Town boss Kieran McKenna knows Saturday’s opponents Newcastle United are a very good side picking up good results at present, but says the Blues believe in themselves, are also in decent form and go into the match off the back of last weekend’s 2-1 win at Wolves.
Newcastle are currently 12th in the Premier League, 11 points and six places in front of Town.
They have won their last two fixtures, last weekend’s 4-0 Premier League victory over Leicester and then Wednesday’s 3-1 Carabao Cup win against Brentford, in which they fielded the same XI as beat the Foxes, both games having been at St James’ Park.
However, prior to those two matches, they were without a win in four, two draws - including a 3-3 home stalemate with Liverpool - and two defeats.
On their travels this season, the Magpies have won two - 2-1 at Wolves in September and 3-1 at Nottingham Forest last month - drawn three and lost three.
McKenna was asked how he might look to exploit that not overly impressive record on the road.
"I think we go into it with a lot of respect, first and foremost, and humility,” he said. "A really good side, picking up some good results as of late and in good form and with some outstanding qualities. So, we go into it with our eyes wide open, the level of the opponent.
"But we believe in ourselves. We feel like we're in pretty good form and performances have been consistently really competitive, and we're coming off of a good result last week.
"So, it's a game to look forward to. It's the last game at home before Christmas, which always feels a little bit special.
"And we know a good performance and a result to go with it would make everyone's Christmas extra special around these parts. So, that's what we're going to try and do.”
Town are still without a win at home this season having had three points wrested away from them in the dying moments against AFC Bournemouth a fortnight ago, the Cherries going on to win 2-1, and Leicester last month, that game ending 1-1.
While Newcastle have a record of maintaining leads and seeing games out, McKenna admits the Blues need to do better on that front.
"That's been a challenge for us in a couple of the games at home,” he said. "There's no doubt about that and it would be a challenge again. I said there are a lot of things you have to do well to be in the game and to get a lead, and there's a lot of things you have to do well to hold it.
"We want our mindset to be to go and get the extra goal to go and get that two-goal margin. We know it's really, really hard to do, but that has to be our mindset, home or away, to still look for that.
"We've worked hard on our game management as the season has gone along and I think it has improved. I know we've had a couple go against us, but I think our game management when we're leading games in the late stages has been better.
"We need big impacts from the substitutes. We're always speaking about that and we've spoken about it again this week, about how so many of our games, if we do really well, are going to be decided off the bench, and it was great last week for us to get a win where substitutes come on and have a big impact and, of course, Jack [Taylor] comes on and gets the winner.
"So things like that would be really, really important if we could put ourselves in a good position in the game, and that's what we hope for.”
The Portman Road crowd will have to play their part as the Blues look to end their eight-game home winless run and McKenna says they’ve done their bit in previous matches this season.
"I think they have, to be honest,” he said. "Look, I know until we get over the line in a home game, it's going to be a thing, but I think our home atmospheres and our home performances have generally been very good.
"Certainly, you can look at the Bournemouth and Leicester games and say that they're tiny margins, tiny, tiny margins or decisions away from being wins, and the crowd has had a massive part in helping the performances.
"You look at the games that we've drawn at home and there's been some really, really good performances in there. It just so happens that at the away games, we've come out on the right side of some margins.
"I think the atmosphere and the performances at home have had, for the most part, not all of them, lots and lots of positives and I think we're going to need that tomorrow, there’s no doubt about it.
"I think everyone coming tomorrow will understand the challenge of this game. Newcastle are a very, very good Premier League side who were competing in Champions League football last year.
"They are in good form and have incredible athleticism throughout the squad and we're going to have to be close to our best just to compete in the game, and I think the supporters will know that. I've got no doubt we'll have a great atmosphere tomorrow.
"As sure as it can be that the players are going to give absolutely everything and I think it makes for a really good game, and we hope that's what it will be. And if it is that, then we give ourselves a chance to get some points. "
McKenna says he doesn’t know Magpies boss Eddie Howe that well but that their paths crossed in the summer.
"Not particularly, I've met him a few times,” he said. "We've got a similar choice of holiday destination, or his holiday destination is where I would go if I had a promotion bonus, put it like that. So I've seen him in the summer.
"I had some good conversations with him in the summer. I actually spoke with him about his journey with Bournemouth a little bit and he gave me a few nice pointers and bits of advice.
"He's obviously a very good manager who's done well for a good period of time and a good person as well. So I had some conversations with him in the summer that were useful.
"Where was it? I don't want to give away too much about my holiday destination, I'll have too many Ipswich fans rocking up there next summer and I might want to go back!”
https://x.com/IpswichTown/status/1870073791943999888
No Ipswich-Newcastle match can pass without a mention for Sir Bobby Robson, who has a statue at both clubs.
"It's an incredible legacy,” McKenna reflected on what Robson gave to Town in his 13 years in charge from 1969 to 1982, winning the FA Cup and UEFA Cup along the way.
"I've said it many times, when I arrived here and there were 30,000 supporters in League One, that wasn't because of me, it wasn't even because of the new ownership necessarily, it’s because of the history of the football club and the generations of supporters that support the club.
"And so much of that comes from, of course, Sir Bobby's team and the fantastic success that he had. He's an icon here as soon as you come to the club. You realise it even more.
"Of course, he had a great affiliation and some good times at Newcastle as well. He's someone who's loved and adored and remembered as fondly as possible by everyone involved with both clubs. So it's always a nice thing to play against each other.”
McKenna’s first senior job was on Jose Mourinho’s staff at Manchester United, Mourinho having been Robson’s translator and coach at Sporting Lisbon, Porto and Barcelona.
"There's some sort of football lineage there,” McKenna reflected. "It's a nice link. It's an honourable link.
"A few people made it whenever I first arrived at the club and it's something to be proud of to have worked with a great manager like Jose and I know he was proud to have worked with a great manager like Sir Bobby. So, it's a nice link.”
McKenna probably won’t look to change his team too much from the one which won at Wolves but with one enforced change with Liam Delap suspended having reached five bookings.
Aro Muric will be in goal with Dara O’Shea and Cameron Burgess again set to be the centre-halves and Newcastle-born Leif Davis the left-back.
McKenna could look to swap Harry Clarke for Ben Johnson at right-back, the former West Ham man having started the Bournemouth match after returning from a minor injury before dropping to the bench at Molineux.
In central midfield, skipper Sam Morsy is again likely to be partnered by Jens Cajuste with Kalvin Phillips, who hasn’t been fully fit due since turning his ankle against Leicester, and last week’s winning goalscorer Jack Taylor on the bench.
McKenna may again opt for the trio of Wes Burns, Conor Chaplin and Omari Hutchinson ahead of them with Sammie Szmodics perhaps getting the nod as the number nine in Delap’s absence.
Ali Al-Hamadi, who has continued to struggle with his adductor injury this season and so may not be considered ready to start, is likely to play a role from the bench.
Morsy and Hutchinson go into the match on four yellow cards with a fifth prior to the end of Chelsea’s visit to Portman Road leading to a one-game ban. The Egypt international has now gone nine games without a caution.
Having won their last two matches, Newcastle manager Howe says there’s a positive mood around the camp going into Saturday’s match.
"I think there’s a very good feeling around the team at the moment, not just with the last two games but I think even - [the 4-2 Premier League defeat at] Brentford was a blip within that - but going back behind those games I think we’ve actually performed very well,” he said.
"So I’d like to think we’re building some momentum, but the proof will be what we deliver on Saturday.
"We know Portman Road, Ipswich is a difficult game. A really competitive team, I think Kieran’s done an unbelievable job there and even the games they’ve lost this season, they’ve been in all those games.
"Very tight matches, very competitive team, as I say, so we’re going to have to hyper-alert, we’ve going to have to be ready for the match.”
Howe is well aware that the Blues and their support will be desperate to see a first home win of the season.
"I’m sure from their perspective that’s what they’re chasing and when I’ve reviewed and looked at their home games, they’ve been very good there,” he reflected.
"And that’s no surprise, I think coming into the Premier League, I watched them a lot in the Championship lat year and their home form was outstanding.
"You look back at their last league game against Bournemouth where they were leading for so long in the game and then Bournemouth came back right at the end, as they’ve done a few times this season, and took the game.
"It was hard on them, but that is the quality of the Premier League and I’m sure they’ll be focused, they’ve had a week to prepare. We’ve had a shorter time, but I back the players to be ready.”
The Magpies will be without suspended midfielder Joelinton, who in any case might not have made it having had stitches to a wound to his ear after a clash with Bees’ defender Nathan Collins on Wednesday. Sean Longstaff, Joe Willock or Lewis Miley are the candidates to deputise what’s expected to be an otherwise unchanged or not particularly changed team.
Keeper Nick Pope is out with a knee problem, as is centre-half Jamaal Lascelles, while striker Callum Wilson has a hamstring injury.
Swedish international defender Emil Krafth is out with a fractured collarbone and Dutch centre-half Sven Botman is closing in on a return but not expected to be ready for Saturday.
Historically, results are evenly balanced, the Blues having won 17 games between the sides (15 in the league), Newcastle 17 (16) and 15 (13) having ended in draws.
The teams last met at Portman Road on Easter Monday in April 2017 when goals from Freddie Sears, David McGoldrick and Emyr Huws saw the Blues to a famous 3-1 home victory over a Newcastle side closing in on the Championship title.
Sears put Town in front in the 42nd minute, however, former Blues striker Daryl Murphy netted an equaliser for the visitors on 62, the Irishman not celebrating in front of his old fans.
But McGoldrick made it 2-1 seven minutes later and Huws sealed the three points - and Town's first back-to-back wins of the season following a 2-1 victory at Burton on Good Friday - in injury time.
At St James’ Park in the previous October, Ayoze Perez scored twice and Matt Ritchie once as Newcastle comfortably beat Town 3-0.
Perez put the home side in front in the opening minute and added the second on 73, before Ritchie netted the third five minutes later. The Blues went closest to scoring when former Magpie Leon Best hit the bar in the first half.
Newcastle keeper Pope was with the Town academy from the ages of 10 to 16 and was a Portman Road season ticket holder as a child. Following his release, the Soham-born England keeper moved on to Bury Town, Charlton, then Burnley before signing for Newcastle in the summer of 2022.
Blues left-back Davis is from Newcastle and was a boyhood Magpies fan, but was never with the club, playing youth football with the famous local side Wallsend Boys Club before moving on to Morecambe and then Leeds.
Saturday’s referee is Stuart Attwell, his assistants are Con Hatzidakis and Nat Aspinall, and the fourth official John Busby. The VAR official is John Brooks and his assistant Craig Taylor.
Warwickshire-based Attwell has shown 46 yellow cards and two red in 11 games so far this season.
His most recent involvement in a Town match was as the VAR official in the Leicester match in which the Blues had a blatant penalty not given either on the field or after review when Chaplin was clattered into by Abdul Fatawu.
Attwell last refereed Town in September when he took charge of the 2-2 draw with Aston Villa, cautioning Morsy, Delap, Jacob Greaves, Axel Tuanzebe and one of the visitors.
In March, he was in the middle for the 1-0 win at Blackburn in which he ruled out three Rovers goals and booked Davis, Massimo Luongo, Kayden Jackson and two home players.
Before that, Attwell was in control of the 2-0 defeat at Bristol City in December 2016 in which he awarded the Robins a controversial penalty, converted by Lee Tomlin, after Bartosz Bialkowski had been adjudged to have fouled Tammy Abraham, and booked two Robins and no Blues.
Three months earlier, he refereed Town’s 1-0 win at Derby in which he showed yellow cards to Christophe Berra, Cole Skuse, Brett Pitman, Luke Varney and no Rams.
Prior to that he was in charge of the 1-0 win at Brighton in December 2015 in which he booked Kevin Bru and one home player.
Before that, he was the official taking control of the 1-1 draw at Wolves in April of the same year in which he booked Jay Tabb, Jonny Parr and one home player.
He also refereed the 2-1 home victory over Sheffield Wednesday in February 2015 in which he booked only one of the visitors.
Attwell was also the referee during Mick McCarthy’s first game as Town manager, the 1-0 win at Birmingham in November 2012.
He was also in charge of the famous snow match against Leicester at Portman Road in December 2010, which the Blues won 3-0 and in which Rory Fallon and one of the visitors were booked.
The previous season, Attwell awarded Town what looked a harsh penalty when Damien Delaney was man-handled as a long throw came into the box in the 1-1 draw with West Brom at Portman Road, Grant Leadbitter, who was also booked along with Arran Lee-Barrett and three of the visitors, netting the spot-kick.
Attwell’s first Town match was the 3-1 win at QPR in February 2009 in which Ben Thatcher was the only player yellow-carded.
Muric, Walton, Slicker, Davis, Townsend, Johnson, H Clarke, O’Shea, Woolfenden, Burgess, Greaves, Morsy (c), Cajuste, Phillips, Luongo, Taylor, Hutchinson, Chaplin, Szmodics, J Clarke, Broadhead, Burns, Al-Hamadi.