Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna says he's excited to have two Portman Road games in the space of six days.

The Blues haven't won on home soil since the promotion-sealing game against Huddersfield back in May, drawing against Fulham, Aston Villa, Leicester and Manchester United and losing against Liverpool and Everton since stepping up to the Premier League.

Tomorrow night's home clash with Crystal Palace (7.30pm) is the first midweek match on Suffolk soil since April and it feels like a proverbial 'six-pointer' given the two teams have identical records in terms of results so far. It will quickly be followed by the visit of Bournemouth on Sunday.

“We’re glad the next game has come around quick," said McKenna, whose side lost 1-0 at Nottingham Forest on Saturday. 

“Of course it’s an important game. All the home games are, I think, irrespective of who we’re playing. 

“We always made a big thing of really trying to attack back-to-back home games in a week in League One and the Championship. This is our first chance to do that in the Premier League and we only get one more after Christmas (Brighton/Man City in January). 

“We want to make the most of it. We know we’re facing two really good teams and we’ll respect each opponent. We’ll have to get an awful lot of things right and not a lot wrong to get a win in either game, but that’s what we’re going to try and do. 

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“The atmosphere for the Man United game was incredible. The fans represented themselves so well to a worldwide audience. This one is so important as well. Coming off the back of a result that wasn’t quite as good as we’d hoped, playing against a team in a similar position in the league, it would be easy for tension to creep in for everyone. But the biggest thing we need to feel is excitement and passion for the game. We need the crowd to stick with the players for the 90+ minutes, like they do so well."

He added: "It will be brilliant when we win that first home game. We know it will come and we want it to come as soon as possible.

"We’ve had four draws at home and they’ve all been good matches and good performances. We feel like in all of those games we could have won. One of them, Leicester, we should have won. So we know we’re not that far away from it. 

“We now have to take the next step and turn one of those performances into a win.

"We’ve got two chances to do that this week, but it will be really tough. I don’t think the bookmakers will have us as favourite for either game.

"We’re still playing against a Crystal Palace side that has a lot of Premier League experience and had three or four players in the England squad in the summer. I don’t think there will be one game we go into this season as overwhelming favourites.

"But if we play as we know we are capable of playing, we know we can fight for a result in any home game. It’s going to take everyone giving everything they can. We believe that we’ve got the qualities to go and win the game."