Daryl Murphy has hailed Town’s progress into the Championship play-off places as a fantastic achievement.
With the half campaign completed Mick McCarthy’s men are sitting sixth after a seven-game unbeaten run and Murphy is confident they can remain in the promotion hunt over the second half of the season.
He said: "For the minute it’s great for us. I think this was our aim at the start of the season and to be in there at Christmas is a good reflection on us. Over the past month or so we’ve done really well to achieve that and it’s just a case now of trying to make sure we stay there.
"I think we can. We’re very confident after the results we have had. We’ve played everyone now so we know what it’s all about. We’ve played the top teams and while we’ve not won we’ve given a good account of ourselves.
"In most of the games we have played against them we could have — and maybe should have — got something from them. We’re going into the New Year full of confidence.”
The current state of play is a far cry from 14 months ago when McCarthy inherited a Town team bottom of the table with just seven points from the opening 13 games of the 2012/13 season.
Murphy added: "It has been brilliant. Obviously, the gaffer came in last year, steadied the ship and kept us up. We needed to build on that and to be in the top six going into the New Year is a fantastic achievement.”
Today’s visit of Charlton to Portman Road will be Town’s fourth league fixture in 12 days but Murphy has no complaints about the demanding workload at this stage of the season.
He said: "It’s tough but we all know that’s the way it is over Christmas unfortunately. We’ve got so many games but it’s a good thing in a way because you can pick up some decent results and climb the table very quickly.
"I think we’ve done well in the last few games and we just need to take our form into the next one to keep the run going.”
Murphy acknowledges the tremendous team spirit at Portman Road is a major factor behind the team’s current successful run.
He explained: "It all helps to bring the squad together. We spend a lot of time together anyway but over Christmas we saw a lot more of each other — maybe more than we wanted to!
"No, seriously, we all get on really well and the team spirit here at the moment is probably one of the best I’ve ever been involved with in all my years in the game.”