Yeovil v Ipswich: Blues boss Mick McCarthy is ready to make to chnages to his team for tomorrow’s match at Yeovil.

The Town manager admitted his side were ‘second best’ following Saturday’s limp 2-0 defeat at Middlesbrough. He named an unchnaged side for the match at the Riverside, following on from a 1-0 home win over Birmingham, but looks set to freshen up his team for what is a second long journey in the space of four days.

Frank Nouble is struggling with a tight hamstring and could be replaced up front by Ebanks-Blake, the 27-year-old having made three substiutute appearabnces since suffering a hamstring injury on his full debut (1-1 hoem draw with Preston in the FA Cup on January 4).

“Frank has got a bit of a tight hamstring, probably still from the game before,” revelaed McCarthy. “He played 45 minutes (at Middlesbrough) and it didn’t look like it was bothering him then, but sitting on the bus for five hours on the way back probably hasn’t helped.”

On Ebanks-Blake, he said: “Yes, he’s ready to start. Will he? Turn up at Yeovil and see.”

Around 1,000 Blues fans are expected at Huish Park, McCarthy’s men still in the race for sixth-spot thanks to other results having gone their way over the weekend. Yeovil are now just two points adrift from safety following a five-game unbeaten run consisting of draws against Millwall, Watford and Reading and wins over Doncaster and Sheffield Wednesday.

Having got back in Suffolk around midnight on Saturday, Town’s players underwent light training sessions on Sunday afternoon and this morning before boarding the coach again for yet another 250-mile trip – this time to the south west.

Will McCarthy look to freshen up his team for a second game in four days?

“Possibly, yeah,” he said. “There’s a thin dividing line between freshing it up and having too many in the team who have not been playing – ala League Cup ties. It won’t be six or seven changes, I’m not going to start doing that. There is a pootential for freshing it up though, yeah.”

Christophe Berra is okay after coming off worse in a full-bloodied block tackle with George Friend at the weekend, while Anthony Wordsworth remains sidelined (back). Carlos Edwards – left beind for the Boro trip – is travelling.

“It really is one game at a time,” said McCarthy. “I fancied us going up to Middlesbrough; I thought we were in reasonable form, in good form. We don’t change too much in how we are, we’ve not been flying and had massive dips. We just didn’t play, but I said afterwards let’s give them a bit of credit because they played very well.

“Right the wrongs always sounds like we’ve done something bad and we haven’t. We went up to Middlesbrough and didn’t play particularly well against a team full of good players who dominated us really after they scored.”

– See tomorrow’s EADT and Ipswich for full match preview.