IPSWICH TOWN: One or two Blues players will no doubt be looking rather enviously at the wages being paid to Portsmouth’s new recruits Dave Kitson and loanee Liam Lawrence.

Pompey, who entertain Town at Fratton Park tomorrow (kick-off 3pm) in the Championship, have been up to their ears in financial strife for months went into administration and had a registration embargo placed upon them.

But club administrator Andrew Andronikou has revealed that Kitson is on �20,000 a week and Lawrence �19,000.

Pompey may have the benefits of the Premier League parachute payments having been relegated last May, but how in their position can they afford these wages that are considerably more than even the highest paid Ipswich player is receiving?

Andronikou said: “Gone are the days when extraordinary pay packets put this club in financial trouble.

“However, in the cases of Kitson and Lawrence, we have had to push the boat out a little.

“Their wages are �19,000 and �20,000 but it is something we are comfortable with.

“As long as our overall wage bill averages out at �10,000 a week then I am happy - and it still does.

“Obviously we would rather bring in players on �8-9,000 but there is obviously going to be exceptions to the rules.

“Nowadays we are looking at a budget of �13-15m this season and around �10m for next season if we retain our Championship status.”

Marc Wilson went to Stoke as part of the deals that took Kitson and Lawrence to the south coast to a club that has only been naming four substitutes.

While they are set to make their Pompey debuts, Town manager Roy Keane is waiting on the fitness of Darren O’Dea his on-loan Celtic defender.

He rated the player’s chances as 50-50 after picking up a knee injury while training with the Republic of Ireland squad last week.

With Shane O’Connor out for three weeks with a hamstring problem he suffered with the Republic of Ireland Under-21 squad and Mark Kennedy not set to begin his comeback from a hamstring problem until the reserve game at Colchester next Wednesday, Keane could be short of a left back.

Jaime Peters, who returned from Canadian duty yesterday afternoon, would switch to left back if O’Dea doesn’t make it with Troy Brown the favourite to play right back.

Andros Townsend serves the last of his three match suspension and Town could start as they finished their 2-0 win over Bristol City two weeks ago with Jason

Scotland playing behind front man Tamas Priskin.

The rest of the Ipswich team should pick itself as the Blues look for their fourth consecutive away win. It again looks like being a young bench, but Keane is happy with that saying: “They are good to have in the squad and they bring energy unlike last season when perhaps we had players who did not feel they should be there.”

Tomorrow’s likely squads

Portsmouth: Ashdown, Sonko, Dickinson, Brown, Mokoena, Utaka, Mullins, Hughes, Nugent, Flahavan, Kitson, Lawrence, Pack, Ritchie, Ciftci

Ipswich Town: Fulop, Peters, McAuley, Smith, O’Dea, Brown, Hyam, Edwards, Leadbitter, Norris, Scotland, Priskin, Murphy, Healy, Eastman, Murray, Hourihane, Griffiths, Lambe.

Referee: Mr S Tanner (Somerset)

Ipswich league record at Fratton Park

P17 W8 D6 L3 F20 A14