The two teams met at St Andrew’s on the opening night of the season last August, Birmingham having just stormed to the League One title and Ipswich having just dropped down from the Premier League.
In an intense game full of needle, the Midlands side took the lead through Jay Stansfield’s goal but were pegged back in stoppage-time via George Hirst’s penalty, with both sets of players subsequently clashing.
Ahead of this afternoon’s rematch at Portman Road (3pm), McKenna said: “They’re a really strong side, no doubt about that.
“The quality they have with their manager (Chris Davies), the players they were bringing in… You expected them to be really strong.
“I haven’t followed all their games this season, but they’ve clearly had some ups and downs in there. You can clearly see though that, on their best level of performance, they’re a match for anyone in the division. There’s no doubt about that.
“Look at their game away to Norwich (a 2-1 win in February) – I thought they played really, really well.
“We know it’s going to be a tough game, but it’s a game to really look forward to. We know they like to be aggressive, press and play with a good energy. And so do we. So hopefully it’ll make for a really good game.”
Ipswich’s scheduled Good Friday game at Southampton had to be postponed due to the fact the Saints reached the FA Cup quarter-finals.
Millwall came from behind to win 2-1 at Middlesbrough and rose to second in the Championship table. Town, down to fourth, now find themselves three points adrift of the automatic promotion places with two games in hand to come.
Millwall host Norwich City this lunchtime (1pm), while Middlesbrough are at Swansea later this afternoon (5.30pm).