Boss Mick McCarthy believes the Portman Road crowd have a big role to play during today’s crucial home game against fellow play-off contenders Nottingham Forest. The Town faithful were in good voice on Tuesday as the Blues came from behind to defeat third-placed Derby 2-1.
"The home fans have always got a part to play in it.” McCarthy said. "But I would just say that if we’re not 1-0 up after five minutes and they’re having a bit of play accept that [might happen].
"Nottingham Forest have been better than us all season, they’ve been in a better position, they’ve got a better squad, they’ve looked like finishing in a better position.
"There should be an understanding that this is a good team coming here, despite the fact that they might be without a manager, despite the fact they might not have won for a while. If I was them I’d be thinking that it has to change around some time.
"So, I think there has to be a bit of understanding and that they get behind us if it is 0-0 up to 70 minutes and make the atmosphere like it was on Tuesday night because it was fabulous on Tuesday night.”
The Town manager didn’t think that result should have been viewed as too much of a shock: "I don’t think that was a surprise because we have a decent side and we’ve had a decent record over the last 12 or 15 months.
"What was bonkers was that when we came off every other result seemed to have gone in our favour. Let’s hope that continues.”
Although the victories over Brighton and Derby have been particularly notable, he says his players have performed in a similar manner throughout the campaign: "All season. Just because we have two results, I guess it emphasises the way my lads have gone about it throughout the season.
"They’ve done it every single week. They go about it with such determination and effort and work rate.
"Some weeks we play better than others and we get great results like we’ve just done in the last two. And they were important results because they were against big teams who are vying for that top six with us.”
He says Playford Road has a bit of a buzz about it at the moment: "It’s nice to come in when you’ve won and nice to come in when there’s a good feel around the place.
"There’s always a better feel when you’ve won but with eight games left to play and in the position that we’re in and the last two results we’ve had it makes it even better still.”