Ipswich Town boss Mick McCarthy insists his side can go into a tough-looking October schedule full of confidence – starting at Sheffield United tomorrow.

The Blues are eighth in the table after winning six of their opening 10 Championship games, scoring plenty of goals and providing more entertainment along the way.

However, there’s no escaping the fact that five of their triumphs have come against sides in the bottom seven, while they’ve come up short against the likes of Fulham (10th), Leeds (5th) and Bristol City (4th).

These next five games therefore look a major acid test.

Tomorrow’s hosts, Sheffield United, are third in the table and have serious momentum following a 100-point promotion from League One.

Then it’s the visit of bitter rivals Norwich City (9th) to Portman Road next Sunday – Town, as if you need reminding, haven’t won an East Anglian derby since 2009 – followed by quickfire away trips to Burton (21st) and Cardiff (1st).

Preston (6th) then come to Suffolk at the start of November prior to the next international break.

“There are some big games coming up for us,” said McCarthy, who has claimed 14 points from a possible 54 in the month of October as Blues boss.

“It’s a month to work hard in, it’s going to be a tough one, but these are good games for us though.

“I don’t think that any of the teams, any of the managers, will be looking at us and thinking ‘happy days, we’ve got Mick’s mob coming, that’ll be nice and easy’.”

With Town averaging two goals a game, he added: “You have to think about how to stop good opposition playing, but they’ll be doing the same with us. I would like to think teams are looking at us and thinking ‘they can score goals’.

“We’ve been playing alright, we’ve been playing well. Okay, Bristol City deserved to win here last time, but I don’t think we were bad.

“I think we can go anywhere and be confident.”

Asked if his team needed to lay down a marker by beating a top-half side, the Blues boss replied: “That will be important. We’ll go to Bramall lane and try and do that. We should remember that our best performance was at Leeds (3-2 defeat), who are one of the better teams.”