Town boss George Burley described his side's home performances so far this season as ‘Jekyll and Hyde' ahead of Sunday's East Anglian derby with Norwich City. Previously Town have beaten championship challengers Leicester 6-1 but then succumbed 2-1 to unfancied Bradford City.
For Sunday the Town boss is without Martijn Reuser who had his exploratory operation on Friday to see whether cartilage or medial ligament damage, along with Chris Makin who is out for another two weeks and Keith Branagan, still on the sidelines after his operation.
Better news is that Mark Venus, Alun Armstrong and John McGreal all came through the reserve game against Orient on Wednesday and are all in the squad.
Like the supporters of both clubs, George Burley feels there is something different about Town—Norwich games: "Derbies are always special games and we haven't had one for the last couple of years. It's a big game for the players, the club and the fans, of course.
"It's great to have this local rivalry, both clubs will be looking for promotion this season and it would be nice to get both sides back into the Premiership.”
He says that Sunday's opponents have begun the season impressively, but that victory would leave his side just behind them with games in hand: "Norwich have started very well in the league, they've had a good run, but they lost their last league game which they will be disappointed with.
"We're a couple of matches behind in terms of games played, so it's very important for us to try to bridge the gap. It's a huge game and if we can win it we're three points behind them with two games in hand. It's going to be tough and we'll have to be at our very best against a good Norwich team.”
Burley and coach Tony Mowbray took in the Canaries' embarrassing defeat to Cheltenham in the Worthington Cup on Wednesday night, however, he doesn't think too much should be read into it: "I saw them in midweek but that result counts for nothing. Derbies are always special and Nigel Worthington has done a very good job there.”
Town keeper Andy Marshall has been the centre of a lot of media attention this week as he faces his old side, despite being gagged by the club. The former Canary man is likely to come in for a bit of stick from his old supporters, but his manager says he is coping with the pressure well: "Andy's fine. At the end of the day it's three points, but of course, there's all the hype that goes with it; Andy's old club, our local rivals, a capacity crowd here, so we'll certainly be looking forward to it and be at our best and be very focused to get the three points.”
So far Town have won one and lost one at home in the league and more consistency is something Burley is looking for from his players: "We've played seven games this season, won four, drawn two, lost one. In the two home games we've been a little bit ‘Jekyll and Hyde', we were outstanding against Leicester to win six and very disappointing against Bradford when we lost.
"We're undefeated away from home, at Preston we dominated, hit the woodwork twice but didn't convert our numerous chances. We've got to keep playing and get consistency into the game and try and make sure we show the same level we did against Leicester and keep winning matches.
"To win 6-1 against Leicester was a fabulous performance, but as I said at the time, you don't always score six goals. But we were outstanding that game.
"In the main the form hasn't been that bad, although we were very poor in the Bradford game. We've got get that consistency and we know we can't afford to drop our standards as we did against Bradford.”
Burley is hoping the Town crowd get behind his men and there will be more fans present at Portman Road than for some years: "I'm sure it will be a great atmosphere with 30,00 in the ground. It's a long time since there's been 30,000 at Portman Road and we could have sold more. It shows the level of interest in football in East Anglia, and I'm sure we'll have 28,000 Ipswich fans pushing us all the way and hopefully we can get the right result.”
Town's European qualification has meant that the club are in an unrepresentative position in the table at present, two games behind the rest of the league. Burley says that the club have to be accept the situation as the consequence of playing in Europe: "We have to be patient as far as league games is concerned, we're going to be one or two games, sometimes three, behind other teams in the division, but that's the reality of playing in Europe. We'll look forward to the next game but it is important that we keep picking points up.
"There was a lot of talk about whether Europe hampered us last season as regards staying in the Premiership. To answer that, we really enjoyed it, it was a great experience and to play in Europe two years on the trot is a tremendous achievement for the club, no matter how you do it. It was 1982 when we were in it before and the last two years have been great.
"We put on great performances last season in Moscow, Helsingborg and to beat Inter Milan down here was great. I don't see that as a distraction, we'll utilise our squad in cup competitions as the league is our priority.”
Town squad: Marshall, Pullen, Wilnis, Clapham, Wright, Hreidarsson, Venus, McGreal, Brown, Gaardsøe, Holland, Magilton, Ambrose, T Miller, George, Couñago, D Bent, M Bent, Armstrong and Naylor.