Town manager Mick McCarthy says the Portman Road dressing room was buzzing after Tuesday’s 3-1 victory over Nottingham Forest but is keen to make sure no one gets carried away with the Blues climbing out of the bottom three.
McCarthy said: "They were buzzing because they’ve won and they played well. They all think ‘We’re out of the bottom three’, but it’s not May 4th, we could actually go back into it.
"We’ve had a nice little run, but we’ve got to keep it going, still be professional and still do the things which have got us the results.
"It was a nicer feeling [on Wednesday] having won [the previous night]. But the position doesn’t really bother me as yet, I have to be honest. The other psychological effect is what happens if we drop back into it, which is a possibility as well.”
While 10 points in six games have got the McCarthy era off to a good start, the manager won’t need reminding that his side have shipped 11 goals in their last two away matches.
He says their defending has improved since the Leicester and Crystal Palace matches: "What you do [as a manager and staff] is to give them a base from which to play, an organisation, which has been getting better and better.
"We can’t give goals away like we did against Leicester. However they played, our defending was really poor. However Crystal Palace played, our defending was really poor.
"It looks to me like it’s getting better and we’re more solid in terms of being a team. So, you hope you can absorb that into your team, not just individually, it’s how you play and then when mistakes are made or they get chances.
"On Tuesday night, Hendo made a great save when the ball fortuitously gets to Billy Sharp [just before half-time]. He made a fabulous save.
"It’s like repairing the damage that someone else has done rather than compounding it with another mistake. You get tougher by winning games, you get team spirit and solidity.”