Lincoln City manager Danny Cowley hopes the FA Cup third round replay with the Blues at Sincil Bank a week on Tuesday will be chosen for live TV coverage. Town's blushes were saved by an 86th minute equaliser from Tom Lawrence, who Cowley believes is a Premier League player, as Saturday’s game ended 2-2.
"We’d love that, we had the television for the Oldham game,” said Cowley when the prospect of live TV coverage of the replay was put to him. "It’s money that’s massive to us as a club. It makes a significant difference.
"If that was to happen that would obviously be great and would just add to what should be a really good replay.”
Reflecting on Saturday’s tie and ahead to the teams’ second meeting, he added: "I thought we stopped them controlling the game. I think they wanted to control the game with possession and I felt the way we pressed meant that it forced them to go long and we did well dealing with their direct play.
"I thought that allowed us to have a control of it. In terms of the replay, we’re respectful. Mick McCarthy is a manager who has managed in the Premier League, he’s managed at a World Cup, he’s got a fantastic squad of players, so we’re not getting ahead of ourselves, we know how tough the replay will be.
"It’s a game that we’ll look forward to because we want to keep having these examinations because I think these examinations will allow us to grow.
"When you’re exposed to really good players they really test your method, they test you technically, tactically, physically, mentally and we want those tests because we want to improve and we want to be better as individuals and as a collective group.”
How was the dressing room after the match having had victory snatched away at the last? "There's a tinge of disappointment when you get that close but that quickly subsided and I think the boys will wake up tomorrow morning and they’ll be mightily proud and they should be because they heroic today for me, absolutely heroic.
"The supporters at this football club are magnificent and they’ve been starved of success and I think they’ve seen something in our players, something in the group that they can connect with.
"They see hard work and a determination and for a non-league club to bring 5,000 supporters away from home [is quite something], someone told me that it’s the biggest away support since Portman Road has been an all-seater.
"That says everything about them and if we can be half as good as our supporters, we’ll be one helluva team.”
Cowley was very impressed with Lawrence, the man who more than anyone else prevented his side from winning the tie.
"A bit disappointed with the first goal in terms of giving a square pass away and probably to the worst player possible on their team in Tom Lawrence,” he said.
"If he’s not a Premier League footballer I’d like to know what one looks like because he’s a helluva player.
"Maybe a tactical foul at that point would have stopped him in his tracks. I think one or two maybe tried!
"He’s a great player and he got two good goals. For me they were two very good finishes from him.”
Lawrence is on loan for the season with parent club Leicester unable to recall him in January even if they receive interest in signing him on a permanent basis from elsewhere without the agreement of all three parties, the Blues, the Foxes and the player.
Cowley gained some inside knowledge of the Town squad from teenage Portman Road season ticket holder Joe Snell and his dad Bradley at the recent Bristol City match.
"I was looking for them actually,” he said. "Our cousin and her son and her husband are Ipswich season ticket holders. They were sitting somewhere behind our dugouts but I couldn’t quite see them.
"Boxing Day [Joe] was giving me a rundown of all the Ipswich players which his dad was having a go at him about! But he did tell me ‘I don’t support Ipswich any more, I support Chelsea anyway!’.”
Cowley recalled that he and his assistant, his younger brother Nicky, have previously faced Suffolk opposition earlier in their coaching careers.
"I remember as a Concord Rangers manager we’d come to Suffolk and we’d play Lowestoft and that was one helluva game for us because they were a big club at that level and they scared the life out of us, Lowestoft,” he said.
"We actually beat them in the play-off final to get out of the the Ryman Premier Division to the Conference South, which was a great achievement for Concord Rangers.
"So for us to come from that to Ipswich it definitely dawned on us what progress we’ve made.
"That’s through a lot of hard work and a lot of good people have helped us along the way.”
Cowley is hoping for a full house when the sides meet at Sincil Bank, a ground the Blues last travelled to in April 1961 when they won an old Second Division game 2-1.
"We managed to get 7,000 in round two against Oldham, which was a fantastic crowd for us,” he said. "I think we might have 5,000 who will definitely be trying to get tickets.”