IPSWICH TOWN: Blues midfielder Jack Colback says that he will be up to the task when Barnsley visit Portman Road in a Championship fixture tomorrow (kick-off 3pm).

With Grant Leadbitter serving a suspension and David Norris likely to miss out again with an ankle injury, Colback will be playing a key role as Town look to get back to winning ways and reclaim a top six place against the Yorkshire-based side.

Manager Roy Keane kept the players in the dressing room for an hour after Tuesday’s 2-0 home defeat by Derby County and the pressure will be on to perform.

“The manager expressed his disappointment and this was felt by all of us,” said Colback, who is on loan from Sunderland until January.

“We all felt the same way.

“But we must forget about that now and look ahead to tomorrow’s match.

“It is such a tight division that with a win we are likely to move right back up among the top sides.

“The absence of Grant and possibly David could put more responsibility on me, but we have a good squad with a number of players who can step in.”

Colback admits that there will be pressure on gaining victory against Barnsley following the Derby defeat.

“But we must put that behind us having analysed it over the last couple of days.

“We have enough quality in the squad to puts things right straight away as we have shown before.

“And we must look to limit our off nights.”

After wins in Town’s previous three games, Colback revealed that like most Town supporters he did not see the Derby display coming.

“The game gave us a chance to build a bit of a gap between us and the teams just below,” he added.

“But we slipped up – in similar fashion to last season when we failed to kick on and failed to take the chances that came our way.

“We felt confident going into the game, but for some reason did not perform.

“I could not see it coming, and I can’t put my finger on why we didn’t play well after the opening stages.

“In the first half we were decent and had a couple of chances, but then conceded a couple of sloppy goals and it killed us.

“Our defence has been spot on in recent matches, but it was a blow to let in those goals.”

Key defender Gareth McAuley is set to miss out tomorrow as well with an Achilles problem with Darren O’Dea set to come in at left back with Tommy Smith moving to partner Darren Delaney in the heart of the defence.