Manager Mick McCarthy insists that Town are still in a relegation scrap ahead of the visit of Bristol City, one position and five points behind the 20th-placed Blues.

McCarthy said: “It’s [still a relegation scrap] without a doubt. We’ve had a good run, but you only have to lose two on the bounce and anybody can beat anybody else in the league as has been proven by Peterborough going to Cardiff last week and getting a win. I bet that bust a few coupons.

“It was a fabulous result for them and it just shows the standard of the league — anybody can beat anybody else. It’s concentrating on our performance, how we play, how we approach the game.”

While he’d love a repeat of the displays against Nottingham Forest and Millwall, the Blues boss would be happy with a victory of any type: “I’d take a poor performance and win, I’m not really bothered — it’s a win.

“But, of course, the good performances that we’ve produced, I’d love one of those tomorrow and that’s what we’ll be aiming for.”

He says the Robins resemble Town a few games ago: “I’ve had three reports as always and I’ve got a couple of games on DVD or on Prozone that we watched.

“They played Sheffield Wednesday and it ended up three-all, so they scored three goals away from home, as well as conceding three.

“A bit like us and everybody else at the bottom of the table, you have a decent result, then if you have a bad one you suddenly become fragile.

“They’ve got some decent players and it’s a bit like looking at us when we were really struggling at the bottom of the league. People would look at the squad and say ‘That’s not a bad squad, that’ but for some reason it just wasn’t happening.

“But on any given day with those decent players, the Championship cane be turned on its head, so we have to be quite vigilant and make sure we look after our performance and not worry about them too much.”

He says a win in the first of the four Christmas fixtures will be a platform on which to build: “Of course it would, but I’ve no doubt that there’s someone down at Bristol City saying ‘If you win at Ipswich, it’ll only be two points’, so there’s always two ways to look at it.

“From our perspective we’re fighting against one of our real competitors at the bottom of the table and it’s a really important game. If we won, then it puts a good distance between us.”

One man he’ll be keeping a close eye on is Jon Stead, having signed the former Blues striker during his time as Sunderland boss: “I am worried because it’s Sod’s Law when a former player comes back to his old club. There’s always the chance he might nick one and we’ve got to make sure he doesn’t.

“Jon’s got plenty of ability, there’s no question about that, he’s got good pace, he runs in the channels, he’s a handful in the air because he’s 6ft 3. I’ve no doubt he’ll want to do well coming back.”

Photo: Action Images

Lord_Mac added 17:59 - Dec 21 We have a really record of performing well in matches that really matter, and against poor teams. This has been true for many years up until the Peterborough game recently where we played really poorly. Let's hope MM can change that, starting tomorrow!
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Jeff_winger added 18:53 - Dec 21 @lord_mac and sheffield wed when we were awful
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warbeat78 added 20:55 - Dec 21 They beat sh/wed 3-2 away,but no what you mean MM, cant take anything for granted in this league.yes p/boro did break a few coupons who would have thought they would have been the ones, to break that run of home wins.
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MVBlue added 00:48 - Dec 22 Jon Stead! Blast from the past.
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