JOE Royle today told his crestfallen Blues: "Go out and do it for our wonderful fans."The Ipswich Town manager declared: "We had nearly 28,000 in for the Wolves game.

By Dave Allard

JOE Royle today told his crestfallen Blues: "Go out and do it for our wonderful fans."

The Ipswich Town manager declared: "We had nearly 28,000 in for the Wolves game. The supporters are really willing us to make those play-offs. Now we've got to show them again that we can do it."

The team go out once more at Portman Road tomorrow, this time to redeem themselves against relegation-battling Grimsby.

Royle insists that there will be no sweeping changes to an outfit that dipped on Wednesday when they threw away a 2-1 lead to lose 4-2, missing a chance to hit the Nationwide Division One top six.

"There will be no wholesale changes and I felt the team did well for 60 minutes, but they let themselves down after that and there are things we'll be working on.

"The defensive side has to be improved. We scored two goals, but that's no good if you concede four. We need to start collecting more clean sheets. The play-offs are still very much there for the taking. The players have put in a lot of hard work to get to where we are. They've got to build on it.

"Tomorrow is a very big game against a side playing for their lives. They will be out to make it so difficult for us. We are expecting a hard time from the visitors, but hopefully we'll be able to win through and get the points we need."

Teenage midfielder Darren Ambrose came off in the second half of the Wolves game with a knee knock. The England Under-21 man will be fit to play tomorrow.

Central defender John McGreal made a comeback on Wednesday night after two months out with a knee injury. It has been feeling sore and he will be checked.

Royle hopes that the experienced rearguard man will feel able to do duty again and build full match fitness further.

Ipswich are without two suspended players tomorrow in Hermann Hreidarsson and Pablo Counago.

Grimsby boss Paul Groves has brought in two new faces on loan today – winger John Oster from Sunderland and midfielder Richard Hughes from Portsmouth.

The Mariners are just two points above the relegation zone after a 3-0 defeat at Gillingham last Saturday.

Skipper John McDermott today gave a rallying call. He said: "We have to start fighting to stay in this league. We can't just expect to do it at home. If we play the way we did against Gillingham then we could get a good hiding."

Town lost 3-0 at Grimsby in early October, the last of George Burley in charge.

Ipswich: Marshall, Wilnis, McGreal, Gaardsoe, Makin, Holland, Magilton, Miller, Ambrose, D Bent, M Bent, Naylor, Wright, Reuser, Armstrong, Richards, Pullen.

Grimsby: Coyne; McDermott, Ford, Santos, Gallimore, Cooke, Groves, Coldicott, Campbell, Pouton, Thompson, Boulding, Barnard, Chettle, Soames, Allaway, Bolder, Oster, Hughes.