Ipswich Town coach drops major team selection hint ahead of Bristol Rovers clash

Ipswich Town assistant manager Martyn Pert is predicting a tough game from Bristol Rovers in their Carabao Cup clash.

The Gas travel to Portman Road on Wednesday night - six months on from their goalless draw at the Memorial Stadium. Ipswich achieved their goal of promotion whilst Rovers are hoping to join them in the Championship next season after a strong recruitment drive this summer.

Both sides avoided defeat in their opening matches with Rovers drawing 1-1 with Portsmouth whilst the Tractor Boys claimed a 2-1 win over Sunderland on Sunday. Rovers have been afforded one more day of recovery to Ipswich, but both sides are expected to make the changes.

Ipswich - who won 2-0 in September 2022 - the last time the two sides met at their own ground have earmarked Jevani Brown and Aaron Collins as the two danger men for Wednesday night. It is unsure yet whether Joey Barton and Andy Mangan will field them or how many changes they will make and that is something the men from Suffolk are aware of.

Kieran McKenna’s right-hand man said to the official club website: “It’ll be a tough game they’ve got two decent strikers up front. It depends on what changes they make as well obviously."

“With these games in the Cup you don’t necessarily know what the team will be because lots of people make changes and some people don’t and we’ll see how it goes tomorrow.”

As for how Ipswich could line up, they are expected to make changes. The East Anglian Daily Times expects Lee Evans, jack Taylor, George Edmundson, Sone Aluko, Kyle Edwards and Cameron Humphreys to all be involved along with Elkan Baggott. Harry Clarke is set to make a return to action too after missing a lot of pre-season with an Achilles injury.

“It’ll be a decision that the manager makes, but I think there’ll be changes, definitely," Pert said to the EADT.

“It was such a tough game at the weekend and we’ve got another big game on Saturday, so there’ll definitely be some changes. It’s an extra demand.

“I think it’s a good chance for some players to come in and get the minutes, because we’re still working on the conditioning in terms of the start of the season.

“Some people haven’t played as many minutes as they’d like in pre-season in terms of games, so it’ll be a good chance for them to get more minutes.”