Ipswich Town v Millwall: Conor Chaplin's pre-game thoughts

Kieran McKenna's men are second in the Championship after 17 games, seven points clear of third spot.

They suffered just their second league defeat of the season on Saturday, losing 2-0 at West Brom in what was probably their poorest display of the campaign to date.

But Chaplin says it's inevitable Town will lose more games this season, and that teams will start to change the way they play against them.

Town were second best at West Brom - and Chaplin says that's inevitable in a football season (Image: West Brom)
“Teams are going to start respecting us and putting bespoke plans in place," he explained.

“But we can’t get too caught up in it. We lost a Championship game away from home, that’s going to happen a lot more times this season.

SIGN-UP: Get 50% off all our Town content for six months!

“We’re going to lose games at home as well, it’s one of the best leagues in the world.

“It would be naïve to think that we weren’t going to lose games. It’s about trying to be as consistent as we possibly can be.

“That was the first loss in 13 games, so I don’t think we’re doing too badly.”

Conor Chaplin's scored six goals for Town this season (Image: Steve Waller)
He added: "I think it's obvious to see that teams are giving us more respect, and that should give us confidence as well, because that’s because we’re doing well.

“Another challenge now is to overcome that. Teams are going to be better prepared and more mentally switched on.

“I think we probably surprised teams a bit earlier on in the season with our intensity, how good we were with our patterns, and our willingness to run, on and off the ball.

“I don’t think teams will be surprised now, which is normal. You’re going to have more respect from people, and probably gameplans where people are trying to stop you as well as do their own things.”

Town will look to bounce back from defeat with two straight home games, starting tonight against Millwall, live on Sky Sports (8pm).

Zian Flemming and Millwall head to Suffolk tonight (Image: PA)
New boss Joe Edwards guided the Lions to a 4-0 win at ailing Sheffield Wednesday in his first game in charge, before a heavy 3-0 home defeat to Coventry on Saturday.

Of the Lions, Chaplin said: "It’s going to be a really tough game.

“They’ve obviously got a new manager for the last two games and we’re not stupid, we’ve been through both of their games – it wasn’t really a 4-0 win against Sheffield Wednesday and it wasn’t really a 3-0 defeat against Coventry.

“The games were tight, they were close games. Set pieces came into play a lot in both games, for and against them, but they were fully in both games.

“It’s fine margins in this league, and that can go for and against you.

“I think on paper it looks like they won brilliantly one game and lost emphatically the next. I don’t think it was like that at all going through the games.

“They’re a really solid team, a good Championship team with really good players.”