Mick McCarthy and his Town side face Nottingham Forest at the City Ground on Sunday looking to extend their unbeaten run to seven games.
McCarthy believes that Forest, who are still to be beaten in the Championship this season and are second going into the weekend, will be amongst the challengers for automatic promotion.
"Yes, without any doubt,” he said. "I think they’ve got a really good, strong squad. They look hard to beat. TC watched them up there, I watched them at Millwall and we’ve got loads of footage and reports on them.
"They’ve got good players. They’re unbeaten in the league, but they’ve had a few draws, maybe that’s because they’re hard to beat and not that expansive at times, although a bit more so at home.
"I was impressed with them at Millwall, I have to say, impressed with the squad of players.”
Having said leaders Norwich have the best squad in the division does he see Forest as having the second most impressive?
"It’s arguable, but I would say so,” he added. "I wouldn’t disagree with that. If those two teams or clubs can put it together for all the season I think they’ll be hard to beat. They’ve got the best squads, I think.
He says he gets on well with his Forest counterpart: "I know Stuart Pearce very well, football-wise. I’ve done a couple of things with him for the LMA, he’s a really good guy, I like Stuart.
"He was a top player, a fabulous full-back and I really like him, I have a lot of time for him. He’s straight and honest and I have a lot of time for people like that.”
Forest central defender Michael Mancienne played for McCarthy at Wolves - he spent three spells on loan from Chelsea - and he felt he was outstanding during his time at Molineux.
"He was a Rolls Royce for us at Wolves and I watched him against Millwall and that’s what he was,” the Town boss said. "He cruised through the game, he was outstanding.
"He is a good signing for them. He was always a good player, he really excelled with us when he came to us at Wolves.
"He went off to Hamburg and he’s finished his education and he’s a really top player in this league.
"That’s good business, if you’ve got it and you can get Michael Mancienne for that money [£1 million].”
McCarthy, who had a spell with Lyon in France during his career, believes playing abroad does players good: "I do think players benefit from it.
"I don’t think the difference is as great now because there are so many foreign players playing here. All the stuff we now do in terms of warm-downs and weights and diet and sports science was actually there, a lot of it, when I went in 1989.
"I don’t think that’s changed a lot, just the style of football. I think for anyone, if you go to a foreign country it helps educate you in life, social life, your own personal life and then certainly as a footballer.”
Forest’s star of the season so far has been Britt Assombalonga, who has scored eight goals in 11 starts and one sub appearance since signing from Peterborough in the summer.
"He’s ripping it up, isn’t he?” McCarthy said. "He’s a handful, that’s for sure. Peterborough have done that well, picking up players.
"I say picking up players, but it’s not like they’ve picked them up for nothing. I think they paid a million quid for him if the stories about the fee are true, and likewise with Dwight Gayle [now with Crystal Palace].
"They’ve done it well and they’ve gone on and done really well, both lads. Assombalonga is having a good time.”
Forest paid a reported £5 million for Assombalonga and a recent starting XI cost them £11 million, while the only fee paid for a player in Town’s current line-up is the £10,000 handed to Chippenham for Tyrone Mings.
McCarthy agreed that the Blues’ performance so far this season illustrates that success can be achieved without paying out significant fees.
"Yes, it does and I think maybe Marcus Evans saw that, having spent such a lot of money before and then stayed up after I came in in November 2012 without spending anything. And the same was the case last year.
"There are so many players who are willing to go out of contract now and you can pick Bosmans up.
"I think we all do it, we’re all just looking to see if we can pick up a Tyrone Mings or a Christophe Berra or a Skusey.
"We’re all striving to do that and most clubs do it. Some a little bit better than others. But listen, if someone gives you money, go and spend it, that’s the upshot of it.”
One member of the Forest squad well-known to McCarthy and his one-time Republic of Ireland assistant coach Ian ‘Taff’ Evans, now a Town scout, is Andy Reid, who is expected to miss Sunday’s game with the groin problem.
"Reidy was an U21 player with Taff when I was manager of Ireland. He was really promising then and, of course, he’s fulfilled that promise.
"I really like Andy, but I’m not going to be brokenhearted if he’s not playing on Sunday!”
What does he view as Forest’s greatest strength? "Andy Reid, but he’s not playing! In terms of a team they look very, very tough and hard to beat and organised, which I would expect from Stuart.
"They work really hard which I would also expect from Stuart’s team and then they’ve got that bit of quality in them.
"They’ve got Henri Lansbury playing in behind Assombalonga, they’ve got Michail Antonio playing, then Chris Burke, that’s a fairly potent front four.
"I watched them and they had two sitters but that was away from home. At home I think they were a bit more expansive.
"They had Antonio and Assombalonga up front the other day at Wigan, according to the report I’ve got. That’s a fairly explosive partnership.
"And they’ve got two players [defender Jamaal Lascelles and keeper Karl Darlow] that they sold off to Newcastle for huge sums of money and still kept them around on loan.”
McCarthy seems certain to stick with keeper Dean Gerken and his increasingly familiar back four of Jonny Parr at right-back, Tyrone Mings at left-back and skipper Luke Chambers and Christophe Berra at the centre of the defence. Berra and Mings are both only one booking away from a one-match suspension.
The Blues boss has decisions to make in midfield regarding both personnel and system with Forest having switched to 4-4-2 for their draw with Wigan having more regularly used variants on 4-3-3.
McCarthy could opt to stay with the formation he has used in recent games with Cole Skuse, Luke Hyam and Teddy Bishop the central midfield three, while Jonny Williams - who is expected to be over the groin problem which forced him off at Sheffield Wednesday - could start behind out and out front two David McGoldrick and Daryl Murphy with Conor Sammon dropping to the bench.
While key midfield man Andy Reid is not expected to be ready to return, Forest striker Matty Fryatt got back to action having been out for five weeks, also with a groin problem, as a sub at Wigan in midweek and may be in line for a start.
Forest manager Pearce isn't expecting an easy afternoon, telling his club's official site: "I went to Ipswich’s game against Wigan and they left three players up front when they were defending.
"They’re very athletic — a very big side. I think it will be our toughest game of the season.
"They’re undefeated in [six], winning four of them, and Mick is an outstanding manager. It’ll be a tough game, but an exciting one I think.”
Centre-half Danny Collins was on loan with Town in the 2011/12 season, while former Blues left-back Dan Harding is also a member of the current Forest squad. One-time Town coach and caretaker-manager Charlie McParland is now Forest’s U21s boss.
Luke Chambers joined Town on a Bosman free transfer after departing the City Ground in the summer of 2012, while David McGoldrick signed on loan from the Tricky Trees in January last year before putting pen to paper on a permanent deal the following summer.
Paul Anderson was with Forest from August 2008 until July 2012, initially on loan from Liverpool.
Historically, Forest very much have the upper hand, winning 34 of the games between the two sides (31 in the league), 16 (15) ending in draws and Town winning 19 (18). Town last won at the City Ground in December 1999.
Despite being second in the table, the Tricky Trees have drawn all their last three Championship games 0-0 and are without a win in four in all competitions having been beaten 3-1 at Spurs in the Capital One Cup.
When the sides last met at Portman Road in March, Daryl Murphy headed home his 11th goal of the 2013/14 season 12 minutes from time to see the Blues to a 1-1 draw.
Town fought back in the second half after a disappointing display before the break had seen them trailing to former loanee Danny Collins’s fourth minute goal at half-time.
In December at the City Ground, Town stretched their unbeaten away run to six games as the game ended 0-0.
Forest were unhappy not to be awarded a first-half penalty when striker Simon Cox went to ground - without being touched replays showed - as he tried to take the ball past Dean Gerken, who made a number of impressive saves for the Blues, who also had chances.
A final batch of 500 tickets for the visitors’ section will be sold at Forest's away ticket office behind the Brian Clough Stand on the day, cash only with the price of adult and senior tickets increased by £2.
Sunday’s referee is James Linington from Newport, Isle of Wight, who has shown 30 yellow cards and five red in 10 games so far this season. Linington’s most recent Town match was the 1-0 defeat at Burnley in April when he booked only Jonny Williams and Tommy Smith.
Squad from: Gerken, Bialkowski, Parr, Hewitt, Mings, Berra, Chambers, Smith, Skuse, Bishop, Hyam, Anderson, Tabb, Henshall, Ambrose, Bru, Hunt, Stewart, Williams, McGoldrick, Murphy, Sammon, Bajner.