Tomorrow’s visit of Barnsley to Portman Road could signal the first return of former Town striker James Norwood since he was released by the club at the end of last season.
Norwood has yet to score for the Tykes in six appearances in all competitions — three starts, three as a substitute — since being snapped up on a free transfer but if he features tomorrow, he is certain to be keen to break his duck.
Aiming to keep him quiet, though, will be ex-colleague Luke Woolfenden, who was asked if he had a message for supporters and how booing him might not have the desired effect and could, in fact, make him more determined to do some damage.
Woolfenden said: "I don’t really have a message. If you want to boo, then boo, if you don’t, then don’t. Nors is a top striker; he likes to put his body about and to have a bit of contact with opponents. Sometimes it works in his favour, sometimes it doesn’t. It’s just one of those things.
"It will good to see him on Saturday but once the game starts it will be business as usual and he will be just another opponent.
"He’s a top guy, one of the very best I’ve met in football. The word legend gets thrown around too much but Nors is one of the best. But he’ll know what to expect from us as much as we know what to expect from him. I’m sure it will be alright.”
Luke Thomas, a former Town loanee, could also feature for the Tykes and Woolfenden was asked what he made of the player who only made four starts and one appearance from the bench when he was on loan at Portman Road during the second half of the 2020/21 campaign.
"It’s difficult because he obviously had off-the-field issues and I’ve been there myself when your confidence isn’t up and you’re struggling with things off the field,” said Woolfenden.
"He came here with a reputation as a good young player and I think he’s proving it now with his performances for Barnsley. We didn’t see the best of him when he was here but I’m glad to see he has put it all behind him now.”
While Town lead the League One table and are still unbeaten five games into the league programme, Woolfenden insisted there was no danger of anyone on the inside being carried away with the team’s impressive start.
He added: "I think it’s easy to keep yourself grounded after what has happened in the past. After the takeover and the players who have come in, it could be easy to take your eye off the ball, but within the squad and within the training ground walls the players are only focused on one thing and that’s the next game. No one is getting carried away and we all know there is still a lot of work to be done.”
Recent transfer activity at Town has seen three players — Corrie Ndaba, Rekeem Harper and Matt Penney — depart on loan to Burton, Exeter and Motherwell respectively. Does Woolfenden, who impressed on loan at Swindon during the 2018/19 season, still regard a temporary spell elsewhere as a useful stepping stone in a player’s career?
He said: "In terms of your age and your experience it’s always good to go out on loan and play regular football. You could stay here, wait for an injury or two and get a chance, but it’s surely better to go on loan and potentially play 30, 35 or even more league games.
"Whether it’s League One or League Two, the experience will help you. You’ll have a better idea, a better know-how, of how to compete against senior players who are fighting every week to win games come three o’clock on a Saturday.”
Woolfenden stands out in the current Town side as the only academy product to be featuring regularly but he added: "To be fair, I don’t think it’s just players who have come through the academy that take a tremendous pride in playing for Ipswich Town.
"When you see the work that Fridge [George Edmundson], Chappers [Conor Chaplin] and all the boys really, do in the community, you know they are all proud to play for this club.
"They all realise how big a part of the town the football club is and how much it means to the people who live here and throughout Suffolk. This club is so big that if it does well it really could explode in terms of what it could achieve.
"We’ve touched on it a few times in the various interviews I’ve done over the past couple of years or so but it would obviously mean a great deal to win promotion with Ipswich and the sooner, the better.”
While Cameron Burgess is very much in the thick of the battle for places in the Town back line, veteran defender Richard Keogh recently arrived from Blackpool to add to the competition for places, with Woolfenden pointing out: "You can look upon it as a battle for individual places or you can see it as a big squad with plenty of scope for everyone to play a part.
"Of course, we’re all disappointed if we drop out of the team but we all share a common goal and that’s promotion. Everyone knows their jobs, we’re all in the meetings together and, yes, it is a battle — but it’s a healthy situation for the club to be in.
"I think Richard is enjoying his role here. He’s not actually played yet but he’s enjoying passing on his experience. He’s been around, played an awful lot of games and he knows every trick in the book. We can all learn from him.”
Asked to compare the captaincy qualities of current skipper Sam Morsy with previous incumbent Luke Chambers, the defender replied: "It’s a tough question. They’re both great leaders in their own ways.
"I think Chambo probably took on a lot of stuff at a time when the club wasn’t in a very good place and I think it was more than he should have been expected to do. But that’s the type of guy he is — he would do anything to help anyone.
"To be fair, Sam’s the same — anything you need he does for you — but in terms of the structure he has behind him now, it’s probably helping him.
"I don’t think Chambo had that. You can look and compare how they have been in League One but you have to remember that Chambo played an awful lot of his games for Ipswich in the Championship and was Player of the Year.
"A lot of the time he was wheeled out there when he was injured, painkilling tablets, you name it and he’s done it. They’ve got similar attributes and I couldn’t separate them in terms of their value to the club and to the team.”