Ipswich Town forward Luke Varney says the Blues’ best chance of beating bitter rivals Norwich City at Portman Road on Sunday (12pm) is by making it a ‘real derby’ match.

The Canaries will travel down the A140 very much the favourites, Alex Neil having kept the majority of his squad together following relegation from the Premier League and spent a few million on bolstering it further.

And Varney, who was part of the Town team which more than matched City for a match-and-a-half of the Championship play-off semi-final of 2015, says Mick McCarthy’s men will once again be channelling an underdog spirit in the East Anglian clash.

“We’ll be looking to make this a real derby match because that will give us the best chance of winning,” said the 33-year-old.

“There’s no getting away from the fact that they have just come down from the Premier League, have spent a lot of money and have some really good players.

“That was the same when we played them in the play-offs though and we managed to match them for the most part of those two ties because of our intensity.

“We’ll look to get on top of them, get in their faces, fight for every ball and make it a game they won’t enjoy playing in. It’s a match we’re all looking forward to.”

– From tears to 10k races: More from Varney in today’s EADT and Ipswich Star