Manager Mick McCarthy wants to see the Blues make a strong finish to the season to instil belief ahead of the 2013/14 campaign. Town, who are 13th in the division on 56 points, five from the relegation zone, could finally confirm their Championship status at Sheffield Wednesday this afternoon.
McCarthy says good form in the final three games will be beneficial: "It would make us all feel better, whether we can take it into next season or not, I don’t know.
"It would be good if we could even maintain those clean sheets, it would give everybody going away that belief that we could come back and compete.
"I’ve seen the league since November and we are fourth. There’s Hull, Cardiff and Watford above us, so out of 30 games we’ve got 49 points. And that was a team starting rock bottom. We were at the bottom of the league. That just shows you how well they’ve done.
"Coming back with a fresh start and some additions and not 10 loan players, all my squad coming back, I think we’ll be better. The games now will help that feeling, the belief will be there.
"It doesn’t make you win the games, but the belief will be there that we’ve got a good squad here and we can do even better.”
Regardless of what happens at Hillsborough today, there’ll be no wild celebrations from McCarthy: "I won’t be doing that with me drawers in the air.
"I tried to explain this to someone the other day. It’s a funny thing football, when you’ve won, afterwards it’s like ‘Yes! Get in!’, me and TC will shake hands, and then it’s done.
"You just feel OK. If you’ve lost you just feel demented for a long time and really angry and upset and sad.
"But when you’ve won, that’s it. People see me afterwards and say ‘You not happy, you miserable sod?’. I know we’ve won, but I don’t sleep with an upside-down coat-hanger in my mouth.
"We’ve won the game, I know we have and that is a nice feeling all through the week. I’ll come to training on Monday and see everybody and everybody’s happy. I was at Portman Road yesterday and everybody’s jobs are easier, it feels a lot better.
"But immediately after the game, it’s ‘Job done, get in’ and that’s it. I’m hoping I can say that on Saturday.”
Does he take pride in what he’s achieved with Town this season? "Leave that one until we know whether we’re staying in the league. There’s no point in having pride now and getting slapped for three games and suddenly finding we’re in the bottom three.
"I guess we can look back on it now and say I think we’ve done all right, but we, TC and myself, work well together, we’re a good partnership and it’s been proven before.
"But, you’ve got to have success with it, because when you don’t, whether you’re a good partnership or not, you lose your jobs and get split up. So, until we’re safe, there’ll be no [talk about taking pride].”