Boss Mick McCarthy says it’s an exciting time for Town fans with the Blues still in the midst of the play-off fight with only four games of the season left to play.

Saturday’s 2-1 victory over Doncaster at Portman Road saw Town move up to seventh, behind Brighton in sixth on goal difference with Reading able to leap back to the final play-off spot if they draw with Leicester at the Madejski Stadium tonight.

The Blues next travel to Watford on Saturday, then fellow challengers Bournemouth are at Portman Road on Easter Monday before the season comes to a close with a visit to Burnley - who seem certain to be promoted by then - and finally a home game against Sheffield Wednesday.

“It’s an exciting time,” McCarthy said. “It’s great to be at the top end and we have got a chance of getting promoted to the Premier League. That is effectively what it is.

“I know we keep talking about getting in the play-offs, but if you get in the play-offs, who knows? Somebody will get in, and somebody who probably wasn’t fancied to get in might get in.

“It could be us, it could be Bournemouth, Brighton, it could be someone who just has that sneaky late run and they’ll be going in with momentum.

“Any one of us will prove difficult opposition for anybody and those play-offs are just such a lottery. So, who knows? It is exciting that we’re still involved.”

He believes Saturday’s victory over Doncaster was a match from which the Blues had to take three points to stay in the hunt: “It was a game we needed to win. Somebody shouted from behind me ‘We’ve got to go for it!’.

“I turned round and said ‘We’ve been going for it! Do me a favour, we’ve got three strikers on, we’ve got Jonny Williams on, we’re flying forward!’.

“But that’s just me getting exasperated. We went for it at half-time, I put the subs on and it worked and I think we got away with one in the end because I think we got a decision that favoured us.”

Assessing how the rest of the season will pan out at the top of the division and Town’s chances of finishing in the top six, he added: “Burnley will go up, certainly. Bournemouth drew. We’ve got four games, I suppose if we win all four of them.

“Is that likely? Watford are a very good side, Bournemouth are an excellent side, as is proved by eight wins and two draws out of 11 games. There are some big games coming up. It’s exciting. It’s nice to be involved.”

Meanwhile, Town and Huddersfield have been linked with free agent keeper Ben Alnwick, who was at Sunderland during McCarthy’s time as boss there.

The 27-year-old left Leyton Orient in March for unspecified personal reasons having only joined the League One side from Charlton in January.

Former U21 international Alnwick has also previously been with Tottenham and Barnsley in addition to spending time on loan at Luton, Leicester, Carlisle, Norwich, Leeds and Doncaster as well as an earlier spell with Orient.

Photo: Action Images

Rentaghost added 06:51 - Apr 14 I presume Alnwick will be replacement if Loach leaves. Loach will want first team football.
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Flewitt85 added 07:24 - Apr 14 I for 1 am very excited! I know a couple of weeks ago I wrote on here saying we should look forward to getting promoted next season as I didnt think we would make it this season, and all the talk about 'must win games' and 'we can still make the playoffs' was false hope. BUT HOW WRONG WAS I! it just goes to show never write town off! TEAMS BEWARE!
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Warkys_Tash added 08:15 - Apr 14 Regardless if we make it or not.. What a cracking job McCarthy & TC have done. Lets hope they stay for many years and build our club back to where it was in the Burley era.
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JimmyJazz added 08:17 - Apr 14 I think we 'went for it' for a total of 5 minutes during the whole game. At the start of the second half and after they had equalised. For the first half and once we were ahead we just played the same old usual style. Seeing as we scored twice in those 5 minutes just shows how vulnerable Doncaster were in defence if pressured which we failed to do. Why do we wait for the second half before deciding to start attacking? Still 3 points is the main thing, but must have more belief in ourselves and not play so negatively for the majority of the game.

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bluelady added 08:24 - Apr 14 I just hope everyone remembers that even being in the mix this time of the year is amassive step forward and if we don't quite manage the play offs this time I just hope we don't get a barrage of negativity from "fans" .. If it isn't this year it will be next ;-)
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Michael11 added 12:02 - Apr 14 It certainly is exciting. It's just nice being up there in the mix so late in the season. McCarthy really has done an excellent job for us. Watford's such a massive game now!!
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AbujaBlue added 12:06 - Apr 14 I echo some of the above comments. Not the end of the world if we don't make it this season, but what a team MM and TC is creating for us. One of the few times as an Ipswich fan where we can actually look forward to the next season regardless of whether we make the playoffs or not.
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NSL added 12:26 - Apr 14 Cocking up my May bank holiday plans all of this - MM Out!!! ;-)
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Keaneish added 12:35 - Apr 14 Nice to see another 3000 fans come out of the woodwork on Saturday.... WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN ALL SEASON???? Expect another 24000 will appear if we get to Wembley!
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theobald1985 added 13:24 - Apr 14 warkys tash we better make otherwise we will have played the long ball game all year for know reward. what people like mick and pulis etc do is a gamble-they grind decent points totals out in the hope that the sucess that brings will counter the low quality of the football we watch. if we are going to play this way and i personally dont like the style it must be successfull otherwise we may have well as finished 14th and actually played on the deck with attacking footie and played some academy lads through. id love it if we went but would wonder about micks ability to keep us there-his track record in the prem is not the best and his teams are poor at ball retention so we would get some drubbings i fear

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theobald1985 added 13:24 - Apr 14 warkys tash we better make otherwise we will have played the long ball game all year for know reward. what people like mick and pulis etc do is a gamble-they grind decent points totals out in the hope that the sucess that brings will counter the low quality of the football we watch. if we are going to play this way and i personally dont like the style it must be successfull otherwise we may have well as finished 14th and actually played on the deck with attacking footie and played some academy lads through. id love it if we went but would wonder about micks ability to keep us there-his track record in the prem is not the best and his teams are poor at ball retention so we would get some drubbings i fear

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degausser added 13:42 - Apr 14 Keaneish - I believe there was some 2-3k tickets given to local sports clubs/schools etc. before Saturday's game, so most of the additional attendance would have been from that. Either way, extra support shouldn't be sniffed at! it can only have two positive effects in my mind income for the club and motivation for the players!
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50yearsablue added 16:49 - Apr 14 theobald1985, try holding down the shift key (the one with the arrow) and press the letter and then you get a capital letter.
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TimmyH added 17:07 - Apr 14 Yes certainly makes an exciting end to the season, sill feel a bit cheesed off at Leicester's performance at home to Brighton - just hope that doesn't make the difference between them and us at the end of the season. At last good to see the club on the 'up turn' after several years of fairly dire results, keep it up!
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theobald1985 added 18:06 - Apr 14 thanks for the advice 50yearsablue but hardly feel its necessary to use capitals and proper punctuation etc on a comments section on a fan site.
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Andy32Cracknell added 19:24 - Apr 14 well said (theobald1985). i for one totally agree with you. the football at portman road this season has been nothin apart from drab, boring and so predictable (hoffball into the corner and chase it). I for one wont be coming to portman road again this season or next as ive cancelled my season ticket of 26yrs. I would rather finish mid table with a young promising manager who will stick around for a while playing good attractive footy on the deck, building and progressing in the proper way (playing football). What happens when/if mccarthy goes to a higher profile jobs, because he will?? it will be a nightmare job for someone.

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ian_marshall added 20:07 - Apr 14 Come on Leicester
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alfromcol added 20:12 - Apr 14 Andy32Cracknell What's the real reason. No one cancels a season ticket purely on the basis of this season's results and performance!!!!
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ian_marshall added 20:29 - Apr 14 Andy, is it the blokes breath behind me in lower SBR?
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ian_marshall added 20:30 - Apr 14 I think he eats horse sh!t before the game
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Steelmonkey added 20:53 - Apr 14 Keaneish - I thought that there was going to be 12000 tickets made available to schools and clubs and the like for the Donny game, if it's 3-4000 per the last home games, it's not hard to do the math. As the season has gone on I admit to have become much more critical of MM, having seen all but two of this seasons home games (Illness only stopping me), the drab hit and hope style of play has only been livened up by one Jonny Williams, but his presence has and is having a knock on effect to the players around him. Without his inclusion our season would already be over and we would all be looking to next season. If we do make the play offs and clinch that last place then only a premiership finance package would be able to replace or pay for a Jonny Williams type player. We still have some very high fences yet to overcome before we can even dare think about it. But we can dream, COYB's.

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HALLSJ added 22:11 - Apr 14 At least Reading dropped points tonight and had a player sent off. Level with 6th, 3 sides all with 6th after tonight, Crikey what a run in this will be
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MrDiddle added 23:40 - Apr 14 My goodness what a fickle bunch of posters. MM has performed nothing short of a miracle with town. Rewind to November 2012 and everyone was sure we were going to be relegated, most of you would have sold your mother to be in the position we are now. The guy has spent next to nothing, cleared out most of the dead wood (Paul Taylor aside) and has built a team in less than 18 months that is capable of challenging for a top 6 place. Give the bloody moaning a rest and enjoy the position town are in. Even if town don't get into the playoffs this time round the future looks very bright. COYB!

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HALLSJ added 06:50 - Apr 15 Mr Diddle, don't disagree with your comments, only a comment that I think we'll be just short. Great season all in all though, with McGowan ink who know's
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HALLSJ added 06:51 - Apr 15 McGowan (predictive text) apologies....McGoldrick obviously.
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