IT seems like lifetime ago when the Town forwards were frolicking in the sun, banging goals in for fun, home and abroad.How Ipswich need those days to return with Darren Bent in particular itching to find the net even once, never mind with the sort of regularity he was in pre-season.

IT seems like lifetime ago when the Town forwards were frolicking in the sun, banging goals in for fun, home and abroad, writes Derek Davis.

How Ipswich need those days to return with Darren Bent in particular itching to find the net even once, never mind with the sort of regularity he was in pre-season.

Bent is in line for a starting return tonight against Walsall after coming off the bench in the last couple of games and going agonisingly close to ending his personal drought, with Bernt Haas twice clearing off the line at West Brom on Saturday.

“I can't understand how the ball didn't go in,” said a disbelieving Bent afterwards.

The breakthrough could come tonight, with fellow teenage striker Dean Bowditch also looking at making his first competitive start.

Bent said: “We just have to keep working hard. I'm doing everything I can getting in positions and if I keep carrying on doing that a goal will come.

“I always want to start as the more time I'm on the pitch the more likely I am to score and if one goes in they will really start to roll in.

“But we need to start winning and Tuesday is the time to start. We will get a win and that will give us the base to get going. We will be like Sunderland; they struggled but got a win, now look at them fly.”

More help from the midfield would not go amiss and skipper Jim Magilton admits they are not getting the same sort of service as they did in July.

“People have said that we have reverted to the long ball but I can't see that. If we went to the long ball we wouldn't have the players to be able to play that way.

“We have lacked the cutting edge. We started the season very positive and could score goals but that has not materialised in the league.

“That is not to say what we are doing is wrong.

“If we were to go long ball that would do us no good. We need to win the ball, keep possession of the ball and try and create chances for the forwards.

“Hopefully they can then take a few of those chances and we can get the ball rolling.

“But we need a break and we need to keep believing that what we are doing is right and for people to stay with us.”

Magilton was handed the captain's armband in the summer and has taken his responsibilities seriously on and off the pitch where he has been an excellent ambassador.

The Irishman is hoping his influence on the park will help rejuvenate the side but he also urges supporters to stay patient and get behind the team tonight.

He said: “These supporters are tremendously loyal but this position doesn't sit well on anyone's shoulders.

“They have to go into work seeing we are bottom of the table and they are not happy with that.

“I can assure them nor am I. I'm well aware of the proud tradition of this football club and the harsh reality is we are bottom of the league, with two points from six games which is not good enough. It is not good enough for me and it is not good enough for the rest of these players.

“We are doing everything we can but at the moment that has not been enough and the sooner it changes the better.

“No one has shirked anything and everyone has given maximum effort. Perhaps some people look at themselves after games, I know I take it very personally as I have always been a sore loser.

“The table makes depressing reading at the moment but as a player you just have to ignore it and get on with it. You have to keep believing that what you are doing is right.”