Boss Mick McCarthy believes three more points ought to be enough to secure Town’s Championship status in all but the most "bonkers" circumstances. However, with the division having been one full of surprises all season, he is taking nothing for granted.
McCarthy said: "Three points on Saturday against Hull would be a wonderful, valuable three points and if anybody goes down with 56 points then the league is officially the most bonkers league in the world.
"I’d like to be sat on Sunday morning with 56 points and worrying about another win [against Palace on Tuesday].”
The Blues boss says Tigers boss Steve Bruce and his players, who are currently second in the Championship, will be suffering the inevitable stresses that possible success and potential failure both bring: "It’s pressure, yes, they’ll be feeling it.
"There are two things, one that you most want to happen more than anything else in the next four weeks and one that you don’t want to happen more than anything else in the next four weeks.
"Relegation is what you don’t want and promotion is what you do want and yet the pressure remains the same, to make sure that one happens and one doesn’t.
"He’ll be under huge pressure there to get them up, having been there all season and now being in the top two going into the last five games.
"They’ll all be doing the maths, they’ll all be looking at which team is playing who — 'They might get points, they might get points’. You’ve just got to be conscious of saying ‘We’re playing Ipswich’ or ‘We’re playing Hull’ and let’s see if we can get something out of it.”
He says there’s also a bit of added pressure when you’re a team in Town’s position of having put a decent run of form together: "When you’ve won a few and you’re in a better position, you do feel better.
"But strangely enough, that adds a sense of apprehension or nerves that we’ve got ourselves to a really good position, there is a good feel around the place and we don’t want to lose it.
"And we have to make sure that we don’t and we have to make sure we stay in the league because it’s still not gift-wrapped yet and it’s important then that we don’t let anybody down.
"Nobody has, because they’ve been great since November 1st. Since I walked in, the players have been excellent.
"Maintain it, see the job out, it’s not done. There are five games to play, get the points. But, it’s nice to have that feel-good factor.”
That feel-good factor in the squad was evident in the keek Jay Emmanuel-Thomas shot in the dressing room after Saturday’s win at Derby.
"He’ll be fined for having his phone in the dressing room!” joked McCarthy. "No, I saw him doing it and it was fine.”
The celebrations which followed Carlos Edwards’s winner at Pride Park both on and off the pitch suggested a growing connection between the current players and fans, something McCarthy welcomes: "I hope so, I think there should be, it’s important that there is that bond between them. We’re all in it together.
"When it’s all going wrong, then you get the divisions, but the reality is you shouldn’t providing everybody’s trying, and I’ll forgive most people anything if they’re working hard for me.”