Town star Jay Emmanuel-Thomas believes he has fared well in his first full season as a Championship player after overcoming a hesitant start to life in Suffolk.
After he first arrived from Arsenal last summer, initial concerns about his lack of fitness gradually evaporated and prior to being rested for the Easter Monday home defeat by promotion-chasing Leicester he had put together a run of 20 successive starts.
Emmanuel-Thomas, 21, said: "I’m not exactly new to the Championship because I was out on loan before [at Blackpool, Doncaster and Cardiff] but with loans you tend to only play a few games and nothing like 20 on the trot.
"That’s almost half a season so it’s a great feeling for me and I’m very proud. I am glad to be here and happy that it is going so well. I look forward to coming back next season and putting an even longer run together.
"There are a lot more games at this level and you learn different strategies. Some teams have a target man, some work off counter-attacks and others use wide men, whereas in the Premier League the teams tend to pass their way through.”
Ipswich boss Paul Jewell used Emmanuel-Thomas sparingly in his first few months at Portman Road. He started just six of the first 20 league games of the campaign because by the time he was signed in late July he had missed most of the club’s pre-season training.
The Londoner had no argument with Jewell naming him as a substitute — he was introduced in the 58th minute — for Leicester’s visit and added: "I needed a break. I was looking and feeling a bit jaded in the previous game and I think it was the right decision to rest me.
"The manager pulled me to one side and said he felt I was looking a bit tired and that he was going to leave me out of the starting line-up for the Leicester game. Hopefully, it will have done me some good. I now want to make sure I am involved in the last four games of the season and show what I can do.”