Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna expecting a tough afternoon in the Championship against Derby County at Portman Road

Kieran McKenna is under no illusions as to how tough a task his Ipswich Town side have on their hands tomorrow afternoon.

The Tractor Boys are set to play host to Derby County at Portman Road with McKenna’s men still looking for their first victory of the new Championship season after picking up two points from a possible nine.

The visiting Rams are also winless, but McKenna is not expecting a comfortable 90 minutes.

McKenna, who will be without new signing Marcelino Nunez because of an ankle injury, said: “They’ve had two tough games and they had a high-scoring game at Coventry, who have started well.

“The game could have gone either way, set pieces decided it, as so often they do. Coventry scored a couple of set-piece goals and Derby did as well.

“They had a really tough game at Bristol City last week, so I think you can see in the first weeks of the season especially, there’s really not much between anyone and everyone’s fighting and the games have been really tight and really competitive.

“We don’t expect anything other than that tomorrow. They’re a strong, experienced Championship team with a manager (John Eustace) with good Championship experience, lots of good players in the squad, good physicality, good depth and they’re going to come here to make it difficult for us and to get a result.

“We’re going to have to fight really hard to combat that and impose ourselves well on the game. We fully know what to expect and we have to be ready for the challenge.”

Harry Clarke, Ali Al-Hamadi and Cameron Humphreys all remain sidelined with injuries, while McKenna has no fresh fitness concerns heading into the weekend.

Ipswich are unbeaten from their last three meetings with Derby.