Ipswich Town have to be up for the Cup.

So says ex-Blues skipper Matt Holland as Mick McCarthy’s side prepare to face League One side Crawley Town, at the Broadfield Stadium, in the first round of the Capital One Cup this evening.

Holland made the semi-finals of the competition with Ipswich in 2000/01, losing to Birmingham, with Town losing to Arsenal at the same stage in 2010/11.

The Blues have exited at the first or second hurdle in 10 of the last 11 seasons though, beaten by lower league opponents on eight occasions.

Following Saturday’s impressive start to the Championship campaign, beating newly-relegated Fulham 2-1 at home, McCarthy is set to make wholesale changes to his starting XI with back-to-back league trips to Reading (Saturday) and Birmingham (next Tuesday) coming up.

Holland, however, believes the Capital One Cup is a competition the Blues should take very seriously.

“I think it’s a great competition,” he said. “It’s one that a club like Ipswich can do pretty well in. We’ve seen in recent years Bradford get to the final, which was incredible.

“The priority for most teams is to do well in the league, but winning is a habit and if you can go on a bit of a run in a cup it can’t do you any harm. It can give you a bit of momentum.

“It’s a difficult draw, Crawley away, and it’s a bit of a conundrum as to how good a side you put out with so many games in these opening few weeks of the season. It will be interesting to see what Mick does, but I’m sure he’d like a good run.”

He added: “At the end of your career, what do you want to be remembered by? You want to be remembered by silverware.

“I came away from my career only winning the play-off trophy. I say ‘only’, of course it was great to win that play-off final, but you want to finish your career winning things.

“If you’ve got the chance to do well in a cup competition then have a go at it at least.

“Hopefully Ipswich can have a run.”

Matt Holland was speaking on behalf of Capital One, the credit card company and sponsors of the League Cup. All Capital One Cup ties across the country will be holding a ‘kids for a quid’ ticket offer in the first round.