Town boss Paul Jewell could give new loanees Richie Wellens and DJ Campbell their Blues debuts in Saturday’s live Sky game against Championship leaders Cardiff City at Portman Road (KO 5.20pm, Sky Sports Two from 5pm). Town's third new loan signing, Bilel Mohsni, is likely to be amongst the subs.
Wellens looks set to take over from Andy Drury in the centre of the midfield, while Campbell could come in for Michael Chopra up front. The ex-Cardiff man is fit but Jewell may decide to rest him after this week's off-field events.
Elsewhere, Town are likely to be unchanged having impressed during Tuesday’s 1-1 draw at Brighton. Scott Loach will continue in goal, skipper Carlos Edwards, hailed as outstanding by his manager against the Seagulls, will be on the right and Aaron Cresswell on the left.
Danny Higginbotham has been a big influence since taking over from Tommy Smith at the heart of the defence and will again be partnered by Luke Chambers.
Alongside Wellens in the centre of midfield will be the increasingly influential Guirane N’Daw with Daryl Murphy expected to be on the left and Jay Emmanuel-Thomas, whose display at the Amex also pleased his manager, on the right. Lee Martin is likely to continue behind the lone striker.
Defender Mohsni is likely to be amongst the subs, the Frenchman having become Town's seventh loanee. Clubs are permitted to name five domestic loans in a matchday squad but there is no limit on players from foreign associations such as N'Daw (St Etienne) and Murphy (Celtic).
Midfielder Luke Hyam (back) and striker Paul Taylor (cracked bone in his foot) are the only injury absentees at present.
Jewell says he can only ask his players to go out and give their best against the big-spending league leaders: "We’ve just got to make sure we’re brave and we play to the best of our ability. If Cardiff come and play well and we play well and they beat us, there’s not much we can do.
"We know that they’ll come full of confidence. I know our record against Cardiff before someone tells me, and I’d say that we had a bad record against Watford.
"We’ve played them three times since I’ve been here and we’ve beaten them twice and we’ve drawn with them once.
"It’s always a hard game, they’ve got some quality players, they’ve spent a lot of money on trying to get in the Premier League, they’ve even changed the kit. I’m not sure what our fans would do if played in yellow!
"They’ve almost thrown tradition out of the window and gone down the road of trying to get promotion through the owners from Malaysia.”
While on the subject of clubs and traditions, Jewell mused whether the ‘Ipswich way’ has served the club particularly well in recent years, although confirming that he’d ideally play the type of football which is associated with the club: "What is the Ipswich way? I think we’ve been in the Premier League for five years out of the last 25.
"Tradition is fantastic and this club is a very traditional, family-orientated club and we should embrace that.
"We shouldn’t also forget that the Ipswich way hasn’t been very good over the last few years, since I’ve been here, since before I’ve been here and even before that.
"Let’s have it right, we want to try and play winning football. If we can play attractive football, great. If we can play winning football and attractive football, even better.
"Our main aim at the minute is to get ourselves out of a hole that we’re in, let’s not fool ourselves, we’re in a hole and we’ve got to get out of it.”
Town are without a home win since the 1-0 victory over Barnsley on March 31st but Jewell says some of the displays since have been worthy of more points: "A couple of performances at home have been decent, Huddersfield and Blackburn, and even the Wolves performance was decent, even if the result wasn’t.
"We could have scraped [a result]. I remember us playing Portsmouth here last year and were rubbish and won 1-0.
"We just need that win to get the monkey off everybody’s back. We’re all feeling a little bit deflated but the last performance should give us a lot of heart to take into the next game.”
He expects Cardiff to be one of the challengers at the top of a division he expects to be very tight: "I wouldn’t like to call the top six. Crystal Palace lost their first three but they’ve zoomed up the table and are close to a play-off position.
"You’ve got Cardiff, you’ve got Leicester, who I think will be up there, you’ve got Blackburn, with their budget, Forest with their budget, Leeds, Wolves, I could go on.
"There are a plethora of teams this season that can not only get promoted but win it. I don’t think there’s going to be a team that runs away with it.
"It’s going to be a really tough league and I think people are realising how tough it is. Brighton have a brilliant way of playing and they’ve played that type of football, and winning football, for the last three years.
"You can feel the feel-good factor down at Brighton. The fans were great there the other night. They believe they’re going to get goals.
"OK, they got beat by Birmingham, but there is a belief that they are going to win games even when they’re behind, and that takes a while to bed down.”
The Blues boss says the added focus of the game being shown live by Sky won’t be a factor, other than the kick-off time being an annoyance to all involved: "Cameras or not it doesn’t matter. These days the cameras are always there, so it shouldn’t really make any difference.
"A 5.20 kick off I think is a pain for everybody, supporters especially but that’s the way it is and we’ve got to deal with it.”
Cardiff boss Malky Mackay has confirmed that former Norwich striker Craig Bellamy won’t be in his squad and that he has one or two other doubts: "Craig took a knock to a knee during the match against Birmingham City and won't be with us in Ipswich.
"It's nothing serious and we would expect Craig to be available for our first match after the international break.
"Tommy Smith and Jordon Mutch are close to being available, but both are doubtful for our match at Ipswich. Rudy Gestede is in the squad who have travelled."
Smith has a groin problem and Mutch a foot injury, while Gestede has been out with a knee injury. Fellow frontman Nicky Maynard is a long-term absentee with a knee problem. Stephen McPhail (hamstring) and Kadeem Harris (ankle) have also been under treatment.
Town have the upper hand historically, winning 20 (18 in the league), drawing 11 (11) and losing 10 (nine). The Blues are unbeaten in their last seven games against the Welsh side, winning all but last season’s away game.
In February, Lee Martin’s first Town brace and Michael Chopra’s perhaps inevitable goal against his old club saw the Blues to a 3-0 victory over Cardiff at Portman Road and to four wins on the trot for the first time since November 2004.
Martin put Town in front in the first half from Daryl Murphy’s cutback, Chopra converting Carlos Edwards’s cross just after the break and Martin added the third when he made the most of a defensive lapse.
Earlier in the season, in October, a controversial Peter Whittingham penalty prevented the Blues from claiming their sixth successive victory over Cardiff and their fourth in a row on Bluebirds soil.
Rudy Gestede put the home side in front but ex-Swansea striker Jason Scotland equalised before half-time.
After the break, Chopra put the Blues in front before the home side were given the contentious penalty for handball by Edwards with 18 minutes remaining.
Chopra joined Town from Cardiff for £1 million in the summer of 2010, while Jay Emmanuel-Thomas was on loan with the Bluebirds in 2010/11, making nine starts and seven sub appearances, scoring two goals. The former Arsenal man hit out at critical Bluebirds fans after his spell was up at the end of that season.
Blues coach and former left-back Mark Kennedy joined Town from Cardiff in the summer of 2010 for £75,000, while Arran Lee-Barrett was with the Bluebirds between 2003 and 2005 but without making the first team appearance.
Welsh Town coach Sean McCarthy spent time on trial with Cardiff as a youngster, while U18s coach Russell Osman played for and managed the Bluebirds.
Felixstowe boy James Hollman is now the Bluebirds’ goalkeeper-coach, having been in a similar role with the Blues until the end of 2010/11, and Cardiff’s assistant boss David Kerslake made three starts and six sub appearances for George Burley’s Town side in the 1997/98 season.
Icelandic Bluebirds midfielder Aron Gunnarsson had a trial with the Town academy when a schoolboy.
Saturday’s referee is Eddie Ilderton from Tyne and Wear, who has shown 29 yellow and one red card in eight games so far this season. Ilderton’s most recent Town match was the 3-2 home defeat by Reading in November last year in which he kept his cards in his pocket throughout.
Squad from: Loach, Lee-Barrett, Edwards, Cresswell, Ainsley, Chambers, Higginbotham, Smith, Mohsni, N'Daw, Wellens, Drury, Luongo, Murphy, Emmanuel-Thomas, Carson, Martin, Chopra, Campbell, Scotland, Ellington, Murray.