NO-NONSENSE Blues defender Chris Makin has backed manager Joe Royle to guide Ipswich Town back up Division One.Makin, who played under Royle in Oldham's promotion-winning side, believes Tuesday night's 2-1 victory over Walsall is the first step of that resurgence.

NO-NONSENSE Blues defender Chris Makin has backed manager Joe Royle to guide Ipswich Town back up Division One, writes Derek Davis.

Makin, who played under Royle in Oldham's promotion-winning side, believes Tuesday night's 2-1 victory over Walsall is the first step of that resurgence.

He said: "Joe has seen it all before, he knows what it is all about. He knows what it takes to win promotion and you really can't question his judgement, especially this early in the season."

A muscle tear in his thigh has forced Makin to miss the last couple of games and he will not be available for Wimbledon on Saturday, but he is hoping to be back fully fit in time for the trip to his old club Sunderland at the end of the month.

Makin was signed by George Burley from Sunderland after Peter Reid decided he was surplus to requirements. Although he made a lot of good friends at the Stadium of Light, there is no hiding his desire to return to take three points.

"That would be brilliant. I would love for us to go up there and beat them," he said.

"Like most footballers I'm a terrible spectator and I can't wait to be back playing. It won't be Saturday against Wimbledon though, that is a bit too soon, but I would love to be back in training some time next week. We will have to see.

"I watched us beat Walsall and that was a massive win for us. We can go on from here and Wimbledon is a very winnable game."

As determined as Makin is to add his considerable ability and experience to the team, he doesn't believe Town are as poor a team as their lowly position would suggest.

He said: "We are not a bad side and we have a lot of good players, but we have had a bad start and that has affected confidence a bit.

"If you look at the amount of chances we have created you can see what we are capable of. Put half of them away and we are near the top.

"The key is confidence, look at Portsmouth last season, no one would have tipped them for promotion yet they had a good start, that boosted the confidence, everything went their way and they were able to stay up there.

"That is what we need, we need to go on an unbeaten run of 10 to 15 games, which is possible and the goals will go in, we'll stop leaking silly goals and we will be right back up there."

Should Makin make it in time for the September 30 trip to Sunderland there could be raft of punters putting a quid on him to score the first goal at massive odds. The Sunderland fans used to call 'shoooot' every time Makin went over the halfway line to mark the fact he scored just once in 143 appearances. The versatile defender has yet to get off the mark in more than 90 appearances for Town, so that would be a good time to start.

Town's other injury worries include Martijn Reuser, Tommy Miller and John McGreal, with the Dutchman likely to win the race to be back first.