Former Ipswich Town loanee Matt Pennington hopes his Shrewsbury side are able to take advantage of the Blues’ growing pains this weekend.

The defender, one of the better performers as Ipswich were relegated from the Championship in 2018/19, made his move to Shropshire permanent in the summer after finishing last season on loan from Everton.

His team come to Portman Road sitting 23rd in the League One table, facing an Ipswich side which has taken 10 points from 10 games following a summer which saw 19 new players arrive at the club.

“Sometimes it’s hard to get all of the players to gel and hopefully we can exploit that period of them trying to get to know each other,” Pennington said. “You can’t just throw players together and expect to win games.

“You’ve seen from their results that they haven’t got what they wanted this season, so hopefully we can continue that.

“They had a good home result (6-0 v Doncaster) last time so they will be confident and the fans will be expecting the same. It’s up to us to reduce that impact and nulify that aspect of the game.

“They have talent and ability in the squad but hopefully we can stop them showing it.”

Pennington made 31 appearances for Town during his spell at the club, with the majority coming under Paul Lambert after he was originally signed by Paul Hurst.

“It’s a really good club, a family club, and I really enjoyed my time there,” he said of his time in Ipswich.

“The place itself is a nice place to live. The results on the pitch weren’t great and we ended up getting relegated, which was obviously very disappointing, but I had a good spell there.

“I played about 30 games, starting them all and played some good stuff in the Championship. I improved while I was there.

“I’ve played there plenty of times before so I’m looking forward to going back to play on a nice pitch in a nice stadium.”