Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna says the opening few weeks of the season have provided a reminder that anyone can beat anyone in the Championship.
After drawing against Birmingham and Southampton, the Blues played out a frustrating 1-0 defeat at Preston last weekend. Tomorrow, they will be looking to ignite their campaign when they host Derby County at Portman Road (3pm).
The Rams narrowly avoided relegation to League One last season and started this campaign with defeats to Stoke (3-1) and Coventry (5-3) before grabbing a late equaliser against Bristol City last weekend (1-1).
Stoke, who stayed up on the final day of 24/25, currently top the table with a perfect record, while Sheffield United, who lost in the Play-Off Final, sit bottom with zero points.
“It’s not a cliché to say that every game is tough,” said McKenna, speaking at this afternoon’s pre-match press conference.
“They had a high scoring game at Coventry, who of course have started well, and that could have gone either way. Set pieces decide it as often as they do.
“They had a really tough game with Bristol last week too (the Robins having finished in the play-offs last season).
“I think you can see in the first weeks of the season that there’s really not much between anyone and everyone’s fighting for points. The games have been really tight and really competitive and we don’t expect anything other than that tomorrow.”
Derby finished last season strongly under new boss John Eustace and took their number of summer signing to 12 this week.
“They’re a strong, experienced Championship team with an experienced manager,” said McKenna. “Lots of good players in the squad, good physicality, good depth and they’re going to come here to try and make it difficult for us.
“We’re going to have to fight really hard to combat that and impose ourselves well in the game. We fully know what to expect and we have to be ready for the challenge.”
On the pressure to get that first win of the season, and first league win at Portman Road in 2025, McKenna said: “Of course, it would be big to get a positive result and get a home win. But wishing and wanting for a result isn’t going to be enough. That doesn’t matter. Derby will be desperate for a win as well.
“It’s about what we do. It’s about everyone doing their jobs to the best of their ability, giving everything that they’ve got to the team, getting our details right, imposing the things that we want to impose and standing up to the threats and the challenges of the game.
“You can only focus on the performance and delivering all the right things. You know that if you do that then very often and more often than not it will lead to the result that you want.
“That’s been the work this week and that’s our mindset going into the game.”
