Hull City boss Liam Rosenior insists the Tigers’ home game against Town, a match which he describes as his team’s cup final, kicking off at 8pm on Saturday is an advantage in the race for the final play-off places.
The Tigers are seventh, three points behind Norwich City and West Brom in the final play-off places with all three sides having two games to play.
If the Canaries beat Swansea at Carrow Road and the Baggies win at Sheffield Wednesday in the afternoon ahead of Town’s game at the MKM Stadium, then Hull would be out of the running for a top-six place, barring an unlikely goal difference turnaround.
But despite that, Rosenior is happy with the timing of their game against the Blues.
"I think it’s a benefit for us to be playing at 8pm for many reasons,” he told the Yorkshire Post.
"We can sit back and see what happens around us. But it also gives us an extra few hours and every hour counts now in terms of our recovery.
"We are going to have to pick a really fit, strong and organised team to go up against an outstanding team.”
Rosenior, a one-time Town loanee, says he needs a full stadium and fans to get behind his team: "We have got to fill the ground and make it the loudest stadium in the country. It’s our cup final.
"Ipswich have had two weeks to prepare and plan for us and we have got two days to recover, rest and go again.
"We are playing against a great team, a proper team. Kieran [McKenna], another outstanding coach at this level, has done an incredible job.
"It’s heart-on-sleeve time and at the moment, every time this group of players have been asked a question in terms of performance, they are consistently putting in very good performances. Let’s not make it the last one [home game], let’s keep going.”
Rosenior has an almost fully fit squad but with on-loan Burnley winger Anass Zaroury expected to return from a groin problem which has seen him miss the last four matches.