IPSWICH TOWN: Roy Keane has warned the seven scholars he has offered new professional contracts to that they are now out of the comfort zone.

Keane took a break from preparing for tomorrow’s Championship game against Doncaster Rovers at Portman Road (kick-off 3pm) to hand out advice to the latest crop of youngsters to emerge from the Blues’ famed academy.

Tom Eastman, who has been on the bench for Town’s last two matches, is believed to have been offered a one-year deal while Luke Hyam, Ronan Murray, Jamie Griffiths, Seb Dunbar, Billy Clark and David Cawley have also been given the chance to extend their Ipswich careers into next season.

Keane said: “The boys have done well but contracts mean little to me.

“It’s about what they do next season that counts.

“Getting a professional contract is the easy part.

“They will be out of the comfort zone of the academy now, and it will be about how they progress next season.

“The hard work really starts for them now.

“They’ve got to get their heads down and work extremely hard to make that move to the next level.

“We will be looking at the boys playing regularly in the reserves next season and staking their case for the first-team.”

Murray and Cawley have won Republic of Ireland Under-19 caps while Hyam, Dunbar and Clark are local boys hoping to make good.

They are set to get their chance to be involved in the first team squad during pre-season – and stake their claim to earn a longer contract the short term ones they have currently been offered.

N (SQUARE) THERE were no ‘winners’ from last weekend’s attempts to guess Roy Keane’s mind and predict that he would name an unchanged team for the game at Nottingham Forest.

Why not see if you can predict his line-up for tomorrow’s home game against Doncaster Rovers?

Send your e-mails to elvin.king@eveningstar.co.uk to be received no later than 1.45pm on Saturday.

David Wright appeared in many of the teams last week with a selection as follows:

Alex Lumley (Maldon): B Murphy, O’Connor, McAuley, Delaney, D Wright, Colback, Leadbitter, Norris, Walters, D Murphy, Wickham.

Phil Kindred: B Murphy, D Wright, McAuley, Delaney, O’Connor, Peters, Leadbitter, Norris, Colback,

Walters, D Murphy.

Martin Swallow: B Murphy, D Wright, Delaney, McAuley, Peters, Walters, Norris, Leadbitter, Colback, D Murphy, Wickham.

N (SQUARE) IPSWICH Town’s Academy game against Birmingham City tomorrow starts at noon and not 11am as previously advertised.