Town boss Mick McCarthy says there's been a good reaction from his players following Monday’s 2-1 defeat at Huddersfield, ahead of Saturday’s crucial home game against already-relegated Blackpool.
"I’ve had a good reaction this week,” McCarthy said. "We’ve been at it for 41 games now and the players are bang at it in every training session and in every game. We had a bad day.”
He says after a decent first few minutes the Blues never recovered from the goal against a Terriers side, who looked a better team than their current lowly position suggests.
"We started well, Tabby had a chance, I think it hit the post,” the Blues manager recalled. "We made a mistake and suddenly it goes the opposite way and who knows why.
"We’ve been on the other side of that when we’ve not started well and Gerks or Bart have made a couple of saves and it looks like it’s going wrong.
"We then score and suddenly rip the place up, we play great and the only thing that people remember is the 75 minutes when we’ve played well, not the 15 when we could have gone behind.”
While everyone is expecting Town to beat the Seasiders, the Championship’s whipping boys throughout the season, it won’t be a stroll in the park, McCarthy warns.
"It makes them a dangerous opposition because they’ve been relegated,” he insisted. "It’s a bit like ‘We’ll just go and play’, but within reason. I don’t mean they won’t compete because they will but they’ll play with a bit of gay abandon.
"All they can do is achieve something by beating a play-off contender and that makes them a dangerous opponent.
"But it’s what we do, it’s how we play and I always believe that if we play to our full potential I expect us to win every game.”
He has a lot of time for his Blackpool opposite number Lee Clark, who he says is the right man to take the Tangerines back into the Championship.
"Without a doubt,” he said. "He was at Huddersfield and was unbeaten for 50 games and got the sack. Another one of those strange ones.
"I’ve a lot of time for Lee, he’s a really good footballing guy, a real, honest nice guy. Win, lose or draw has an honest opinion on it.
"We drew at [Clark’s former club Birmingham] in the last minute with the last kick of the game and still the office is open, ‘Come in, have a beer, have a Coke, have a chat’.
"And it’s an honest chat, it’s not like ‘We should have won’ and whinging and moaning that they conceded.
"We played well in that game and probably deserved it. And that’s what I like about him, his honesty and they’re absolutely in good hands if they’re going into League One to get back out.”
After last week’s defeat McCarthy will look at making one or two changes to his side. Keeper Bartosz Bialkowski is set to keep his place, while skipper Luke Chambers is likely to be at right-back and Tommy Smith and Christophe Berra at the centre of the defence.
The Blues boss has confirmed that Tyrone Mings - suspended for the last two games - will return at left-back in place of Zeki Fryers.
In midfield, Cole Skuse may be joined in the centre by Teddy Bishop with Richard Chaplow dropping out, while Jay Tabb will probably be on the left and Luke Varney on the right against his old loan club.
Freddie Sears looks set to be recalled alongside 23-goal Championship top scorer Daryl Murphy.
McCarthy says Jonny Williams is not yet ready to start but the on-loan Crystal Palace man seems likely to be involved from the bench at some stage.
David McGoldrick remains amongst those sidelined with injury, while Jonny Parr is back in training after his hamstring problem but may not be considered ready for a place amongst the subs.
Blackpool, whose long-anticipated relegation was confirmed earlier in the week, have lost on-loan Cardiff keeper Joe Lewis and centre-half Grant Hall, who is on loan from Tottenham, for the remainder of the season due to ankle injuries.
Wolves have recalled winger Michael Jacobs, while Tom Aldred (hamstring), Miles Addison (knee) and Henry Cameron (ankle) all remain sidelined.
Historically, Town have won 11 games between the sides (10 in the league), nine have been drawn (nine) and Blackpool have won five (four). The Tangerines have never won at Portman Road and are without an away win all season.
In November, Town celebrated Mick McCarthy’s second anniversary in charge with a comfortable 2-0 victory at Bloomfield Road.
David McGoldrick put the Blues in the lead in the 26th minute and Daryl Murphy sealed it just after the hour.
The teams last met at Portman Road in February last year when the game ended 0-0. McGoldrick - who suffered his season-ending knee injury late on - headed disappointing Town's best opportunity wide in the ninth minute while keeper Scott Loach thwarted Faris Haroun twice in the first half and once late on in the second.
Blues striker Luke Varney was on loan with the Seasiders from Derby during their 2010/11 Premier League campaign, scoring five goals in 24 starts and six sub appearances.
Town winger Stephen Hunt was close to signing for Blackpool prior to joining Town last season before the deal broke down, while Darren Ambrose spent time with the Tangerines during pre-season and Alex Henshall had a short spell on loan at Bloomfield Road earlier in the season, making two sub appearances.
Blackpool defender Darren O’Dea spent time on loan with the Blues on loan from Celtic in 2010/11, making 22 starts and three sub appearances without scoring.
Fans travelling to the game by train should note that there will be disruption on various lines.
Fifty-eight supporters from ITFC Sweden will be making the trip over for the game with many staying on until Tuesday, while they will also be playing Punch Drunk in a seven-a-side match on Sunday.
Saturday’s match is Town’s official Prostate Cancer UK match with Tim Hodgson, the member of Team ITFC taking part in the fundraising London to Amsterdam Cycle Challenge who produced the TWTD-sponsored We Don’t Wear Yellow T-shirts, and his father leading the teams out, carrying out the matchball.
Around 40 members of Team ITFC will have their photo taken pitchside pre-match and two of them are taking part in the crossbar challenge at half-time.
Saturday’s referee is James Linington from Newport, Isle of Wight, who has shown 94 yellow cards and nine red in 34 games so far this season.
His last Town match was the 2-0 home victory over Middlesbrough in December in which he booked three Teessiders and, somewhat harshly, David McGoldrick for an alleged dive.
Squad from: Bialkowski, Gerken, Chambers, Mings, Fryers, Parr, Smith, Berra, Skuse, Bishop, Chaplow, Benyu, Williams, Tabb, S Hunt, Henshall, Anderson, Varney, Murphy, Sears, Wood.