ALAN Lee has warned that struggling Scunthorpe will be no soft touch as the Blues look for their third double of the season.More importantly Ipswich are after three points that will keep them in the hunt for a play-off place.

Derek Davis

By Derek Davis

ALAN Lee has warned that struggling Scunthorpe will be no soft touch as the Blues look for their third double of the season.

More importantly Ipswich are after three points that will keep them in the hunt for a play-off place.

The Irons' loss at Wolves on Tuesday meant Town slipped another place in the Championship to ninth, leaving Scunthorpe along with Colchester United stranded at the bottom.

Former Rotherham United striker Lee knows exactly how the United players will be feeling and warns that spells bad news for Ipswich.

He said: “Scunthorpe will be dangerous they won't give it us easily. Every game will be crucial and it is important to win for both of us.

“It is a similar sized club to Rotherham but they have a better set up and what they done to be in this division is a great achievement.

“They are struggling at the moment but I know they will be fighting for every point.

“They have more flair players than we did at Rotherham. At Rotherham we just had a long throw and a big monster getting of the end of it.

“Scunthorpe have some good players so we will have to respect them. We need to prepare the right way and not take anything for granted.”

With 24 points to play for, starting at Glanford Park, Ipswich will probably have to win at least six of the remaining matches to squeeze into one of the mostly-disputed top six for a long time.

They also have to rely on other clubs above them dropping points

Lee said: “There have been all sorts of results from top of league to bottom. Everyone is beating everyone and sp there have been some surprising results this season.

“It is very tight this will go right down to the wire but we must not rely on other clubs, just win every game we can.”

After doubling Sheffield Wednesday and Crystal Palace, Town are going for a third after beating Scunthorpe at Portman Road but not after a couple of frights by Nigel Adkins' side that tend to get off to good starts in matches before fading.

The Iron are struggling for a right back with Cliff Byrne out for a couple of weeks so on loan Chelsea winger Jack Cork has dropped back to cover there.

Ipswich have far more injury worries and are still trying to land a loanee, although by last night they had still not succeeded.

Jon Walters had his operation on a torn cartilage yesterday and will be out for up to six weeks, while david Norros and Shefki Kuqi are both definitely out of the trip to Scunthorpe.

Kuqi is working in a deep water pool as part of his rehabilitation and hopes to be running next week, while Norris will continue to be assessed.

Richard Naylor has still not trained with his neck problem but everyone else is fit.

Town's rivals Norwich City have taken Blackburn striker Maceo Rigters on loan for the rest of the season to help them avoid relegation. The Blues were linked with the former Dutch Under 21 but while they were aware of availability never got as far as inviting him to join their promotion push.

derek.davis@archant.co.uk