Ívar Ingimarsson and Ibrahima Sonko look set to revive their central defensive partnership from their days at Reading when the Blues take on Leicester at the King Power Stadium on Boxing Day. Town boss Paul Jewell is forced into the change with Danny Collins having returned to Stoke at the end of his loan.

The Blues manager says he has three options, Ingimarsson, Damien Delaney and Tommy Smith, none of whom have played much first team football in recent weeks.

In addition to his experience of playing alongside Sonko, the Icelander has been involved more often than the other two alternatives of late with his last game the 4-0 defeat at Burnley at the end of November and it seems likely that he’ll get the nod.

Delaney only recently returned to training after surgery on a foot injury, while Smith hasn’t been involved since being sent off after a minute of being introduced as a sub at Peterborough in August.

Elsewhere, Town could well be unchanged. Arran Lee-Barrett’s performance and clean sheet in the victory against Derby last week should see him retain his place despite Richard Wright being over his strained pec.

Carlos Edwards and Aaron Cresswell will be the full-backs with Sonko and Ingimarsson in the centre.

In midfield, Jewell is likely to stick with Keith Andrews and Lee Bowyer in the centre with Lee Martin on the right and Daryl Murphy on the left. Jason Scotland and Michael Chopra are again set to start up front.

Skipper Grant Leadbitter could be amongst the subs if he impresses his manager in training with the Blues holding a session at Playford Road on Christmas morning before travelling to the East Midlands later in the day.

Despite registering two successive wins, the Town boss isn’t getting too carried away: “You try not to get despondent when you lose a lot of games and you try and keep your feet on the ground when you win games.

“I don’t think there’s any other league quite like the Championship where teams are taking points off each other and there are surprise results every week. Every game is a grind, every game is tough."

He says he expects Leicester to be in the end-of-season shake-up, despite their current position of 11th, eight places and four points above the Blues: “They’ll pose a difficult challenge, like every team in this league. Doncaster beat them on Saturday but this league is unpredictable.

“I think they’ll be somewhere close near the end of the season, they’ve got too much quality, too much firepower in their team not to be a force to be reckoned with.

“OK, we’ve got 26 games to go, that’s an awful lot of points to play for and I think in the second half of the season you’ll see Leicester come through strongly.”

Leicester skipper Matt Mills is back from a suspension after a red card against Hull and could come in for one-time Town target Sean St Ledger at the centre of the defence.

Mills hasn’t had the happiest time when facing Town with his previous clubs. In his last game against the Blues for Reading he came off early on with an injury, having been red-carded in his previous two matches when Town were in opposition.

Further to the red cards, the former Southampton trainee netted a last ditch winning own goal for the Blues when on loan at Coventry in 2004.

Bulgarian defender Aleksandar Tunchev is back after a groin problem, while midfielders Yuki Abe, Gelson Fernandes and Neil Danns could also come into contention. Up front, Jermaine Beckford could take over from Steve Howard.

Pearson says his squad remain in good spirits, despite last week’s 2-1 defeat to Doncaster: "They've been fine, and they remain upbeat. They've also been very positive because it was a disappointing performance and, more importantly, a disappointing result.

"We need to get back to winning ways as soon as possible and I am confident we can do that.

"We've got some good players here. The biggest story of our season so far is our inability to perform at a higher level on a consistent basis.

"It reflects very much how the season has gone so far in terms of lack of consistency. But I'm confident we will rectify that and make some inroads into the league.

"The mood among the players is the most important thing and they have shown a very good response."

Town have had the upper hand historically, winning 26 games between the sides (26 in the league), drawing 17 (16) and losing 22 (20).

In May, Town ended their 2010/11 season with a 4-2 defeat at what was then still the Walkers Stadium, despite a second half fightback which saw Grant Leadbitter (pen) and Connor Wickham pull the scoreline back to 3-2.

Leicester had been 3-0 up at the break through Andy King, Yakubu and Yuki Abe, Diomansy Kamara later adding the fourth to seal the Foxes’ win.

In December, first half goals from Jason Scotland (2) and David Norris saw Town to a 3-0 home victory over Leicester and ended a six-game league losing run.

Heavy snow started to fall around an hour before kick-off and continued throughout the game with the players taken off for a 14-minute spell in the second half while the pitch was cleared.

Town defender Damien Delaney is the only player in either squad to have played for the opposition, the Irishman spending two years with Leicester, who he joined for £50,000 from hometown club Cork City in October 2000, making seven starts and four sub appearances.

Monday’s referee is Darren Drysdale from Lincolnshire, who has shown 49 yellow cards and just the one red in 49 games so far this season. Drysdale’s most recent Town match was the 1-1 draw at Barnsley last season in which he booked Delaney, Jimmy Bullard and Lee Martin.

Squad from: Lee-Barrett, Wright, Edwards, Cresswell, Wabara, Sonko, Ingimarsson, Delaney, Smith, Bowyer, Andrews, Bullard, Leadbitter, Martin, Murphy, Carson, Emmanuel-Thomas, Chopra, Scotland, Ellington.

Story syndicated from TWTD.co.uk

Photo: Action Images

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