Ex-Blues midfielder Grant Ward says facing your former club can provide an extra incentive to do well ahead of this afternoon’s game between Town and his current side Blackpool.
Ward joined the Seasiders in December last year having been released by the Blues the previous summer.
Despite his release, the former Tottenham youngster spent the early part of last season at Town undergoing his rehabilitation after rupturing his cruciate ligament at QPR on Boxing Day 2018.
"The longer your career goes on, the more likely it is you’re going to play against one of your old teams at some point,” Ward told the Blackpool Gazette.
"It will be nice to see some familiar faces but I think it also gives you an extra incentive to do well. You want to beat them, prove the manager wrong, or things like that.
"I think I’m motivated the same for every game anyway but when you’re on the pitch it might give you that extra bit of drive, we’ll have to see.
"It’s two teams who probably shouldn’t be at this level. Both teams will be wanting to do well this season, so it should be a good game.”
Reflecting on his spell with the Blues, in which he made 75 starts and 23 sub appearances, scoring eight times, Ward continued: "I had a good start at Ipswich. I came on at half-time on my debut and scored a hat-trick, which was nice.
"I enjoyed my time there. It probably didn’t go the way I thought it was going to end because a new manager came in and I did my ACL fairly early on and that was my last game, which obviously wasn’t the way I wanted it to end. I still enjoyed my time there though.”
Having been unable to cement a place in the side last season, Ward has been ever-present this term so far usually on the right of a central midfield three with Ethan Robson and Keshi Anderson.
"For me, personally, I’m just happy to be back playing now,” he added. "I was out of the game for a while through injury and there was the Covid situation, so it’s just nice to be back training and playing and feeling good again.”
Ward is one of two ex-Blues likely to be facing Town this afternoon with former loanee Luke Garbutt having recently joined the Tangerines.