Town boss Mick McCarthy believes the Blues are capable of beating anybody at Portman Road as his side begin what looks to be a crucial month of March with a home game against Nottingham Forest.
Having built last year’s sixth-place finish on the division’s joint-best home form - 15 wins, five draws and just three defeats along with Middlesbrough - the Blues have been rather less impressive when in Suffolk so far this season - won six, drawn six, lost four - and have picked up more than half of their 51 points, 27, on their travels.
March sees Town face first Forest, who are 15th and have lost their last three Championship games, 16th place Blackburn and third-bottom Rotherham at Portman Road, on paper all very winnable home games.
However, McCarthy points out that life’s not as simple as that in the Championship: "It’s easy when you just look at the league and see where they are.
"I bet Hull thought that was winnable last night [before they lost 1-0] at Birmingham and I’m sure Derby thought it was winnable at Wolves [when they lost 2-1 last week] as well.
"That’s just the way it is. The league is relentless, it’s very tough, it’s uncompromising and it’s very to call results in it.
"It’s a game we want to win, it’s a game we’re capable of winning. We’ve got to play well in it and if we do and we play to the best of our ability, I think we’re capable of beating anybody here, so let’s hope we do that.”
Last week’s 1-0 win at Huddersfield moved Town up a place to ninth, four points plus a goal difference of 14 behind Sheffield Wednesday in sixth with Birmingham and Cardiff in seventh and eighth separating them.
Does McCarthy believe that the Blues are competing with those three for the final play-off place? "I think so. But I wouldn’t write any of them off who are six or seven points away.
"If you put three or four wins together all of a sudden you don’t know where it might take you.
"I think Crystal Palace showed that a long time ago when Ian Dowie was in charge and they were in the bottom three in September and just kept going and going and going and they ended up in the play-offs and won and were in the Premier League.
"I wouldn’t be writing any of them off. I saw Sheffield Wednesday play against Hull and I thought they were a really good team.
"Cardiff beat Brighton really convincingly, they’ve still got good players left from their time in the Premier League. And then there's ourselves, it’s a right royal scrap for it.”
Forest have had more than a few players sidelined of late, however, the Town boss says other clubs - including the Blues - have had similar problems.
"They’ve had injuries, like the rest of us,” he added. "It’s a great club, we’re not talking about a little club coming here that we should just be turning over, it’s a really good club with really good players and an experienced manager in Dougie Freedman.”
McCarthy has said one or two unnamed members of his squad have niggles which will be assessed in the morning but if everyone’s fit his team is likely to see Bartosz Bialkowski continue in goal with skipper and former Forest man Luke Chambers at right-back, Jonas Knudsen at left-back and Tommy Smith and Christophe Berra at the centre of the defence.
In central midfield, Luke Hyam, back after his hamstring injury, could come in for Kevin Foley alongside Jonathan Douglas with Cole Skuse still absent with his foot injury but expected to return for the trip to Bolton on Tuesday.
In the wide roles, Freddie Sears is likely to continue on the right and Ben Pringle on the left with Brett Pitman up front with Daryl Murphy.
For Forest, Jamie Ward missing out with a hamstring problem but Ryan Mendes is expected to be fit enough to start following a groin injury. Oliver Burke has fractured his hand but could play with a specially made cast.
Henri Lansbury (ankle) and Britt Assombalonga (knee) are close to a return to training after long-term injuries, while Daniel Pinillos (knee), Andy Reid (groin) and Matty Fryatt (achilles) have all been ruled out for the remainder of the campaign.
Forest had hoped to sign former Crystal Palace forward Andre Moritz in time for the game but they are still to complete the deal.
Despite the Brazilian being a free agent - he recently left Thai club Buriram United - Forest's FFP embargo complicates adding players - they are limited to free signings and loans, wages of around £5,000 and a squad of 24 senior players - while international clearance is also required.
Forest boss Freedman says he'll be changing his team's system after their three successive defeats
"I believe this time we’ve got to change the shape a little bit," he told Forest Player HD.
"We’re disappointed with how the last couple of games have gone, especially at home where we’ve been ever so close but unable to get over the line.
"We’ll have a different approach against Ipswich, a more attacking approach, because frankly we have nothing to lose at this particular stage of the season. We need to push on and hopefully we’ll get a result.
"Ipswich are a long-ball team, they try and play in behind you. You’ve got to compete against them — stand up and be strong. They are a good side but not an invincible one.”
Blues captain Chambers joined Town on a Bosman free transfer after departing the City Ground in the summer of 2012, while still sidelined striker McGoldrick signed on loan from Forest in January 2013 before putting pen to paper on a permanent deal the following summer.
Historically, Forest very much have the upper hand, winning 34 of the games between the two sides (31 in the league), 18 (17) ending in draws and Town winning 20 (19).
In October, on-loan former Town midfielder Liam Trotter - who has since returned to his parent side Bolton - denied his old club their first win at the City Ground since 1999 with a debut goal deep into injury time as the Blues and Forest drew 1-1. Earlier, sub Jonny Parr’s 74th minute goal had given Town the lead.
The teams last met at Portman Road in April in last season’s penultimate Championship match when Sears netted a deflected 83rd minute goal to see his side to a 2-1 win.
Murphy put the Blues, who moved up to fifth as a result of the win, in front with his 25th goal of the season on 22 but Berra’s 53rd minute own goal handed the visitors a lifeline before Sears’s late winner.
This weekend is Supporters Weekend with various events happening around the game and fans from around the globe at Portman Road, including the Italian Branch and supporters from Sweden and Norway.
Saturday’s referee is Andy Woolmer from Northamptonshire, who has shown 84 yellow cards and two red in 28 games so far this season.
Woolmer’s most recent Town game was the 2-1 FA Cup replay defeat at Portsmouth in January in which he red-carded Piotr Malarczyk for two bookable offences - the only yellow cards of the night - and also awarded a penalty against the Polish defender.
Before that he was in charge of the 2-1 win at Wigan in September 2014 in which he booked only Tyrone Mings and Christophe Berra.
Woolmer also refereed the 3-3 pre-season friendly draw at Notts County in July 2013 and the 3-0 home victory over Bristol City in the Championship in March 2012 in which he booked three Town players and four Robins.
Squad from: Bialkowski, Gerken, Chambers (c), Knudsen, Foley, Berra, Smith, Digby, Malarczyk, Hyam, Douglas, Tabb, Bru, McDonnell, Pringle, Maitland-Niles, Touré, Sears, Pitman, Murphy, Varney.