Mick McCarthy hopes Town can take advantage of Burnley’s celebrations when they take on the newly-promoted Clarets at Turf Moor in Saturday's live Sky game (KO 12.15pm). The Lancastrians confirmed their promotion back to the Premier League by beating Wigan 2-0 on Monday.
Town, who are currently ninth, two points off the top six, are still in with a chance of joining them in the top flight next season but first need to win the keenly contested battle for the final play-off place.
Victory at Turf Moor would see the Blues go into next week’s final game against Sheffield Wednesday still in the hunt, regardless of the results of their main rivals, Reading, Brighton and Nottingham Forest.
"If we win on Saturday we’re still in it until the last game of the season,” McCarthy said. "I think that’s where it puts us, which would be great.
"Going to Burnley is a tough ask, they will have been enjoying themselves this week and rightly so because of their achievement this season.
"If there’s ever a chance to take any advantage at all then maybe it’s this weekend because when you get promoted, you relax. There’s no doubt, you relax your guard.
"They’ve been playing at such an intensity for 44 games, maybe they will let their guard down a little bit. If they don’t, then we’ve got a hard afternoon because they’re a good team.”
The Town boss has been impressed with Sean Dyche’s side, who were largely unfancied at the start of the season.
"They’ve been fabulous,” he added. ”They’ve maintained it and I think everybody, me included, looking at the small squad that they had, [wondered if they could] keep them all fit, playing and injury free, but they have.
"A bit like ourselves, really. We’ve done well with a really small squad and played as few players as anybody.
"And a bit like us, Sean Dyche has got some good, experienced players who have been involved in Championship-winning teams.
"He’s got four of the lads I had at Wolves, in Jason Shackell, Michael Kightly, Dave Jones and Sam Vokes.
"Sam Vokes has become a really top striker at this level. He and Danny Ings have been the big difference, they’ve scored 40 or 50 goals between them. It’s been a real success story.”
In addition to their oft-praised strike force, the Clarets have also been good at the back, McCarthy says: "Defensively they’ve been brilliant, their defence is the best in the division, isn’t it? Jason Shackell’s turned out to be a really top player.
"I signed him from Norwich, he didn’t have the best of times and he went to Barnsley and Derby and now he’s the captain at Burnley. I think he’s been outstanding this season along with Michael Duff and Ben Mee.
"And I talk about Cressy being the best left-back, well Kieran Trippier is arguably the best right-back in the league. And with the keeper, Tom Heaton, they’ve had a really solid foundation.
"They haven’t spent millions but they did go out and sign Ashley Barnes for £700,000 or £800,000 in the transfer window, which helped them when they got a couple of injuries.
"I don’t know what they’ve spent but they are one of the lowest spenders in the league and it’s a testament to the work they’ve done.”
Brighton, who are seventh, ahead of the Blues on goal difference, behind Reading in the final play-off slot, play their home game against Yeovil tonight, but the result of that match will make no difference to McCarthy’s approach.
"We’re going to try and win. We try to win every game, it’s not like I’ve set up to be defensive,” he said. "We’ve tried to win every game and we’ll be exactly the same at Burnley.
"I didn’t even consider that Brighton are playing on Friday night because it doesn’t matter what they do. All we can do is win our game and stay in the mix for the following Saturday.”
McCarthy looks set to return to his regular back four with Christophe Berra back from the knee injury which saw him miss Monday’s game against Bournemouth.
The Scotland international will line-up alongside Tommy Smith at the heart of the defence with skipper Luke Chambers likely to move back to right-back in place of Frazer Richardson, who will be unfortunate to drop out having impressed on his first start for Town. Aaron Cresswell will continue at left-back with Dean Gerken in goal.
In central midfield Luke Hyam is definitely out with a hip flexor strain, while Anthony Wordsworth is considered a doubt after suffering a dead leg on Monday. If the former Colchester man isn’t fit then Paul Green could come into the side alongside Cole Skuse.
Paul Anderson is expected to miss out with a hamstring problem and McCarthy may opt to bring Frank Nouble back into the side on the right with Stephen Hunt perhaps on the left and Jonny Williams between the central midfield pair and main striker Daryl Murphy.
Burnley boss Sean Dyche is looking for six more points from the final two matches, despite having achieved their aim for the season.
"The destination is complete so I’m looking forward to the marvel of having two fantastic games coming up where the players can relax and play, and just play because they love playing," he told the Lancashire Telegraph.
"They can enjoy the occasion but still with the winning mentality. There are words we’ve used a lot, relentless, limitless. It’s just a mindset. I think it’s ground into them.
"They will be going hard. I’ve already told them ‘make no mistake, the whistle blows and we are ready to go’.
"We want maximum points out of the next two games and to keep our integrity for the division because they are important games and I would like to think if the shoe was on the other foot that teams were going hard to make sure they gave performances, so we will certainly be doing that."
Burnley right-back Trippier is expected to be OK despite picking up a knock during Monday’s promotion-sealing win against Wigan, but striker Vokes will miss out having undergone knee surgery and defender Luke O'Neill is sidelined with a thigh problem.
No member of either current squad has represented the opposition, but Tony Loughlan, Roy Keane’s first-team coach during his time at Town, currently fills the same role at Burnley.
In October at Portman Road, Scott Arfield’s second half goal saw league leaders Burnley to a 1-0 victory over the Blues, their first win on Suffolk soil since January 1970. The midfielder stooped to head home in the 80th minute of a tight encounter.
On the final day of last season at Turf Moor, second-half goals from Junior Stanislas and Martin Paterson saw Town fall to a 2-0 defeat.
After a dull first half, the game, played between two teams with nothing to play for, improved slightly after the break with the home team deserving the victory.
Overall, Town have won 18 of the games between the sides (17 in the league), Burnley 12 (12) with a further 10 (10) ending in draws.
Prior to kick-off Town fans are welcome to drink and park at Burnley Cricket Club, which is just behind the away end. The club still have half-price coach tickets on sale for Saturday's game.
Saturday’s referee is James Linington from Newport, Isle of Wight, who has shown 107 yellow cards and five red in 35 games this season.
Linington’s most recent Town match was the 3-1 home victory over Middlesbrough in September in which he booked Luke Chambers and Luke Hyam and one Teessider.
Squad from: Gerken, Loach, Chambers (c), Richardson, Cresswell, Mings, Berra, Smith, Skuse, Wordsworth, Green, Hunt, Tabb, Henshall, Williams, Murphy, Nouble, Taylor, Ebanks-Blake, Marriott.