Danny Cowley has insisted 'everybody in the division’ are expecting Ipswich Town to win automatic promotion this season.

Cowley brings his unbeaten Portsmouth side to Portman Road this weekend, for a game between the sides sitting second and third in the early season table.

Town were among the promotion favourites before a ball was kicked, with Cowley fully expecting Kieran McKenna’s men to be up there at the end of the season.

The Pompey boss, as he has done on previous occasions, used the Blues’ work in the transfer market as evidence to back up his claims.

“Everybody in the division anticipates Ipswich making the automatic promotion places,” he told The News in Portsmouth.

“It’s the players they have, how well coached they are, the way they have started the season. If you finish close to Ipswich then you’ll probably have had a very good season.

“Ipswich have good players, not just top players in this division, but are able to take top players from the division above as well.

“They are doing it in a slightly different way from us, it’s a slightly different strategy, we know what we’re trying to achieve and every club has different ways of trying to be successful.

“But we are a team which is a work in progress, we’re trying to improve every day.”

Cowley also discussed Town’s summer move for Marcus Harness, which saw the attacker swap Fratton Park for Portman Road for a fee in the region of £600,000.

He said: “They’re probably doing it in a different way to us, they’ve had the opportunity to recruit some of the best players from their rivals, such as taking Marcus Harness from us.

“He was a key player last year, it wouldn’t have been our preference to sell to one of our rivals, of course.

“But when we looked at the finances involved and the rewards for us, we decided to focus on us rather than worry about our opponents. It was a really good piece of business for us and allowed us to improve as a team.”

Town and Pompey are level on points, goals for and goals against heading into this weekend’s match, though Cowley’s side have played one game fewer.

More than 28,000 tickets have been sold ahead of the game.