Ipswich Town face Bracknell Town, at Bottom Meadow, in a televised FA Cup first round tie tonight (7.45pm). STUART WATSON previews the action.
A PROPER CUP TIE
Since dropping into League One, Ipswich have been handed some pretty dull FA Cup ties.
Lincoln, Coventry and Portsmouth were all third-tier rivals at the time. Oldham and Barrow were in the division below. None got the juices flowing.
But Bracknell Town away... that's what this stage of the competition is all about.
This is about as David versus Goliath as you can get in the first round. More than 100 places in the pyramid separates these two sides - 104 to be precise.
Ipswich are second in League One. Bracknell currently sit 11th in the Southern League Premier South table. That's Step Three of the non-league pyramid. For context, it's the same level as Suffolk sides Leiston and Needham Market.
The Berkshire hosts play at Bottom Meadow in nearby Sandhurst. It's a ground with just 250 seats that has been limited to a capacity of 2,000 tonight. Ipswich have been allocated 300 away tickets and supporters will not be segregated.
It was no surprise when the game - which will be shown on ITV4 tonight - was selected for broadcast.
Everyone, bar Ipswich fans, will be wanting to see a giant-killing.
CUP MISERY
Ipswich Town won the FA Cup in 1978. They've also been semi-finalists twice ('75 and '81) and quarter-finalists four times ('79, '80, '85 and '93).
It's been a very different relationship with the world-famous competition in modern times though.
Since 2011, there have been just two wins in 22 ties. On five occasions exits have come at the hands of lower-level opposition.
The last time Ipswich faced a non-league side in the FA Cup?
That was January 2017 when Mick McCarthy's water-treading Championship side were dumped out by upwardly mobile National League outfit Lincoln City, after a replay, in front a prime-time BBC One audience.
The last time Ipswich played a game on ITV4?
That would be Barrow away last December. Paul Cook had been sacked after the teams had drawn 0-0 at Portman Road. In the televised replay, under the caretaker management of John McGreal, the Blues slipped to an embarrassing 2-0 defeat against the League Two strugglers.
All of the above is sure to feature in the Bracknell team talk ahead of kick-off.
TIMES ARE CHANGING
All of that said, Ipswich Town are rewriting the script this season.
Can the Blues mix it with physical sides in League One? Can they win more than two games in a row? Can they beat a promotion rival? Can they win on TV? Can they start scoring from set-pieces?
All of those questions have been answered in the affirmative inside the opening three months of the campaign.
Tonight's a big opportunity to shake another sizeable monkey off the back.
WHO WILL PLAY?
McKenna has made wholesale changes to his team for games in the Carabao Cup and Papa John's Trophy this season.
That's likely to be the case again tonight, following on from a hectic eight-game October, but even if well-used players such as Christian Walton, Leif Davis, Janoi Donacien, Wes Burns, Sam Morsy, Conor Chaplin, George Edmundson and (new dad) Luke Woolfenden are rested, it will still be a team packed with first-teamers.
Marcus Harness and Freddie Ladapo could come back into the team after starting last weekend's crazy 4-4 draw at Charlton on the bench. Those two have 13 goals between them this season.
Cameron Burgess and Richard Keogh could come in as centre-halves. The latter has made more than 450 appearances in the Championship and played in the last 16 of a European Championships.
Talented teenager Cameron Humphreys is likely to start. His confidence should be sky-high after his magic full league debut at Port Vale recently.
Tricky winger Kyle Edwards is another player who appears to have found his mojo in recent weeks.
We might see an Under-21 player or two, plus players like Burgess, Kane Vincent-Young and Panutche Camara only just back from injuries, but in general this is going to be a fit and firing senior team.
PREDICTION
Bracknell are certainly not to be underestimated.
They are a club with stated ambitions of reaching the National League South sooner rather than later.
Their last four league finishes have been second, second, second and first.
They won 31 of their 36 league games last season. And they come into this game unbeaten in nine and having scored 48 goals in 19 games so far this campaign (that's an average of nearly three a game).
Bracknell's owner Kayne Steinborn-Busse says he wants his side to go for the win and not think about a money-spinning replay. Joint-manager Carl Withers says he wants his players to come off the field with no regrets.
I feel like the perfect storm needed for an upset lacks a vital ingredient though - the bigger club being in a bad place.
Ipswich might not have this game all their own way, but I do think their superior fitness and quality will ultimately show.
A potential late flurry of goals. Town to win 5-1.
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