Town boss Paul Jewell says he has no immediate plans to recall striker Ronan Murray from his loan at Torquay. The Blues are short on striking options with Tamás Priskin joining Swansea on loan a week ago.

Murray, who has impressed during his time with the Gulls, can be recalled at 24 hours’ notice from next week but Jewell isn’t planning on bringing him back because he feels the 19-year-old is benefiting from being at Plainmoor: “Not at the moment because I think he’s better off there.

“If we play with one striker we’ve got Jason Scotland, who can play that way, we’ve got Connor Wickham who can play that way as well.

“If we’re going to play two strikers we’ve got those two and we’ve got Josh Carson who can play up front.”

The Town manager says Murray and the other youngsters out on loan for the remainder of the season — keeper Ian McLoughlin at Stockport and winger Reggie Lambe at Bristol Rovers — are happy where they are: “I know the kids are enjoying it. Ian McLoughlin’s is really enjoying it at Stockport and they’re learning more than they could ever have learnt playing in the reserves at Portman Road on Tuesday against Watford’s youth team.

“I’d love to get all the young kids out because it opens their eyes and they realise what the game’s about at that level and how hard it is, rather than just playing on nice pitches and bumbling along. Ronan Murray will have a taste for it and so will Ian McLoughlin.

“I know that from when I was at Liverpool playing for Liverpool’s reserves where everything was lovely. I went to Wigan and felt the buzz you get out of playing a proper game in front of a crowd, even if it was 3,000 or so people.

“When I went back to Liverpool and was playing in front of 300 or 400 in the reserves, it didn’t turn me on, so I wanted to leave to go and play real football.

“I want the players to be at Ipswich but I don’t want them to be in the comfort zone. I don’t want them to be all of a sudden 19 or 20 and to have played only two Carling Cup games, while there are kids in League Two who have got 100 league games under their belts who are going to go ahead of them.”

Murray, McLoughlin and Lambe are all amongst the first and second-year pros whose contracts are up at the end of the season.

Jewell admits that he’d not have left himself so short of strikers if the Blues still had anything left to play for but in any case says Priskin hasn’t been a regular scorer: “If we were in a relegation fight or a relegation battle I wouldn’t have let it happen, but how many goals has Tamás scored for us? I think he’s scored two since I’ve been here, so it’s not as if we’re letting someone who is prolific go out.

“It might well work for him because it worked well for him when he was at Watford with [Swansea manager] Brendan Rodgers.

“He was down the pecking order a bit here, the interest came in for him, we put it to him and he wanted to go. It was no big deal and we hope he does well. If he does do well he might secure a move.”

The Blues boss is clearly already focusing to a great degree on next season and says that his pre-season plans are already sorted with a two-match tour of Holland set to be announced and the players returning after their summer breaks on June 29th.

Story syndicated from TWTD.co.uk

Photo: Action Images

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