Former Norwich City and Ipswich Town boss Paul Lambert insists form will go out of the window in Saturday's Championship derby at Portman Road.

Lambert famously was red carded in the last meeting as boss of the struggling Blues in a 3-0 Carrow Road defeat at his old club in February 2019.

The Scot knows what the fixture means in this part of the world, but is not reading anything into the current Championship standings.

Kieran McKenna's squad are 21 points clear of the Canaries as they look to emulate Lambert's achievement from his time in Norfolk of back-to-back promotions from League One to the Premier League.

“They’ll fancy their chances against Norwich because of the way the form guide goes," he said. "But derby games, as I’ve said before, it doesn’t matter if you’re top or bottom, derby games can go either way.

"Of course it is (an opportunity for the Tractor Boys). 

"I don’t think there are too many players left from when I was there. The changing room structure looks great, they’ve put a bit of money into Ipswich, they’ve done up the stadium, they’re going to do the training ground. The structure is there. When I was there, it was a different club altogether.

“Paul Cook came in after me and couldn’t get a tune out of the guys. Then Kieran comes in and blitzes everything, which needed to be done. Ipswich was too big of a club to stagnate.

“It’s a massive club with the history behind it. Big Terry Butcher, John Wark, George Burley, Arnold Mühren and Frans Thijssen, Bobby Robson. A brilliant club. But it needed an influx of money to help it because it needed a structure to get it going."

Lambert, speaking to Football League World, courtesy of Betway, experienced some of the biggest derbies in the world as a player.

"The Dortmund-Schalke game is crazy. Dortmund-Schalke is unbelievable," he said. "The Glasgow derby. You don’t need to tell me about the Glasgow derby. I’ve always said you could play it on the moon and people would want to come and watch it because it’s a madness game. It’s a brilliant derby, it’s ferocious, it’s madness all rolled into one.

“The Norwich-Ipswich game is a little bit more friendly than that. It’s nowhere near the Rangers-Celtic or Dortmund-Schalke game, it’s nothing like that but it’s a derby that’s so important to the people of Norfolk and Suffolk.

“You have to give it that respect. You couldn’t compare it to a Glasgow derby or a Dortmund derby though.”