IPSWICH Town manager Roy Keane will not want to lose his next two games.Defeats for his Ipswich Town Championship team at Cardiff City on Sunday and at Bristol City six days later could spell disaster for the footballing legend.

Elvin King

IPSWICH Town manager Roy Keane will not want to lose his next two games.

Defeats for his Ipswich Town Championship team at Cardiff City on Sunday and at Bristol City six days later could spell disaster for the footballing legend.

It would put his job under increased pressure, with a realistic danger of supporters losing faith in his managerial ability and his employers asking questions about his capability to take the Blues into the Premier League. Chief executive Simon Clegg has gone public again this week to confirm the complete faith owner Marcus Evans still has in Keane.

But the more likely relegation looks - despite being unbeaten in six games - the more likely this position is going to change. At the moment Town are looking as though they are waiting for something to happen going forward and unless they can come up with more inventiveness and potency in attack the likelihood is of a continuation of poor results that has made it the worst start in the club's history.

Already four points away from safety at the foot of the table, a failure to accrue points at the Cardiff City Stadium and Ashton Gate could present them with even more serious relegation problems in a fortnight's time.

The loss of on-loan keeper Asmir Begovic back to Portsmouth this week is a huge blow after the Bosnian international provided a presence between the posts that resulted in increased confidence among the back four and just four goals - and no defeats - in his six games.

If his team is going to start leaking goals again it will make it even more important that he puts right the current impotency in front of goal. Having netted just 17 times in 17 league matches, it is a problem that Keane has to solve - and quickly.

Having spent �3.7million on Lee Martin and Tamas Priskin, Evans may well be reluctant to fork out more cash for a front player, and with no sign of any clubs interested in taking Town players before the loan deadline tomorrow it will make bringing in a scorer to turn things round very hard indeed. But a great deal could depend on it.