IPSWICH team captain Gareth McAuley today said that the Blues must be more ruthless in both penalty areas to move up the Coca-Cola Championship table.

Elvin King

IPSWICH team captain Gareth McAuley today said that the Blues must be more ruthless in both penalty areas to move up the Coca-Cola Championship table.

The central defender says that he is fine and expects to be fit for tomorrow's league match with promoted Swansea at Portman Road (kick off 3pm).

McAuley was signed from Leicester City in the summer and admits that results have been disappointing but like the rest of the squad he is confident that he can help Town climb the table.

This is despite not being happy with his own form.

He said: “I have not come off the field feeling convinced that I have played as well as I can and this is possibly because I have tried to change my game.

“At Ipswich we like to get the ball down and pass it and I have altered my way of playing to adjust to this.

“There are decisions that I have to make on the field that could be improved and this is something I am working on.

“We played well enough against Charlton in our last match but lost 2-1, which was very disappointing.

“We have nine points to play for over the next eight days and gaining all of them would turn things right around for us.

“We have been missing chances at one end and conceding poor goals at the other so we must now learn to be more ruthless in both penalty areas.”

McAuley has learnt something about Swansea during the international break as he has been rooming in the Northern Ireland party with Warren Feeney who was on loan with the Welsh club last season.

McAuley said: “Warren told me he was really impressed while he was at Swansea and I know it will be a tough match.

“Their players will be hungry to prove themselves at this higher level and they are a very decent side.”

Town boss Jim Magilton confirmed that McAuley trained yesterday and had plenty of treatment on a slight hamstring problem that he felt while playing for Northern Ireland against San Marino on Wednesday that saw him leave the field as a precaution after an hour.

Magilton added: “Gareth, I am sure, will be ok and we will be looking at him again today while I also expect no problems with Alex Bruce after he returned early from Republic of Ireland duty.

“We came from the two-week break last month to beat Reading and go on a run and we are looking for the same surge this time around.

“I watched Swansea play on television against Cardiff recently and was highly impressed and know that we must win the right to play before we can express ourselves fully.

“It should be a good, open game, and we are at home so I would expect us to win.”