Former Blue Jason Dozzell belives Town’s Championship play-off semi-finals against Norwich City are the biggest derbies ever played between the clubs.
Ipswich-born Dozzell, 47, a derby-winning goalscorer in his playing days, says the matches at Portman Road on Saturday and then Carrow Road the following week are bigger than any of the derbies he played in.
"Absolutely, just because of what’s at the end of it, the money you get when you get in the Premier League,” he told TWTD. "By far the biggest, I would imagine.
"Just for the £120 million or whatever it is if you go up, for that alone. Massive, absolutely massive.”
Dozzell was part of a Town side which went head to head with the Canaries for a place at Wembley but he says these matches are a far bigger deal.
"I played in in the Milk Cup semi-finals in 1985, bad memories really, I was marking Steve Bruce for the second goal!” he recalled.
"We won the first leg 1-0 and I remember going up there and they basically kicked us off the park, from what I remember, and they beat us 2-0 on the night. Bad memories!”
Now working in the Blues’ academy, Dozzell says he’ll be at Saturday’s match: "You don’t even need to ask, do you?
"I’ve not stopped thinking about it since Saturday. I’m excited, buzzing about it, like any supporter.”
He expects few goals in the first leg and, while he’d prefer to see the Blues take a lead into the away game, says he’d be pleased if the first match ended in a draw.
"I don’t think there’ll be many goals in the first leg, I think it’s going to be cagey,” he added. "It’ll be like a game of chess, just working each other out.
"I would be happy with a 0-0 draw from the first leg, I’d be delighted with that, and then try and get something away from home.
"Anything can happen over 90 minutes and with the prize at stake it’s just who handles it better on both occasions.
"We don’t think we can go to Norwich with a defeat behind us. I just think that if we get a draw and go into the second leg with a little bit of confidence and with the way we’ve defended overall this season, we can try and nick a 1-0 win.
"I would have preferred a one-off at Wembley, rather than two games against Norwich. They can score goals for fun, that’s the worry but overall we’ve defended as a team brilliantly over the course of the season.”
Dozzell’s son Andre was amongst the new intake of full-time scholars inducted into the academy last Friday, the 16-year-old central midfielder agreeing a one-year professional deal on top of his two-season scholarship.
"It was all good for the lads, they watched the first-team train, met Mick McCarthy, had a bit of lunch,” Dozzell senior said.
"He’s got a lot to do but he knows that. Once he goes in there every day next year they’ll put right whatever he needs to work on because he’s going to be there every day. He’s got a big couple of years coming up for him.
"He’s got a one-year pro deal on top of his scholarship, so it’s basically a three-year contract he’s got down there.”
Although Andre won’t now break Jason’s record of playing and scoring aged 16 years and 57 days - he turned 16 on Saturday - his father says he should aim for involvement with the senior side next season.
"He’s got to challenge himself, there’s no reason why he shouldn’t get in that first-team squad sometime in the next year if he works hard,” he added.
"That should be his challenge, you’ve got to aim high, that’s what I told him. He’s got to work hard.
"Kundai Benyu has got in the squad this year, they were in similar positions in their respective years, I would say, so hopefully he’ll get in there.”