What Kieran McKenna is set to do at Ipswich Town ahead of Southampton | OneFootball

Kieran McKenna is set to take action as his Ipswich Town side prepare for a season-defining trip to automatic promotion rivals Southampton

Ipswich Town's biggest game of the 2025/26 Championship campaign awaits with tomorrow evening's crunch trip to Southampton, in which automatic promotion at the very first time of asking could just be sealed.

The Tractor Boys are currently positioned in second place heading into the final week of the season.

Tied on points with third-placed Millwall and one ahead of Middlesbrough in fourth, Ipswich boast a crucial game in hand over two of their automatic promotion rivals which could promise to guide Kieran McKenna's side straight back up to the Premier League.

That's on the condition that they come away with all three points from Tuesday night's huge showdown at Southampton, who are placed in fifth with two games to spare and cannot be ruled out of top-two contention either, should they beat Ipswich on home soil.

But, for the time being, it's very much in Ipswich's hands. Town would, however, remain in a strong position to clinch second place even if points are dropped on the south coast, in which case victory would likely be required at home to mid-table QPR on Saturday afternoon.

Ipswich would have been left disappointed by Saturday's 0-0 draw at 21st-placed West Bromwich Albion and will be looking to return to winning ways against Tonda Eckert's side, who are fresh off the back of a slender FA Cup semi-final defeat to Manchester City over the weekend.

What Kieran McKenna is set to do at Ipswich Town ahead of Southampton

Ipswich boss McKenna is poised to spend the day mulling over his squad with a series of potential selection headaches as he carefully decides upon the best side to lock horns with Southampton and take Town one step closer to promotion.

The Tractor Boys possess rather enviable squad depth by Championship standards, which McKenna is set to take advantage of heading into the Southampton fixture.

He has confirmed Ipswich will be freshening up various positions amid a congested second-tier fixture schedule, with a number of changes potentially in store.

When quizzed on whether he would be exercising squad rotation for Southampton, McKenna explained to the East Anglian Daily Times: "We'll make those assessments today after training and through speaking to players this evening.

"There's no doubt that there was fatigue out there on Saturday. No doubt about that.

"I've spoken to the schedule enough. Three away games and six days at this stage of the season is really, really tough.

"We want to be relatively consistent with the selection and give players a chance to build up some good momentum. I think we've done that over the last few weeks.

"But we also have other players ready to go and a squad of people ready to contribute.

"I think, in reality, we're going to need to freshen up some positions going into tomorrow tonight. We'll make a decision on what those positions are."

Ipswich Town's squad depth offers huge pre-Southampton advantage

It would be quite arguable to suggest that not one Championship side can eclipse the strength in depth throughout Ipswich's squad, even if McKenna's side have not always been consistent this term.

That's evidenced by the fact that quality operators such as Marcelino Nunez and Jaden Philogene both only featured as second-half substitutes at the Hawthorns, with the pair having collectively cost Ipswich in excess of £25 million in transfer fees.

Sindre Walle Egeli, meanwhile, who became the most expensive purchase in Championship history when Ipswich secured the Norwegian teenager's signature for a record-breaking £17.5 million sum last summer, has been in and out of the side all season and wasn't even in the matchday squad when Town travelled to the West Midlands over the weekend.

Chuba Akpom is another player who has struggled for consistent game-time under McKenna, and although the versatile attacker has failed to meet expectations at Portman Road, he remains a game-changing talent who scored 29 goals for Middlesbrough during his last season at this level.

With a blend of expensive and Championship-proven talent across the squad, McKenna has the sort of squad depth and welcomes such selection dilemmas that just about any other second-tier boss would envy and he will be hoping to use it to maximum effect as Ipswich's biggest test of the season looms large.