We're going to the expensive Portman Road

And they won’t be heading back there at the end of this season either after this their fourth season in this division since they were last relegated. After just missing the play offs in their first season back down they have made the top six in each of the last two seasons, but they are struggling to get near them this time round.

Victory in the East Anglian derby last week at Norwich saw them climb into the top half of the league for the first time since October. That’s two places lower than they were when we met at the Turf earlier in the season, at a time when we were next to bottom in the league with just Sheffield Wednesday below us on goal difference.

Our 3-0 win that night started a poor run for the Tractor Boys but they are recovering and go into this game on the back of a six game unbeaten run in the league with three wins and three draws, and the last two victories have come away from home.

Long Ball Joe’s ever changing squad has seen the introduction of a number of young players this season but he’s brought four new faces into the club since that Turf Moor meeting in September.

Adam Proudlock and Gavin Williams were both signed on loan, Proudlock from Sheffield Wednesday and Williams from West Ham, and both made the deals permanent when the January transfer window opened.

Proudlock had been sacked by his former club so there was no fee for him whilst Williams cost Ipswich £300,000. They spent a further fee of around £200,000 to bring in a familiar face to Clarets fans, Alan Lee who moved from Cardiff, and they have also signed Norwegian midfielder Vermund Brekke-Skard from Bremunddal.

Meanwhile three of their players have gone out on loan, including Dean Bowditch who was with the Clarets last season. He has moved to Wycombe on a three month loan but as mainly been used as a substitute by the League Two club.

Royle has continued to talk about making the play offs but, with two points less than us, they are ten points behind sixth place Preston and it is very unlikely they will make it this season.

Click HERE to see all Ipswich’s results this season.

Joe Royle has this week spoken again about John McGreal and how much he didn’t want to lose him, and he’s also revealed that he tried to sign Danny Karbassiyoon in the summer after he had spent three months at Portman Road on loan last season.

He’s been looking for new signings this week to bolster his squad, in particular a striker, but said today that they would have none for tomorrow after his enquiries for three players came to nothing.

Danny Haynes, who scored the controversial winner against Norwich, is ruled out now with ankle ligament damage and he’s not the only player who will be missing. Gavin Williams is out with ankle and shin injuries and Adam Proudlock is also ruled out.

Those three are added to two Nicky Forster and Sam Parkin, two strikers who are ruled out long term, and today they loaned out Kevin Horlock to Doncaster for a month so he won’t be involved tomorrow.

They have named a squad of sixteen and the expected line up is: Lewis Price, Fabian Wilnis, Jason De Vos, Richard Naylor, Matt Richards, Castro Sito, Jimmy Juan, Owen Garvan, Scott Barron, Darren Currie, Alan Lee. Subs: Shane Supple, Jim Magilton, Ian Westlake, Jaime Peters, Dean McDonald.

Click HERE to see the full Ipswich squad.

Steve Cotterill will have to make at least one change from the team that beat Plymouth last week with captain Frank Sinclair starting a two match suspension. The manager has spoken this week of the problems cause by constantly having to change the two central defenders and after two successive clean sheets he’s now forced into doing it again.

Wayne Thomas has been missing from the last two games, it was later revealed that he’d had surgery on his knee, but he came through the full ninety minutes of the reserve game this week and is almost certain to step in as Frank’s replacement.

I suspect that will be the only change and if so our team will be: Brian Jensen, Michael Duff, Wayne Thomas, John McGreal, Jon Harley, Garreth O’Connor, Micah Hyde, James O’Connor, Graham Branch, Gifton Noel-Williams, Michael Ricketts. Subs: Duane Courtney, Chris McCann, Wade Elliott, John Spicer, Danny Karbassiyoon.

It was a 1-1 draw last season with Robbie Blake giving us the lead in the first twenty minutes before a late, late equaliser from Matt Richards earned the home side a point after we’d been forced to defend resolutely for long spells during the second half.

There’s more from that game and other games against Ipswich at Portman Road which can be found at I’m looking for a win at Portman Road in the Look Back section.

The team’s last season were,

Ipswich: Lewis Price, Drissa Diallo, Richard Naylor, Jason De Vos, Matt Richards, Tommy Miller, Jim Magilton, Kevin Horlock, Ian Westlake, Shefki Kuqi, Dean Bowditch (Pablo Counago 50). Subs not used: Shane Supple, Aidan Collins, Scott Mitchell, Antonio Murray.

Burnley: Danny Coyne, Michael Duff (Richard Duffy 75), Frank Sinclair, John McGreal, Mo Camara, Ian Moore (Lee Roche 79), Richard Chaplow (Jean-Louis Valois 87), Tony Grant, Micah Hyde, Graham Branch, Robbie Blake. Subs not used: Brian Jensen, Amadou Sanokho.