Ipswich Town: Kieran McKenna on renewing rivalry with Southampton

Omari Hutchinson scored in a 1-0 victory on the south coast last September, then Jeremy Sarmiento bagged a 97th goal to seal a dramatic 3-2 comeback win at Portman Road on Easter Monday. Those results played a big part in Town pipping the Saints to automatic promotion, with Russell Martin's men going on to secure their step up via the play-offs.

Since then, however, Southampton have signed 16 new players and Ipswich 12 in preparation for top-flight football.

"The first game was pretty early in the season, it was our first big midweek away game, our first game at one of the newly-relegated sides and we were missing a few players that night. But we got a clean sheet, won a tight game and that provided a great foundation in our season," reflected McKenna. 

Jeremy Sarmiento's dramatic 97th winner against Southampton at Portman Road is the most iconic moment from Ipswich's Championship promotion season. (Image: PA)

“Then the home game provided a wonderful moment that will live long in the memory for everyone. That game will never change. It’s in the folklore and history of the football club now.  

“But there’s not too much we’ll reference from those games now. This is a new game, a new season and new squads. We’ll have to go at it with fresh eyes."

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Southampton, sticking to their possession principles, are still to register their first point of the campaign having lost to Newcastle (1-0 away), Nottingham Forest (1-0 at home), Brentford (3-1 away) and Manchester United (3-0 at home).

“They’ve caused every team problems," he insisted. "They caused Man United a lot of problems for half an hour last week (seeing a penalty saved at 0-0), they caused Newcastle a lot of problems in the first game of the season away (having 19 shots, but failing to break down 10 men for more than an hour), even the Brentford game, which Brentford ended up winning with some high regains and a set-play, they caused a lot of problems.

Omari Hutchinson scored the winner when Ipswich went to St Mary's last September. (Image: PA)

“I’m not surprised by the style they’ve gone with, because I think Russell’s pretty vocal about that being what he believes in and will stick to.

"Southampton are a team that challenge every opponent that they come up against in terms of how they hold the ball in deep areas. We know we’ll have to answer some questions that they pose. It should be a good game. We’re going to have to show lots of the good qualities that we’ve shown across the opening four games."