No clean slate for Fulop

THE start of a new year does not mean that the slate is wiped clean at Portman Road.

Ipswich Town are lumbered with all the baggage from their disappointing 2010, which includes a lowly 18th position in the table, nine defeats in their last 12 league games, uncertainty over the future of manager Roy Keane, and doubts over the club’s immediate ambitions in the transfer market.

Keeper Marton Fulop, who saw his friend and fellow keeper Brian Murphy end up on a stretcher with a broken ankle last week, is certainly not under the illusion that a new year means the old one can be forgotten.

Fulop will again be Town’s last line of defence at Coventry City this afternoon, with Arran Lee-Barrett replacing Murphy on the bench.

“Just because it’s the start of a new year, it doesn’t mean to say that we start with a clean-slate, because half the season has already gone,” admitted Fulop.

“But we can start making up for the bad run that we have had, and I think we are capable of winning a lot of games on the trot.

“Of course our bad run hurts, massively.

“Yet we were unbeaten for the first few games that I was here (from the start of last season), and at the time I was even thinking about automatic promotion, which I’m sure a lot of our fans were also thinking of.

“The squad is still similar to the start of the season,” added Fulop.

Summer signing Fulop has fond memories of his long-term loan stay at Coventry, during the 2005-06 season, when he rattled up 31 league appearances for the Sky Blues.

“I enjoyed my time at Coventry, especially as it was their first season at the Ricoh Arena,” recalled Fulop,

“Now I’m looking forward to playing there again. They are a big, physical team, and they are very dangerous from set pieces, but we will be ready for that,” added Fulop.

The Hungarian international kept a clean sheet on his Coventry debut, a 1-0 win over Luton in October 2005, and he will be looking for a similar outcome on his return to the Ricoh today.