Town manager Paul Jewell says he has detected a change in the mentality of the Portman Road crowd and not just his players during recent home games. Having said he felt that there was a fear factor going back over a number of seasons earlier in the campaign, the Blues boss has seen his side win their last four matches on their own turf with a crowd of around 24,000 expected for this afternoon’s game against Crystal Palace.
Jewell said: "I think you can sense a change in mentality, not just with the players but with the supporters. The fans are coming to the games now because they’re looking forward to them not just because they’ve got season tickets.
"Last year, people were thinking they’ve got to go to the game on Saturday because they’d bought their ticket. I think at the minute they’re coming here looking forward to seeing the team perform.
"They didn’t perform the other night as far as football was concerned but we couldn’t be accused of a lack of determination and effort.”
The Town boss says that keeping the current winning run going is important if the Blues are going to be challenging at the right end of the table come May: "The basis of anyone being successful is their home form.
"How many times do you hear the old cliché about making Portman Road a fortress? We want to make Portman Road a place where people don’t think it’s easy to play and away teams aren’t looking forward to coming here. Our fans have a huge part to play in that.”
He says they played their role during the recent 3-1 victory over Brighton: "In the Brighton game there was a great atmosphere. We went a goal behind, the crowd picked us up and got us over the line on that one. Hopefully we won’t go a goal down on Saturday.
"We want to be playing in front of big crowds at home and the way we can do that is by winning games and getting people to come along and bring other people.
"We want a party atmosphere at Portman Road. We’re a long way from that at the minute but we are making progress.”
Today’s crowd will be boosted by a ticket promotion with adult seats reduced to £10.