Town boss Mick McCarthy is confident that his current squad has what it takes to stay in the top six for the rest of the season.
Sunday’s 1-1 draw at AFC Bournemouth saw the Blues climb to sixth in the Championship, their best standing at the halfway stage of a season since the 2007/08 campaign when they were in the same position but a point better off than their current total of 35.
Asked whether he would have to add to his squad in January in order to maintain a place in the top six, McCarthy said: "No, I’ve got a good squad of players.
"We’ve not got huge back-up behind them, but the players that I’ve got are really good players and good characters, good Championship players who will scrap and kick and do everything they can and play their football to get themselves into the play-offs.
"We’ve got one or two that have been there, certainly the lads from Wolves who got promoted there, Christophe, Sylvan, Hunty, and there are other lads in the squad that have done it as well.
"We’ve got a good bit of experience there and they’re enjoying playing well and winning games at the moment and none of them want to lose. We can stay there with this squad, of course.”
The Town boss says he’s not so much underplayed his side’s current position but maintained his general approach to any situation: "I don’t know if I’ve played it down, I’m just pragmatic about it. We’re there but there are 20-odd games still to go.
"If somebody said it’s May 6th and the season’s finished and we’re in the play-offs, that would be fantastic, that’s at least where we want to remain.
"But that can change very quickly, I keep saying that. Leicester’s results stick in my mind. They had two poor defeats and then they go and beat QPR away and Bolton at home and they’re four points clear. I bet they were howling up there before that.
"It’s being consistent with your performances, because you’ll get beaten even when you’ve played well in this league. Be consistent with your performance and be consistent with your personality, whether that’s win, lose or draw, keep an even keel to it all.”
He says has the same outlook now as he did when he took over with the Blues bottom of the table on seven points: "It’s not me just doing it now, that’s me from November 1st last year when I came here when the expectation was that we’d go down.
"I said we’d have a look at it and we’ll see, and that’s my personality, that’s not me trying to play it down. Let me tell you, I’m delighted we’re in the top six but I’m not going to walk around with a coat hanger in my gob smiling at everybody just to prove it.
"That is a nice little achievement, but once you start thinking ‘Top six, happy days, we’ve knocked it off’, we’ll be looking at the bottom end.
"I understand that fans do. I seem to remember making a couple of substitutions at Blackpool. I didn’t know what I was doing up until making my substitutions and winning.
"Is it any wonder that I and other football managers are pragmatic? And then I’m Super Mick when we win 3-2.
"So I don’t get carried away with all that, I’m not interested. I love it that football fans get excited because that’s part of my job to excite them with the team, that’s part of our job, to get fans through the door through winning performances. But not to get carried away with it.”
McCarthy says Town’s climb up the table isn’t just down to him but also his staff: "I’m the mouthpiece for everybody, but there’s a whole lot of work that goes into it from a lot of people.
"The fitness guys, Andy Liddell and the physios, they take a lot of credit because they keep them fit because we haven’t got the biggest squad, but we’ve got a good squad, I’m never knocking that, the tight-knit squad that we’ve got are all good players and can all play.
"There’s not too much back-up but that in a strange way is nice because they all get the chance to play, there aren’t three or four of them with no chance of playing. And, of course, with the coaches and TC, he has a huge role to play in it.”
Overall, he says the Championship is as tight as ever: "I keep using the word but it is bonkers, it really is. It’s a really tough league where there’s not much in teams at all. You might see one or two start to fall away.
"I didn’t feel for Donny when we were playing them, but they’ve got nine injuries and I feel for Paul Dickov because he’s one of my peers and I think we took advantage of a seriously depleted team and everybody needs their best players.
"If you lose too many of them you’ll get beaten. It’s a league that you’ve got to be consistent in, week in, week out delivering performances full of energy, full of purpose, workrate, organisation and then sometimes you need that bit of luck, sometimes it’s a decision, sometimes it’s a bit of brilliance from somebody, and to maintain it for another 23 games we have to keep our standards high.”