Joe Royle wants his players to have a one-track mind at Withdean tomorrow.

The Ipswich boss is urging his team to focus purely on beating Albion.

Royle is worried Wigan's game against Reading will distract his side as he feels it has supporters during the build-up.

Town need to win and for Reading to get at least a draw at the JJB Stadium to go up automatically and avoid the lottery of the play-offs.

Royle revealed: "I have told the players to forget all that is going on around you. So many people are asking me how I feel Wigan will do that they are missing the point that if we don't win, it won't matter.

"It won't be an easy game. We are playing a desperate team who need the points, so I don't expect the walkover people are talking about."

Town have a doubt over central defender Jason De Vos, who has been bed-ridden all week with a virus.

Royle will give the Canadian international until Sunday morning before making a decision. Fellow centre half Richard Naylor is expected to recover from an Achilles injury.

For three months Ipswich held pole position and didn't need to rely on what other teams did. Even ast month they still had their destiny in their own hands.

Royle is philosophical about how things have changed and no less excited about what is yet to unfold. He said: "It was in our own hands for a while, but it slipped through, so it is what it is now.

"I look forward to every game. The day I stop looking forward to a football match is the day I disappear.

"I will be no more or less stressed or concerned about it than any other game. Some managers are overtly excited. I will try and stay calm."

Royle is full of admiration for his Albion counterpart Mark McGhee after buying Darren Currie off him for £250,000 in December and the simultaneous loss for the Seagulls of captain Danny Cullip to Sheffield United for the same fee.

He said: "I have a lot of time for what Mark McGhee has done there on a nil budget. He lost his two top players in Darren Currie and Danny Cullip and if they stay up, which I think they will do regardless of what we do there, then they will have had a fantastic season."