Fit-again midfielder Cole Skuse is relishing the prospect of returning to action at Bristol City, the club he used to support and later play for, on Saturday.
Skuse admitted: "This is one of the games of the season for me. When the fixtures come out in the summer I look for two games — Norwich and Bristol City — before any others. I have so many friends and family members there that it doubles the size of the away crowd!
"I’m an Ipswich player but we all have our teams that we followed. I was brought up to support City and I had 17 years there.
"They will always be my team but that’s me speaking as a fan and I’m not going there on Saturday looking for any result other than an Ipswich win.
"It’s a special game for me. It holds a bit of needle since I’m from Bristol, my whole family are from there and being a former supporter and player at Bristol City it’s something I’d hate to miss, especially in the current situation because all I want to do is play any game at the minute.
"The season before last I missed out through injury. I was wearing one of those big boots because I’d torn ligaments in my foot. It wasn’t only tough for me but also my friends and family.”
Skuse, who missed Tuesday’s 3-0 home defeat by Hull with a hamstring problem, added: "It’s much better. I’ve had it for the last couple of games. I felt my hamstring in the game at Sheffield Wednesday and playing at the weekend against Sheffield United made it a tad worse.
"I’ve done a bit today — I’ve been out on the grass — so I’m hoping to rule myself in and hopefully I’ll get selected for the game this weekend.”
Town take on a City side in eighth place, three points adrift of sixth-placed Middlesbrough, who have won just twice and drawn nine of their last 16 outings in all competitions.
Had they not been so consistent until almost the turn of the year they would be out of contention by now but they are in there fighting for a play-off place.
Skuse added: "The City fans will say the season has exceeded expectations but at the start of it they were saying they were going to win the league by 20 points, like every fan does.
"They’re having a great season, although they have had a little blip of late and have now got themselves back on track. They will be looking to finish in the top six if they can.
"As a supporter I’d love to see them do it. All fans want to see their team do well and I’m no different.
"It would be a credit to the owner of the club because he stuck with the manager, Lee Johnson, through a rough time last season. It wasn’t just on the field, either, because off the field Johnno also had a bit of a rough patch.
"The chairman deserves credit for sticking by his manager and it would be a great achievement if they got into the play-offs and went up.
"I know the chairman, Stephen Lansdown, has put a lot of time, effort and finance into getting them to where they are today.”
Asked if he would be spending much time with City boss Lee Johnson, his friend and former team-mate, Skuse replied: "I won’t be dealing with him before the game too much, except for a brief hello and asking how he and his family are.
"I’ve known him for many years. After the game we’ll have a little chinwag, a catch-up and then it will be on to the next one.
"I’d have been there at Wembley if they had managed to get past Manchester City in the Carabao Cup semi-final — and I’d have paid for my tickets.
"They had a great run and it wasn’t as if they just beat lower league teams. They did it the tough way by beating a lot of Premier League sides and they deserved all the credit that came their way.