MONEY trouble has hit Portman Road again.

Elvin King

MONEY trouble has hit Portman Road again.

Hopes that this season would see Ipswich Town make a serious assault on promotion to the Premier League were not raised by another below-par performance in Saturday's 2-2 home draw against Swansea City.

The Blues may have only lost one of their last seven Coca-Cola Championship games but fans are beginning to question whether Jim Magilton will pay the same high price as one of his predecessors in the Blues hotseat, George Burley.

The Scot effectively lost his job after much sterling work because of the dud big-money purchases he made after taking Town to fifth place in the Premiership in 2001.

Handed considerable sums of money for the first time, Burley's signings of the likes of Finidi George, Matteo Sereni, Amir Karic and Urich Le Pen were his undoing - and the main reason Town plummeted into relegation - and the club's subsequent slip into administration.

Magilton, after making a great job of his first 18 months in charge, was handed £12million to improve his squad when multi-millionaire Marcus Evans took over the ownership of Ipswich Town last December.

While expectation levels have risen enormously, results - particularly at home - have taken a downward spiral.

Money has not talked yet in Magilton's case either and he finds himself in the same position as Burley.

There is still more than enough time to justify his purchases however, starting with the visit to struggling Nottingham Forest tomorrow.