Ipswich Town will come up against Danny Cowley on Saturday after he was confirmed as the new head coach of Portsmouth.

The former Huddersfield, Lincoln and Braintree boss has agreed a deal to lead the promotion-chasers until the end of the season, with his first game coming against Town on Saturday (1pm).

The Blues have history with Cowley, with the new Pompey boss and brother/assistant Nicky humbling Mick McCarthy’s side in the FA Cup in January 2017, knocking Town out in front of the nation on BBC television.

Cowley was in charge of Lincoln then, taking the Imps from the National League to League One before taking charge of Championship side Huddersfield last season. The brothers kept the Terriers in the second tier before being sacked.

They have been in the mix for a string of League One jobs since then, including Sunderland, Bristol Rovers and AFC Wimbledon but opted to take their time in order to find the right club.

They had interest in the Ipswich job, when it became clear Paul Lambert was heading to the exit, with the Blues understood to have carried out preliminary background work on the pair without making an approach, prior to Paul Cook’s appointment.

But the two, who worked together in the media during their time out of work, will now go head-to-head on the Fratton Park touchline.

East Anglian Daily Times: Danny Cowley is the new manager of PortsmouthDanny Cowley is the new manager of Portsmouth (Image: PA Wire/PA Images)

Cowley takes over a Portsmouth side sitting 10th in the League One table, two points behind the seventh-placed Blues. Both sides have 12 games to play.

“This is a club with unbelievable tradition, so the board didn’t need to sell it to us," he said. "We’re proud and privileged to be here.

“Hopefully they saw two hard-working people who love the game and we’re delighted to be at Pompey.

“We always have the ambition of leaving a club in a better position than we found it. We’ll be doing everything in order to achieve that here.”