Boss Roy Keane admits that Town have a long, long way to go but saw encouraging signs in the 1-1 home draw with Nottingham Forest. The Blues have a number of injury concerns ahead of Saturday’s trip to Doncaster, in addition to Gareth McAuley’s suspension.
Keane said: "We’ve been saying all along that we’ve got a long, long way to go, we’ve got new players to the club.
"As the manager of the football club I’ll defend my players and I thought tonight they were outstanding. They gave a good effort, but we were a bit short.
"I think in the second half if we’d have got the second goal we’d have gone on to win the game. Forest are a decent team and they caused us one or two problems, as you’d expect, but the players put in a good effort tonight.
"We picked up two or three injuries and Gareth will now be suspended, so we’re being tested. Nobody said it was going to be easy and that’s the case, but we’ll be OK.”
Keane says the injuries prevented him making a late substitution up front: "We wanted to freshen it up and make changes up front - Jon Walters and Jon Stead worked hard - but we couldn't do that because of injuries.
"Carlos felt his hamstring and then Liam Rosenior was struggling with a badly swollen eye. We were ready to bring Pablo on but had to change it and finished the game with Jaime Peters at right-back and Lee Martin in the middle.
"Forest have got attacking options, Dele Adebola and Earnshaw are experienced players and they freshened them up, but the injuries certainly meant we were limited in what we could do.
"The game probably sums up where we are at the moment. I'm not sure how we contrived to end up with Gareth bringing down Adebola at the end and it was very close to being a penalty. We had good possession but ended up on the edge of our own box.
"There were some encouraging signs at times but we are still short and, looking to Saturday, one or two of our injured players have to be doubtful just when we think we are moving forward."
Overall, Keane says he is enjoying his time at Portman Road, despite the early season results: " I’m very lucky. I enjoy working with the players, I enjoy working at Ipswich. It’s a tough job but I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.
"I thought the fans were again very, very good, they appreciate where we are at the moment. Yes, we’re a bit short, but we’ll keep going and we’ll keep battling away.”
Keane says the Blues will not be adding any loan players before Saturday’s trip to Doncaster. Forest boss Billy Davies felt his side deserved the point: "It was a good draw and we're undefeated in our last seven away matches, including two very difficult ones against Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday and now Ipswich Town.
"In the first half we were very one-paced, slow and sluggish. We deserved exactly what we got.
"But in the second there was only going to be one winner and we were unfortunate not to take all three points.
"The one thing that pleases me most about this group is their character. It's not easy when you concede a goal inside 45 seconds at a place like Ipswich.
"Roy Keane will get it right here because of the quality he's brought in and that's why I was so delighted with the draw.
"It was a difficult game but great credit to us, because we showed real character."