Bristol City boss Nigel Pearson admits Town have been on a “very, very impressive run” having maintained their momentum from last season’s promotion from League One.
The second-placed Blues travel to take on the Robins, who are eighth, at Ashton Gate on Wednesday evening.
"We’re going to come up against a side on Wednesday in Ipswich, who are having a fabulous start to the season, who have carried their momentum on really very, very impressively from promotion last season,” Pearson said at his pre-match press conference.
"And what we have to do is make sure that we give them a really stern test. I suppose it’s a really good example of the momentum sort of theory, which has happened historically with sides who have come up from League One.
"There are a number of sides who have had back-to-back promotions and when you dissect what the individuals are within the squad, people could be relatively critical, but what is very apparent is that they have a group ethic and the qualities to maintain what’s been a very, very impressive run.
"But they’re still coming to our place and I think they’ll expect us to be a really tough opponent.”
Pearson, who questioned his long-term future with the club last week with his current contract up at the end of the season, has confirmed he will be going into Wednesday’s game with the same squad that beat Coventry 1-0 at home on Saturday.
Defender Kal Naismith (calf), striker Nahki Wells (ankle), defender Zak Vyner (knee), Joe Williams (calf) and George Tanner (ankle) are all again set to miss out.
Inevitably, there has been plenty of talk, particularly among his detractors in the Bristol City support, regarding their club’s former CEO Mark Ashton, now in the same role with the Blues, ahead of the match, the first between the clubs since his move to Suffolk in June 2021.
Pearson, who was in the running for the Town manager's job in 2006 but lost out to Jim Magilton, worked alongside Ashton in the early stages of his time with City and says the two got along well.
"I got on fine with Mark. But I don’t really think we should be making the focus of this about Mark, really,” he insisted.
"He was employed here for a number of years and he was here at the start of my tenure as manager and has moved on to Ipswich and they’re obviously doing pretty well at the moment.
"But outside of that, I don’t think really it’s relevant to be going overboard with that, if you don’t mind me saying that.
"I want to try and concentrate now on the game and the build-up to the game in terms of us in a footballing sense.
"I fully understand that there will be a lot of interest out there and there will be talk about the different styles of doing the job.
"The relevant point in terms of where we are now is we have decided to, and out of necessity, gone down a tighter financial route, because we needed to.
"Then there’s the argument of where you take that argument, I think that’s your [the media’s] domain now to argue why we’re in that position or not, because, and I understand where you’re coming from, that will be the relevance of the conversation.
"I have my views on it, of course I do. I’ve never really wanted to work in a way where we throw everything at it in the short term to try and get success, because I personally don’t agree with that as a sustainable model.
"But there are instances where people get success with it and there you go. It’s where you sit on the argument, really.”
Pearson was asked whether, as some Robins supporters feel, that he’s "picked up the pieces” from City’s previous approach.
"I’m pretty well versed at doing that,” he said. "I’ve worked at clubs where, believe it or not, where my employers and the owners I’ve spoken to have wanted me to spend more money and I’ve said no. When you’ve got money it doesn’t mean you have to spend it, you know!
"What you have to do, and this is why I look at it from a football perspective all the time. I look at what we’ve got and what we need, and why bring more players in who are no better than what you’ve got?
"My view on it is slightly different anyway, so it doesn’t matter if there’s a shedload of money or not.
"That’s not to say that in an ideal world at the moment we couldn’t do with having two or three more players, but there is always a fine balance between what the right number of players is.
"Time will tell whether we can negotiate this rather lean spell that we’ve got in terms of the squad that we have available. It always makes it more manageable when you get decent results.”