Town’s recent march to within three points of the play-off places may have taken plenty of people by surprise but Dean Gerken has revealed the Town players believed in themselves from day one this season.
Gerken said: "This Ipswich team has a real buzz about it. The day I first walked through the door in July I got the feeling that these players really wanted to — and expected to — achieve something this season.
"There was a real energy and belief about the place and that was at a time when very few people might have thought we were that capable. It has taken us until now to make people sit up, take notice and believe in us. In recent weeks it has just got bigger and bigger with us getting some good results.”
Gerken has never finished higher than tenth in English football’s second tier, which he achieved with previous clubs Colchester United and Bristol City, but he is setting his sights higher with Town.
He added: "At Colchester we were flying high from what we had done the previous season and Geraint Williams did an unbelievable job with us. We were fortunate not to pick up a lot of injuries and several members of the team went on to play at a lot higher standard.
"At Bristol City we had Gary Johnson as manager and again we started really well. A lot of money was spent on players and to be honest we weren’t over the moon with finishing tenth. We thought we were going to be in the play-offs or even better.
"Now I’m at Ipswich I just want to get games and achieve consistency. I’m in a good team and I want to help as much as I can, ideally finishing high up in the table with a real buzz.”
Gerken is even prepared to add to his collection of body art with a first tattoo dedicated to Town should he manage to help the club regain the Premiership status surrendered in 2002.
He said: "Come back and see me at the end of the season. If we get promoted I will probably get Ipswich Town tattooed on my head — but there’s a lot of hard games and graft to be done yet.”