Joe Royle hopes a good UEFA Cup run will help him keep hold of his best players at Ipswich. They go into tonight's UEFA Cup second-round tie with Czech champions Slovan Liberec holding a slender 1-0 advantage. Royle, who is likely to stick with the 3-5-2 formation he fielded in the League Cup win over Middlesbrough and draw at Sheffield United, hands starts to Darren Ambrose and top scorer Pablo Counago, back from a three-match domestic ban.

The Ipswich boss will not be giving specific warnings to his players about dealing with potential racist abuse. Liberec were fined £4,000 by UEFA for racism directed at Milan's players in August and Ipswich's Marcus Bent and Finidi George were on the receiving end in the first-round win over Yugoslav side Sartid.