February 27 2014

Jonny Williams

Crystal Palace midfielder JONNY WILLIAMS is to join Ipswich on a month's loan.

Eagles chief Steve Parish wants the Wales international to get matches under his belt so he is ready for the Palace first team.

He told the Advertiser: "It's pretty much done. He can't be recalled during that time. JONNY is not miles away from the squad, but we might get an injury so we just need to be sensible.

"We don't want him to be away when we could have done with him in an important game. JONNY needs to get to the pace of the game and be sharp.

"He's at that age, isn't he? You look at Tom Ince and Wilfried Zaha, they have played 150 games. With injuries, it's all been a bit stop-start for JONNY over the last two years so he needs to go and play a run of games and get super match-fit.

"He played really well for the U21s against Ipswich on Monday. We had three clubs who wanted him (all from the Championship). The manager has got a good relationship with Mick McCarthy.

"Ipswich were one of the clubs interested before the game, it was just a coincidence we were playing them. It's a good place for him to go and JONNY is really happy to go there."

Wales international WILLIAMS added: "Tony Pulis told me I would be going out on loan after the game against Manchester United last weekend and I think there were two or three clubs interested.

"I spoke to Mick McCarthy after the game on Monday though and he told me Ipswich were interested and where he sees me playing in the team. He talked about his ambitions and I was excited about the challenge of coming here."