park Rangers Polls