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McCarthy: Exciting Time for Town Fans - Ipswich Town News

Boss Mick McCarthy says it’s an exciting time for Town fans with the Blues still in the midst of the play-off fight with only four games of the season left to play.

Saturday’s 2-1 victory over Doncaster at Portman Road saw Town move up to seventh, behind Brighton in sixth on goal difference with Reading able to leap back to the final play-off spot if they draw with Leicester at the Madejski Stadium tonight.

The Blues next travel to Watford on Saturday, then fellow challengers Bournemouth are at Portman Road on Easter Monday before the season comes to a close with a visit to Burnley - who seem certain to be promoted by then - and finally a home game against Sheffield Wednesday.

"It’s an exciting time,” McCarthy said. "It’s great to be at the top end and we have got a chance of getting promoted to the Premier League. That is effectively what it is.

"I know we keep talking about getting in the play-offs, but if you get in the play-offs, who knows? Somebody will get in, and somebody who probably wasn’t fancied to get in might get in.

"It could be us, it could be Bournemouth, Brighton, it could be someone who just has that sneaky late run and they’ll be going in with momentum.

"Any one of us will prove difficult opposition for anybody and those play-offs are just such a lottery. So, who knows? It is exciting that we’re still involved.”

He believes Saturday’s victory over Doncaster was a match from which the Blues had to take three points to stay in the hunt: "It was a game we needed to win. Somebody shouted from behind me ‘We’ve got to go for it!’.

"I turned round and said ‘We’ve been going for it! Do me a favour, we’ve got three strikers on, we’ve got Jonny Williams on, we’re flying forward!’.

"But that’s just me getting exasperated. We went for it at half-time, I put the subs on and it worked and I think we got away with one in the end because I think we got a decision that favoured us.”

Assessing how the rest of the season will pan out at the top of the division and Town’s chances of finishing in the top six, he added: "Burnley will go up, certainly. Bournemouth drew. We’ve got four games, I suppose if we win all four of them.

"Is that likely? Watford are a very good side, Bournemouth are an excellent side, as is proved by eight wins and two draws out of 11 games. There are some big games coming up. It’s exciting. It’s nice to be involved.”

Meanwhile, Town and Huddersfield have been linked with free agent keeper Ben Alnwick, who was at Sunderland during McCarthy’s time as boss there.

The 27-year-old left Leyton Orient in March for unspecified personal reasons having only joined the League One side from Charlton in January.

Former U21 international Alnwick has also previously been with Tottenham and Barnsley in addition to spending time on loan at Luton, Leicester, Carlisle, Norwich, Leeds and Doncaster as well as an earlier spell with Orient.

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