Town boss Paul Lambert knows few people will expect his team to take anything from Saturday's trip to Middlesbrough, but says anybody’s beatable on any given day.
The bottom-of-the-table Blues go into the game seven points behind 21st-placed Rotherham United with a goal difference six worse than the Millers’, while Boro are fifth despite having lost 1-0 to Sheffield Wednesday at the Riverside on Boxing Day and having won only one of their last seven in all competitions.
"Another game where a lot of people won’t expect us to get anything, but we’re playing well, I’ve got no worries on that issue,” Lambert said.
"We’re going there to try and give them a game. They’re probably one of the favourites to go up. Anybody’s beatable on any given day. We’ll have to be stronger in both boxes [than we were at QPR].”
He says the Blues will go into the match looking to play their own game and aiming for all three points.
"Everybody who knows me knows I won’t sit and wait, I’ll go and try and win,” he said. "I’m not going to sit and wait.
"I’m not going to play long ball football and all that sort of thing. We’ll try and play our game that we’re trying to make the identity of the club. It’s a long way before you actually put your blueprint on it but we’re getting there, but we need a little bit of help.”
Lambert confirmed he’ll look to shuffle his pack with the match Town’s third in eight days with the crucial home game against Millwall following on Tuesday.
"We have to, we have to be fair to the other guys as well and give them a run,” he continued.
"And that’s what we’ll try and do, try and be fair and it gets me to see everybody as well. And there are too many games to continue going with the same group.”
Among those who could be handed a start is Teddy Bishop, who was in line for a place in the XI for last week’s home game against Sheffield United until he fell ill.
"He’s just back from a virus, I was actually going to play him on Saturday against Sheffield United but he had a virus and he’s just come back in at the beginning of the week,” Lambert said.
If you're making the long journey up to Middlesbrough tomorrow, take a look at our away day guide for all the key information you need. 👇 #itfc– Ipswich Town FC (@Official_ITFC) December 28, 2018
"He should be [good to go on Saturday], he’ll be a good few days through it. Danny Rowe’s had it as well, there have been one or two little bugs there but Bish I think is a lot better.”
Reflecting on a holiday period round-trip of just over 500 miles, Lambert added: "You feel for the supporters, it’s a helluva jaunt up there. Our fans are brilliant, they really are. They came to QPR and got right behind us and even at the end they clapped the lads off.
"We have to give them something as well. They’ve been brilliant since we’ve been here and we need everyone to be together.”
Dean Gerken is again set to be in goal with the back four also likely to be unchanged with Jordan Spence and Jonas Knudsen the full-backs and skipper Luke Chambers and Matthew Pennington the centre-halves.
In midfield, with Cole Skuse sidelined for at least another month, Trevoh Chalobah is likely to stay in the deeper role while Bishop could come into the team for either Flynn Downes or Jon Nolan in one of the two roles ahead of the on-loan Chelsea man.
There will be one enforced change with Grant Ward out for around nine months with the ACL injury he suffered at QPR. Jack Lankester or Gwion Edwards will come into the team on the right of the front three.
Freddie Sears is likely to continue on the left, while Jordan Roberts may come back into the starting line-up for Ellis Harrison, who has started the last two matches having only just returned from injury.
For Middlesbrough, defender Ryan Shotton is a doubt with a knee injury, while striker Rudy Gestede, a Blues target, is not yet back from a hamstring problem.
Town have had the better of Middlesbrough over the years, winning 30 games (28 in the league), drawing 16 (16) and losing 22 (21). The Teessiders have won only one of their last eight league games at the Riverside.
In October at Portman Road, early goals from Mo Besic and Stewart Downing saw Middlesbrough to a comfortable 2-0 victory over Paul Hurst’s Blues.
Besic netted the opener on 12 and Downing added the second four minutes later following an error from Blues skipper Luke Chambers with Town never looking like taking anything from the match.
Last time at the Riverside Stadium, in December 2017, goals either side of the break from Martin Braithwaite and Patrick Bamford saw Middlesbrough to a 2-0 victory.
Braithwaite profited from a series of Town defensive errors to give the Teessiders the lead on 44 with Bamford adding the second with a low shot off the inside of the post six minutes after the restart.
Saturday’s referee is Jeremy Simpson from Lancashire, who has shown 93 yellow cards and four red cards in 23 games so far this season.
Simpson’s last Town game was the 2-1 defeat at Sheffield Wednesday in August in which he controversially red-carded Blues central defender Toto Nsiala and booked Knudsen, Ellis Harrison and two Owls.
Before that he refereed the 3-0 home defeat by Hull City in April in which he booked only Bersant Celina.
Prior to that game he had refereed only two Town matches in which he awarded a total of four penalties.
The 1-0 defeat at Rotherham in April 2017 which he gave a seventh-minute spot-kick when Josh Emmanuel bundled over Jon Taylor. Gerken saved Danny Ward’s kick.
Loanee Toumani Diagouraga was the only Blues player booked in that fixture, along with two Rotherham players.
@Official_ITFC fans going to Middlesbrough. This will impact anyone who is travelling back via Darlington after the game as the 1743 to Darlington is not running. Advice I have been given is to talk to ticket office at Middlesbrough station on arrival to discuss options. https://t.co/O9NLLvn19a– Liz Edwards ITFC SLO (@ITFC_SLO) December 28, 2018
Prior to that he was the man in the middle for the 2-1 defeat at Reading in September 2016 in which he notoriously awarded three penalties which led to the game’s three goals.
Danny Williams won the match with the third and spot-kick deep in second-half injury time, Knudsen having been adjudged to have hauled down Joey van den Berg at a corner.
In first-half injury time Ward had been harshly penalised for handball for the game’s first penalty and Garath McCleary put the Royals in front.
Brett Pitman fired home Town’s - also contentious - spot-kick five minutes after the break for a foul by Tyler Blackett.
Simpson also booked nine players in that game, five Royals and Knudsen, Chambers, Skuse and Christophe Berra.
Squad from: Gerken, Bialkowski, Spence, Knudsen, Kenlock, Chambers (c), Pennington, Nsiala, Donacien, Chalobah, Downes, Dozzell, Nolan, Bishop, Edwards, Lankester, Rowe, Roberts, Sears, Jackson, Harrison.