Defender Christophe Berra believes Town can improve their league position over the next three games, possibly even to the extent of gate-crashing the play-off places.
After Saturday’s trip to face Charlton the Blues have two home games in the space of four days as first Blackburn, on Tuesday, and then Huddersfield visit Portman Road.
Berra, 28, said: "We’re only six points off the play-offs right now and that situation could have changed for the better by Saturday week.
"We could be, say, two points off and if we do well and other results go in our favour it is possible we could even be in the promotion zone.
"But I’m sure there are going to be a lot of teams involved in that right up to the last couple of weeks of the season.
"At the moment teams will fear us — nobody will like coming to Portman Road and I don’t think there have been many easy games for teams that have played us there.
"I think it shows the progress the club has made under Mick McCarthy. I don’t know if people would have been thinking like that a couple of seasons ago but now the fans have expectations and it’s down to us as players to make sure those expectations are fulfilled.”
Berra believes mid-table Town can derive some satisfaction from the fact that they have run the Championship’s top three close this season.
Leaders Burnley, Leicester and QPR are all locked on the 35-point mark going into this weekend’s programme and although the Blues have lost to them all, each defeat was by the odd goal.
Berra added: "A loss is still a loss but in all three games it could have gone either way. We had chances in them all but you can see why these teams are at the top because when they get chances they take them and make you pay.
"If you take Leicester, they have been together for three or four years and they’ve got that cohesion from the experience of playing together. We’re still learning and gaining that but hopefully in time we can gel together like them and become a force to be reckoned with.
"Leicester have also had a big budget as well and they have a lot of good players, probably earning top, top money. Ipswich have cut that back a little bit but the teams that spend the most aren’t always the most successful.
"We’ve got a good team spirit, a good manager, a good staff and we’ve got good players as well, so if we do the fundamentals right we can take our chances from there.”