Skipper Luke Chambers says finishing in the top six has to be Town’s target in the season ahead, the Blues having missed out on the play-offs by one place and four points last term.

“The top six has to be the target,” the Town captain said. “It’s obviously getting more and more difficult with the teams that are coming down and the money that’s getting thrown around.

“We’ve signed Adam Webster from Portsmouth, who is going to be a very a good player for us.

“We lost a few last year, so hopefully we’ll bring a few more players in but at the end of the day the lads in the squad are just concentrating on getting ourselves fit.

“We’re 90 per cent there at the minute, so we need to be ready for August 6th whether we have help coming in or not.”

Regarding 21-year-old Webster, he added: “He’s a good lad, he’s had a bit of stick but he’s settled in as quickly as everyone else does when they come to the club, so he’s a good addition.

“He did very, very well against us in last year’s games against Portsmouth. I think they’ve had him watched on more than just those two occasions, so he’s come in.

“We’re not usually splashing quite a bit of money on players, so he must be pretty good!”

Webster has further added to manager Mick McCarthy’s central defensive options with Chambers, who has viewed himself primarily as a centre-half throughout his career, again set to play at right-back during the season ahead.

However, the 30-year-old insists he has no problem with continuing in the position he has played for much of his time at Town and also for spells at Nottingham Forest.

“I’ll be there if needed,” he continued. “It’s wherever the gaffer wants to play me and if he wants to play me.

“I’ll be doing everything I can to be part of the team and if he asks me to play right-back I’m very happy to do that and if I can be in a team which finishes in the top six again this year that will be fantastic."

Chambers says he’s enjoyed pre-season: “It’s been good, it’s always been good. The gaffer’s brilliant with the lads. We all get the work in, Lids [Andy Liddell] is a fantastic fitness coach and we’ve been working on a few different things trying to keep more possession of the ball.

“We’re not going to turn into a possession team overnight but we need to have a different string to our bow as opposed to just trying to knock it up to the forwards and playing off the second balls.

“I think in parts this pre-season we’ve showed that we can do that, so we’ll continue to work on it for the next couple of weeks and hopefully we can see it throughout the season.”

Like manager McCarthy, Chambers was frustrated by the Blues’ failure to hold on to their 1-0 lead at Cambridge, Joe Pigott having grabbed a late equaliser for the League Two side after Andre Dozzell had put Town in front on 83.

“It was just a normal pre-season game, they’ve got to be done,” he said. “We’re trying a few different things, trying to pass the ball a bit better and I thought we did that at times.

“I thought the boys that played gave a pretty good account of themselves, but obviously it’s disappointing to concede late on. I think the gaffer switched the teams around from Wednesday to today and it’s just about getting minutes in the legs and getting ready for August 6th.”

Despite fitness being the main focus of pre-season friendlies, he says winning is important: “It is for me. We should have won that game. I’m fuming that we didn’t. If you take that into the season, conceding in the 88th minute, it’s not good enough.

“We did it too many times last season, so we can’t be doing it this season. That needs to be a lesson we need to learn pretty quickly.”

Chambers confirmed that McCarthy made his frustrations very clear in the dressing room afterwards: “He certainly did! But as a professional footballer you’ve got to learn to close games out.

“I think we controlled the game pretty much at times and I’m very, very annoyed at the moment but thankfully it is only a pre-season friendly and we’ve got to move on a play a couple more games before the season kicks off.”

The Blues captain says he and his team-mates can’t wait to get the season proper under way.

“When someone like Luke Hyam goes down injured and he’s had an injury problem last season, it’s always worrying when one of your team-mates goes down when everyone’s worked so hard to get to this point,” he added.

“Skusey’s flown into a tackle with their big centre-half midway through the first half that you’re cringing at, thinking ‘Why’s he done that!’, but that’s the type of lads we’ve got at the football club.

“I think we’ve got a lot to be proud of, we’ve got a lot to look forward to and we’ll be giving it absolutely everything to be ready for August 6th and get off to a flying start.”

Reflecting on the strength of the division during the season ahead, he added: “You could list 10 teams now that would expect to be going up. It’s going to be difficult but we’re ready for the challenge.”

Photo: Action Images

prebbs007 added 07:10 - Jul 25 Top 6 Hahahahaha
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MattinLondon added 10:10 - Jul 25 I'm not questioning any of the players commitment or desire to do well for the club — in terms of club spirit alone the atmosphere within the dressing room has seemingly always been high since MM took over. I'm just not convinced that we have a squad that can challenge for the top 6. We have a spine of a team made up of limited players such as Skuse, Chambers, Douglas, Hyam and Douglas who will - more often than not — always be on the team sheet. Very good team players and good at what they do but just all lacking that bit of skill which gives a team an extra ten points a season. Every season since we have been in the Championship it has always gotten stronger from the previous season but the standard has always been average. The main difference now being that a player who was worth a million a few seasons ago is now worth six million and earning 40k per week.

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HarryS_H added 11:21 - Jul 25 Chambo always seems to be a great guy and the right person to wear that arm band and in my opinion has flurished as a rb to the point where he was one of our most consistent players last season! Long may that continue!
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flyingdutchman added 12:56 - Jul 25 P.M.S.FL
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Garv added 16:42 - Jul 25 Some of that is embarrassing to read. “We're not going to turn into a possession team overnight but we need to have a different string to our bow as opposed to just trying to knock it up to the forwards and playing off the second balls. “I think in parts this pre-season we've showed that we can do that, so we'll continue to work on it for the next couple of weeks and hopefully we can see it throughout the season.” What a small time attitude. It makes us sound like a Sunday league team

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coolcat added 17:52 - Jul 25 Agree with you, HarryS_H , he's a good leader as well.. It was unlucky that we had key players injured for most of last season, which hampered their progress. Looking forward to the new season!
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Seasider added 18:27 - Jul 25 Its good that Mick is getting his players to pass it a bit more.Long balls are ok,like the one from Digby against Colchester to Pitman leading to the winning goal. I know its pre season;but have noticed that a lot of the passing is across the back,and doesn't threaten opposition defence.We are still too slow at getting the ball forward through the midfield;but at least McCarthy seems to be trying to get away from the aimless hoof forward.

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Warkys_Tash added 20:47 - Jul 25 I only wish that was true but this has been one of the dulliest, uneventful pre-seasons ever. I really hope it isn't an indication of the season to come. However, the mood from the fans is going to take some lifting & the team will need to make a superb start to win back the stay away fans..
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Penguinblue added 20:58 - Jul 25 moronic
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Hegansheroes added 05:34 - Jul 26 The usual spin coming out of PR but in it finally an admission that we play "hoofball". Isn't it about time we had some honesty from the publicity people at Ipswich such as the fact that Evans does not attend matches and has no interest in football apart from financial
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