Lovenkrands and Zigic boost Blues
Peter Lovenkrands and Nikola Zigic return for Birmingham as they welcome Mick McCarthy's Ipswich to St Andrew's.
Lovenkrands has missed the club's last two games with a groin complaint while Serbian striker Zigic has been sidelined for the past three through suspension.
Papa Bouba Diop enjoyed a goalscoring run-out for City's reserves in midweek and is pushing for his first-team debut after back-to-back games on the bench.
But, with no new injury or suspension problems, manager Lee Clark is again unlikely to tinker with an unchanged side who fought back from three-nil down to claim a draw at Millwall before winning 1-0 at Leeds last weekend.
On-loan right-back James Hurst has returned to parent club West Brom, while Pablo Ibanez (broken toe) is not yet ready for consideration. Full-backs Stephen Carr (knee) and Paul Caddis (shoulder) are long-term absentees.
McCarthy returns to familiar territory for his first game as Ipswich boss.
McCarthy, appointed as Paul Jewell's successor on Thursday, spent six years in the west midlands as Wolves manager before his sacking in February 2012.
He will now hope to get off to a dream start as bottom club Town aim to arrest a 12-match winless sequence.
Each member of Town's squad starts with a clean slate and it remains to be seen how they will line-up, with caretaker boss Chris Hutchings opting to make three changes from the Paul Jewell era when in caretaker charge of last weekend's terrible 3-0 defeat at home to Sheffield Wednesday.
Striker Paul Taylor remains a definite absentee with his long-term foot injury.
Source: PA
