Nothing but victory will do for Ipswich at Birmingham.

Blues boss George Burley has described Sunday's clash as "the biggest game of the season so far".

He believes the result at St Andrews could decide who gets the automatic promotion spot.

He said: "We have to win there and at home against Sheffield United.

"If we win we will be back in the driving seat. "It will be a battle of nerves and will but I'm confident we will get the right result.

"Going to Wolves will not be easy for Bradford and the pressure will be back on them."

By the time the televised game kicks off at 1pm, Town will know how Bradford have got on with relegation-threatened Oxford CIty.

City tried to get their game put back until the same time as Ipswich kicked off but that was rejected by the league. Blues boss George Burley said: "I would have been disappointed if the league had allowed that.

"It makes no difference us knowing the result, we still have to win."

Striker James Scowcroft is an injury worry for Town ahead of their crunch battle with Birmingham. The 22-year-old front man injured his knee in training and has needed intensive treatment to get him fit for Sunday's clash.

Burley said today (Friday): "He is our only injury worry and we are hoping that it will settle down before tomorrow and then we will look at things again."

More than 3,500 travelling Town fans will be their to back Burley's men.

He said: "The crowd home and away have been fantastic and that amount away from home is tremendous."

The Ipswich camp has recovered from the set back against Crewe and are chomping at the bit to get back on track. Frenchman Manuel Thetis is sure Town are going up directly.

He said: "Things are not in our control now it is in Bradford's hands. But I'm still confident we will go into the Premiership but we would rather not do it via the play-offs. I have not had to play in play-offs before.

"With Marseilles we were promoted automatically, it was a great moment because with three games to go we were third but we went up as champions."

Richard Wright returned from captaining the England under 21 party with no ill-effects. Adam Tanner is still struggling with his knee injury and suffered a set back in training this week.

Wayne Brown keeps his place in the squad with Burley impressed by his form in the reserves recently. He said: "Wayne has improved tremendously and is showing a lot of consistency."

"He has at least another year on his contract and a chance for him to come through."

Birmingham's £1 million striker Dele Adebola returned to full training during the week and has a chance of being included. But Trevor Francis is likely to stick with Paul Furling up front with Peter Ndlovu and Lee Bradbury.

Martin O'Connor and Simon Charlton are both expected to return from injury.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.