IPSWICH boss Jim Magilton today urged his players to bounce back against West Brom and put their promotion challenge back on track.Victory over the Midlands' club, who are poised to announce the appointment of ex-Town captain and coach Tony Mowbray as their new manager, will take Magilton's men above them in the table.

By Mel Henderson

IPSWICH boss Jim Magilton today urged his players to bounce back against West Brom and put their promotion challenge back on track.

Victory over the Midlands' club, who are poised to announce the appointment of ex-Town captain and coach Tony Mowbray as their new manager, will take Magilton's men above them in the table.

Magilton said: “Good luck to Tony. He must be licking his lips as he looks through the Albion squad and sees so many talented players.

“But he will know better than anyone what to expect from an Ipswich team looking to put a disappointing defeat behind them.”

The Town boss has named 22-year-old central defender Ian Miller in his squad for the first time since signing the player from Bury Town a few weeks ago.

He said: “Ian has shown a terrific attitude since he joined us.

“He has worked really hard and wants to make the most of this opportunity and this is his reward.”

Martin Brittain and Jaime Peters also return to the squad with Magilton insisting he still intends to make changes from the side defeated 1-0 at Layer Road two weeks ago.

The Town boss added: “We have had a two-week rest, which has been a chance to get the cobwebs out of our system and I can sense the players are eager to get back to playing again.

“They are chomping at the bit, which is exactly how it should be, and as much as we enjoy these little breaks and the way it gives us a chance to reflect and analyse, we all want to be back in the swing of things.

“We have two home games coming up and we need to take advantage of that.

“It is important we continue the good form we had shown before the game at Colchester.

“But Albion will give us a tough game.

“They are a team full of quality but our lads will be ready for them and I can see it being a real humdinger.

“We are going to have to start this game well. Albion came from a man down to beat Leeds 4-2 last time out and their confidence will be sky high.

“But we had gone six games unbeaten before Colchester and we need to start another run right away if we can.

“That will be as good a way as any of getting our confidence back and moving forward.”

Magilton was giving no clues as to his starting line up, other than to say it would be different from that at Layer Road a fortnight ago.

While the Albion game is upper most in his mind, he looked back to the defeat at Layer Road and it was obvious it still hurt.

He said: “We didn't lose through lack of effort.

“It was as if we didn't realise how big a game it was and what it really meant to Colchester - the whole town, not just a group of players.

“We were second best in the first half and although we improved in the second half and scored a perfectly good goal, which might have seen us go on and win the game, over- all we were disappointed.

“But we must look forward. I am really, really confident and feel good about things again and the lads have shown me that they have what it takes to sustain a challenge at this level.”