Boss Mick McCarthy says he laughed when he saw Town’s tough start to the season after the fixtures were released a couple of weeks ago.
Town face a trip to relegated Reading on the opening day of the season, August 3rd, and visit another of last season’s demoted Premier League clubs, QPR, later in the month.
McCarthy said: "When I heard the start, I just laughed at it and I thought somebody’s being kind to us - two of the teams that have come down.
"I can take two different views on that. If the teams that come down and are full of vigour and spirit, wanting to play in the Championship and show everybody they’re going to get promoted straight away, you could be in trouble.
"[Or they could] come down still suffering that hangover from being relegated with players not wanting to be there.
"You never know how it’s going to be. We’ll see. They are tough, Reading and QPR away, and, of course, Millwall and Leeds won’t be any pushovers either.”
McCarthy says he has sympathy for fans who face a couple of lengthy journeys at Christmas: "I looked and we’ve got [Doncaster and then] Bournemouth, we couldn’t get them any further apart, could we?
"That’s tough for the fans, it’s never bad for us. If we were going to Charlton we’d be staying overnight, so if we’re going to Doncaster and Bournemouth it makes no difference. But for the fans it does.”