McKenna’s Tractor Boys visit St Mary’s on Tuesday, April 28 (7.45pm), knowing that a win on the road would all but secure Premier League status.
Saints, on the other hand, are four points behind Ipswich and need to win to keep their slim hopes alive for the final day of the Championship season.
Saints must win their last two games and hope Ipswich and Millwall drop points on Saturday, while also bettering Middlesbrough’s goal difference.
Ipswich finished second in the Championship when Saints went up via the play-offs in 2024, having won League One under McKenna a year earlier.
“It’s not just this season, but that they are very consistent over many years, which I find quite remarkable,” said Eckert, ahead of the match.
Kieran McKenna’s Ipswich need one win from two matches (Image: PA)
READ: Saints take lead in FA Cup semi-final before Man City turnaround
“It is not easy to reset after a difficult summer. It’s not easy for a football club or manager to leave the disappointment behind and go again.
“I don’t need to say anything about him as a coach and the way he sets up his team tactically because I think he’s one of the best.
“But I think it’s even more remarkable how you just leave disappointments [like relegation] behind quickly and manage to go again.
“The summer is three months long for the media, but it isn’t three months for you as a manager. You have five to six weeks to prepare, maybe.
“You have so many conversations going on about the squad building. You need to be there on the very first day of pre-season, full of energy.
“Meanwhile, you still need to recharge completely. I think if you do get promoted, you carry some enthusiasm, and it’s very different.
“If you get relegated, I think it’s a different way to process emotions. I think that’s been a very remarkable job that he’s done at Ipswich.”
Ipswich have only won on one of their last four Championship outings – a 2-1 win against Charlton – as they look set to limp over the finish line.
👇 The promotion battle goes to the final day!#EFL | #SkyBetChampionship pic.twitter.com/FkChNBo1l0
— Sky Bet Championship (@SkyBetChamp) April 25, 2026
Saints missed the chance to move within a point of McKenna’s side after drawing 2-2 at home with Bristol City last time out in the league on Tuesday.
Eckert rested players such as Leo Scienza and Caspar Jander for Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final against Man City, which ended in a valiant 2-1 defeat.
“How the table looks doesn’t make a big difference for us in terms of the way we approach the game,” insisted Eckert, reflecting on the result.
“I think we’ve done this for every single game that we’ve gone into, that we’ll do everything and put the best starting XI in the game.
“If you would ask me if I would have preferred to win the game on Tuesday, then I would have preferred to take three points over a draw.
“But I think it just shows that we’ve been able to raise the bar over the last few weeks. And it’s not just that you go into a Championship game.
“You leave everything on the pitch on a Saturday, and then you play again on a Tuesday with two days in between, you have to travel back from Wales.
“To think that a game just falls for you, that’s not how it works. I still think that towards the end, we had two big moments that could have won it.
“It shows how much we’re able to dig deep in these games. Sometimes the last ball falls into the back of the net, but sometimes it doesn’t.
“But I think for most games we’ve tried to leave the emotions behind and close them very quickly on the same afternoon or on the same night.
“Then you open up a new page, and there’s a new job coming up to focus on for another 90 minutes. I don’t see this being any different.”