‘Difficult’ Hillsborough crowd can turn against Sheffield Wednesday, suggests Ipswich Town boss

That’s according to Ipswich manager Kieran McKenna, who said he was relishing the opportunity to test his table-topping side against a fellow promotion hopeful.

Ipswich have sold upwards of 3,100 tickets for the clash, with a healthy home support also expected.

And asked about attempting to control the crowd, the Northern Irishman spoke candidly.

“I think it’s important, it’s always important in these types of game,” he continued. “A big home crowd can be an advantage but it can also be a disadvantage, it can also be a difficult crowd to play in front of if the team’s not going well and the team’s not on top.

“For us, it’s about going there, focusing our performance, take the atmosphere away from the home team and from the home supporters and impose our will on them and impose our football on them, and make sure that we control the game and how we want to control it.

“And in the moments when we have got momentum against us, we need to be really strong physically and mentally to stand up to that.

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“It’s going to be great to have such a big away support, it’s going to be a factor for them to have such a big home support, but it’s what happens on the pitch that matters and that’s where we need to show our energies are focused.”

McKenna went on to describe the scale of the match but made clear neither team’s season will be won or lost on the result.

“It is a big game,” he said. “We want to beat the teams that are going to be up at the top of the division, that is always an advantage. I think it’s much too early in the season for it to be decisive, one way or another.

“We are going to play all these teams again in a few months’ time and those fixtures are going to be more decisive, in terms of where teams are looking in the table and where the positions are.

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“For now, it would just be great to continue our good form and go there and put in a good performance.”