Tommy Smith is adamant that Ipswich can mount a promotion challenge this season.
Town may have slipped to a 2-1 opening-day defeat at Reading on Saturday but 23-year-old defender Smith said: "I don’t think there’s any reason why we can’t achieve a play-off place.
"We came away from Reading disappointed because we thought we acquitted ourselves quite well. Obviously, it is a tough place to go — a relegated Premier League team — but I thought we deserved a point at least.
"I think we had the better of the first half and we were unfortunate to go in on level terms. The gaffer said after the game that if we play like that in all our games we’ll definitely win more than we lose. That’s our benchmark, as he said, and we’ve got to try to keep our performances high.”
Smith may agree with the widely held view that the Royals deserve to be rated as one of the promotion favourites — but he is also adamant that Town are capable of being in contention themselves.
He added: "With the squad they have Reading are probably expecting to be up there but you’ve seen in the past how teams coming down can find it tough, especially last season when Wolves and Blackburn were both towards the bottom of the table, which you don’t really expect.
"I’m sure Reading will expect to be up there and hopefully we’ll be up and around them as well. If you look at Saturday’s game, Reading are one of the promotion favourites and we’ve matched them, if not played better than them.
"We were unfortunate not to come away with something from the game. That’s all positive for us and if we can keep that level of performance up there’s no reason why we can’t be winning matches.
"We have quite a broad squad with cover in all the positions and there’s no reason why we can’t be up there or thereabouts. You only had to look at our bench at Reading.
"Competition for places is essential at any successful club and these guys will push us all the way for a starting berth. If we’re not performing in the starting eleven we know they can come in and do the job.”