Town boss Mick McCarthy wants to restore the feelgood factor at Portman Road by winning Sunday’s East Anglian derby against Norwich City (KO midday).
The Blues won their opening day game at home to Barnsley 4-2 but subsequently lost 1-0 to EFL Cup opponents Stevenage and 2-0 to Brentford in their first Championship away, match before putting in a much-improved performance as they drew 0-0 at Wolves on Tuesday.
"We know it’s going to be hard and it’s going to be hard for them as well,” McCarthy said.
"It’s going to be a tough game. Quite clearly derbies generally are. We all want to get the good feeling back, we all want to get that feelgood factor back from a good performance, from a good result on the first day of the season. It’s a tough game to do it, but I’m confident that we could win the game.”
A first win in seven years against Town’s deadliest of rivals could provide the Blues with a spark to go on a run, however, the Blues boss says life in the Championship is never quite as simple as that.
"Yes it could, but we know the league. It sets us up if we beat Norwich, then we’ve got Preston coming here and everybody will think, ‘Right, we’ve going to slap these,’ because we’ve beaten Norwich. But it doesn’t work like that.
"Let’s just concentrate on beating Norwich on Sunday and if we do we’ll take the next game, and whatever happens we’re going to have to take the next game.
"I can only affect the result by getting my team to play well, so let’s hope that that’s the case.”
McCarthy is hoping for an atmosphere much like the play-off first leg at Portman Road in May 2015: "That would be great. The last time we played them in the play-offs the hairs on the back of my neck were standing up on end.
"It was a real, proper football atmosphere, I loved it, so I’m hoping it will be the same again.”
The Town boss dismissed suggestions that his players had a point to prove following that play-off defeat, the Canaries running out 3-1 winners at Carrow Road after a 1-1 draw on Suffolk soil.
"I doubt that,” he said. "That game is irrelevant, that game was 15 months ago. We’ve played so many game since.
"It’s about Sunday, it’s about that game, it’s not about anything else. We’re playing a team that’s been up and come down, they’ve kept their players, we know it’s going to be tough, but I never see that. I don’t think there’s a point to prove from 15 months ago.
"You prove your point the following week or when you come back. That’s when you start proving your point.”
Does he see the Blues as underdogs? "Of course, yes. Someone will say I’m playing mind games! Yes, we are but we’re at home, that gives us a bit of an advantage.
"But I’m not getting into that ‘underdogs’ and ‘favourites’. I’d like to think that we can compete against them and stand toe to toe and play just as well.”
Town played their best football of the season at Molineux and he says his team have to replicate that on Sunday, despite the helter skelter nature of a derby.
"That’s a test for all of us, them and us,” McCarthy, a veteran of Celtic-Rangers games in his playing days, continued.
"You’ve got to be able to get the ball down and play at some point, it can’t be all crash, bang, wallop and getting around making tackles, but I would hope we’re doing that as well.”
He says players have to show bravery: "For us being brave is getting the ball and being professionally brave, wanting to play and play well be confident that you can deal with the ball when people are clattering into you.
"I think we’ve shown that, and I just wonder, three league games in, whether everything can just be free-flowing and we’ve seen that it can’t be.
"Newcastle won their first game the other night, they’ve struggled to come to terms with it.
"If Tuesday night’s performance is a benchmark on how we’re going to play, then I’ll settle for that.”
The Town boss was preparing to take a look at Norwich’s three games so far this season, two wins and a draw which has seen them to second in the table behind leaders Brighton on goal difference, following his Friday lunchtime press conference.
"I haven’t seen their games because I’m about to watch them today,” he added. "But we know they’ve got a good squad of players, having been relegated from the Premier League.
"I don’t know how many players they’ve lost, a few, but they’ve kept the majority of their squad together, I think.
"And I’ve no doubt that they’ll be a real threat and they’ll be a force in the push for promotion.”
Among the Canaries familiar to McCarthy is Wes Hoolahan: "Wes is excellent. He’s found his niche in how he plays. I remember going to look at him and he was a left winger, I watched him for the Irish U21s playing up in Scotland the day I saw Christophe Berra playing.
"And he’s not that, he drifts around and he’s very difficult to pick up, he can drift past people, he’s got an eye for a pass and he’s got a goal in him. He’s a real threat.”
McCarthy says Norwich manager Alex Neil isn’t someone he knows particularly well, the last time he saw him having been after the second leg of the play-off.
"I went to see him to congratulate them and wished them well, there’s no point in doing any other,” he said.
"I’m a good winner, I don’t like losing, but I’m pretty magnanimous when I do and if we’ve lost, then the opponent I’ve played against, good luck to them whatever they do, and that was the case.
"The truth is I’ve only seen him twice, once at Portman Road and I’ve seen him once at Carrow Road, and I’ll be seeing him again on Sunday.”
The Town boss seems likely to stick with the system and personnel he fielded at Molineux, a formation he also used in the second half against the Tykes.
"Possibly,” he continued. "I went to 4-3-3 against Barnsley and we beat Barnsley in the end and scored four goals in the second half.
"It is something I have considered, playing that way. It can make you more compact and then at times you’ve only got one striker and he gets isolated and it can make you less of a threat.
"But I thought we were a real threat the other night, certainly with Freddie Sears and with Grant Ward. They played it very, very well.
"I thought Dougie was a constant threat as he makes his runs into the box. It’s certainly a consideration.”
If McCarthy does stick with the team which drew at Wolves Bartosz Bialkowski will continue in goal with skipper Luke Chambers and Jonas Knudsen the full-backs and Adam Webster and Christophe Berra the centre-halves.
In midfield, Jonathan Douglas and Cole Skuse will be joined by Teddy Bishop with Sears and Ward either side of Daryl Murphy.
Brett Pitman will return to the bench having recovered from his thigh problem, while David McGoldrick (ankle), Conor Grant (groin), Luke Hyam and Giles Coke (both knee) are unavailable.
Canaries boss Alex Neil says that he and his players have been trying to approach the game as they would any other.
"We treat it the same in terms of the preparation, but it's certainly a different occasion for the fans," he told Norwich City TV.
"For the players I think it's important that we keep them focused and don't get carried away with the occasion.
"First and foremost you've got to match them for effort and endeavour, because derbies are high-octane affairs, but we also need to keep cool heads and play some football. If we can do that, we should be fine."
He added: "We're in decent form at the moment, I still think we've got more to come and I think the players will attack the game. They know the occasion and they'll be up for it.
"I think it's going to be a full-blooded affair where both teams will want to get the win. They're at home, which gives them an advantage of some sorts.
"Ipswich are well-organised, they work extremely hard and they've got some good players at the top end of the pitch. It will be a tight game, but hopefully our quality will show over the 90 minutes."
Norwich winger Jacob Murphy has returned to training after a hamstring problem and could be involved on Sunday, but keeper John Ruddy (groin), full-back Martin Olsson (hamstring) and midfielder Alex Pritchard (muscle injury) are all expected to miss out.
Midfielder Graham Dorrans is also a big doubt having suffered a setback as he recovers from a groin injury, while winger Matt Jarvis, who played for Blues boss McCarthy at Wolves, underwent surgery on a knee injury in the summer.
Historically, Town just have the better record in East Anglian derbies, winning 40 (38 in the league), losing 39 (33) and drawing 18 (15). The 5-1 at Portman Road in 2011 is Norwich’s biggest derby victory, while Town have recorded 5-0 wins on three occasions, in 1946, 1977 and 1998.
The teams last met in the play-off semi-finals at the end of the 2014/15 season with Norwich, who went on to beat Middlesbrough at Wembley to make a swift, if brief, return to the Premier League.
The first leg at Portman Road ended 1-1 with Jonny Howson putting the visitors ahead in the 41st minute but sub Paul Anderson hit back in first-half injury time.
In the second leg at Carrow Road, Town were defeated 3-1 having been reduced to 10 men when Christophe Berra was red-carded just after half-time.
The tie was turned in the 48th minute when Berra handled Nathan Redmond’s goalbound shot and was dismissed. Wes Hoolahan scored from the spot, Tommy Smith equalised for the Blues soon after but goals from Nathan Redmond and Cameron Jerome sealed the place at Wembley for the Canaries.
At Carrow Road in the regular Championship game that March, a goal in either half from Bradley Johnson and Lewis Grabban gave a 2-0 victory over the Blues.
Johnson opened the scoring on 24 with a strike off the underside of the bar with Grabban bundling in the second in the 62nd minute.
At Portman Road earlier in the season Grabban’s first-half goal saw Norwich City to a 1-0 victory.
The Canaries striker flicked home a header in the 24th minute after Town keeper Dean Gerken and midfielder Cole Skuse appeared to leave the ball for one another, although replays subsequently showed the striker was offside.
Town’s last derby victory was at Portman Road towards the end of Norwich’s 2008/09 Championship relegation season with the Blues winning 3-2 in what proved to be Jim Magilton’s final game as boss.
David Mooney put the Canaries in front before Town struck three times via Alan Quinn, Giovani Dos Santos (penalty) and Jon Stead with Sammy Clingan adding a consolation for the visitors towards the end, also from the spot. Current keeper Bartosz Bialkowski was on the bench for the Blues during his earlier loan spell at the club.
Norwich centre-half Ryan Bennett was an academy schoolboy with Town before being released at 16, while academy coach Alan Lee had a brief spell on loan at Carrow Road and played for the Canaries in the 2009 Portman Road derby.
His Playford Road colleague Steve Foley was first-team coach at Norwich before he joined the Blues. Town keeper-coach Malcolm Webster worked with Norwich’s glovesmen earlier in his career.
Town’s new Fanzone on the FieldTurf behind the East of England Co-op Stand is open from 9.30am (alcohol served from 10am). The club have issued a Derby Guide, which can be found here.
Suffolk Constabulary have advised fans to arrive early and to expect road closures and possible traffic congestion ahead of the game.
Sunday's Community Champions who will carry the call out ahead of the kick-off are Shaun Whiter and Joey Abbs, the two local footballers who were seriously injured in the recent hit and run incident in Newmarket.
Prior to kick-off a tribute to former Blues striker Dalian Atkinson will be read out over the PA.
Sunday’s referee is David Coote from Nottinghamshire, who has shown eight yellow and no red cards in three games so far this season.
Coote’s last Town game was the 2-2 FA Cup draw at home to Portsmouth in January, in which he yellow-carded Cole Skuse and one visiting player.
Prior to that, Coote was in charge of the 0-0 home draw with Cardiff in October last year in which he booked eight players, Tommy Smith, Cole Skuse and Kevin Bru as well as five of the visitors.
He also took control of the 2-2 draw with Brentford on the opening day of last season when he booked only Bees' midfielder Jota.
Coote also refereed the 3-1 defeat at Cardiff in October 2014, in which he booked Tyrone Mings and two home players, the 2-1 defeat at Reading on the opening day of the 2013/14 season and the 3-1 home loss to Wigan later that campaign.
During the season prior to that he took control of the 2-1 defeat at Hull and the 3-0 home victory over Millwall.
Town squad from: Bialkowski, Gerken, Chambers (c), Emmanuel, Knudsen, Kenlock, Berra, Webster, T Smith, Digby, Skuse, Douglas, Bru, Bishop, Dozzell, Ward, Sears, Murphy, Pitman, Varney.