Mick McCarthy believes the Blues have made steady progress throughout his two years in charge at Portman Road. The Town manager celebrates the second anniversary of his appointment as Town boss today.
"We’ve made progress from the first six months I was here, and then last year we made progress and I think we’ve continued to do that with the start that we’ve made this season,” he said.
"If somebody had asked me at the start of the season ‘Would you be happy with the position that we’re in now?’ I would have said ‘Five points off the top? Yeah’.
"But because of the points that we’ve lost over recent weeks, I’m not happy. And you wouldn’t expect me to be, would you?”
Has life at Town been as he anticipated when he first talked to owner Marcus Evans following Paul Jewell’s departure in October 2012?
"Once I’ve spoken to somebody it’s not about what I expect it’s what I’ve been told, I guess,” he added.
"When I walked into the club, Paul had left and we were rock bottom. I saw from the first game that we’d got some decent players and a fair team spirit amongst them.
"Obviously that had gone somewhere. I’ve said before, I had a go at them because we won [the first game at Birmingham 1-0] and if they could do that in one game, why not in many others?
"And they’ve continued to do it now. And let’s hope we can continue making progress and finish higher than we did last year.”
Is he still enjoying life as a manager as much as ever? "Coming to work every morning, I skip in,” he enthused. "I’m happy to come to work, I love it, and the games and everything that goes with it.
"It’s changed, it’s probably changed me. I’ve probably got a different view and a different perspective on it.
"I can look at it differently, certainly than when I was 32 and I got the job at Millwall, that’s for sure.”
While keen to get back into the big time with the Blues, he says he doesn’t spend his time ruminating on his spells in the Premier League with Sunderland and Wolves or involved in international football with the Republic of Ireland.
"I’m enjoying what I’m doing now and I want to do that again, but I don’t sit and think ‘I’m missing that’, not at all because I’m enjoying doing what I’m doing and this is a real challenge.
"It’s a fantastic challenge trying to get back into the Premier League and if that’s going to happen I’ll have to do it here by the looks of things, and it would be a great achievement if I could do it.
"I loved it with the Republic of Ireland but that’s gone. I don’t look back at all and think ‘I wish this was happening or that was happening’. I’m relishing doing this, I’m loving it.”
While not being drawn on whether he thinks his squad is good enough to win promotion - "I’ll tell you in May!” - he says the team has shown that it is capable of competing.
"I think after the games we’ve played we’ve shown that we’ve got the players to have a go at it,” he continued.
"In recent weeks we’ve lost a few players, we lost Chambo and Jonny Williams and Tyrone, and if we lose too many of our regular - I’m not going to say best - players that have been playing in the team, then it’s harder.
"But that’s the same for everybody, so what we need to do is keep them fit, which we do well with Andy Liddell and the physios, and try and keep the yellow and red cards down to a minimum.”
He says he gets on well with owner Evans: "I have a terrific relationship with Marcus. When I took the job and I spoke to Paul, Paul had had a terrific relationship with him, even under the pressure of struggling for results and under duress the relationship stayed the same.
"I liked that, I like the consistency about people and not changing. What I really hate is when you’re doing well everybody patting you on the back and when you’re not there’s a knife up their sleeve. I’m not having that from anybody.”
What’s changed at the club during his time in charge? "I think I’ve made it a considerably happier club and a more together club over the last two years. I think that’s evident in the support that we get and the way that we get results.
"We’re a better team, certainly. Two years ago we were rock bottom with seven points. We’re five points off the top at the minute, unbeaten in 10. We haven’t won in five, use whatever stat you want, but we’re in a decent spot.”
Did he ever wonder what he’d taken on during the relegation struggle in his first season in charge?
"There was a moment when Marcus phoned me and I hadn’t even thought about taking it on. I thought ‘What am I thinking about doing here?’,” he admitted.
"But from taking it, no, not at all. Not even when we went to Birmingham and won and then lost at Palace, then we lost 6-0 at Leicester.
"I saw enough in the first game that I thought we’d be all right, that we’d stay up. That we’d got enough clout about us, enough spirit. No, I’ve never thought that and I’ve continued to enjoy every day.”
He says the club's potential was something which came into his thinking when he accepted the job.
"Because of the size of the club and the support that we can get,” he said. "I think we do all right with support.
"Everybody complains but people aren’t flush with money. There’s one place, we’re not getting people from all over the place to come and watch us, we’re getting them from Ipswich.
"I think our support is great. It’s a big club with a big opportunity if we can stay in and around that top six.
"But then there are about 18 clubs who are all saying the same thing who have been in the Premier League before and there are 24 of us aspiring desperately to get in to the Premier League for the pot of gold.”
McCarthy says he likes spending time in Suffolk: "I do like the place. I love the weather, we’ve had fabulous weather over the last couple of months. That makes a pleasant change from living up north and walking face into the wind all the time.
"I enjoy living here, the people have treated me very well. I’ve settled in well. I get time to play golf, I go and play at Rushmere and up at Ufford Park, Purdis I’ve played as well.
"Any chance I get I’ll play golf, no problem with that. I’ve been suitably impressed. I enjoy my life here.
"But I don’t live here constantly because I’m only based 80 miles away and I’ve a family elsewhere I need to look after. But the time I spend here I love it.”
With managers coming and going with increasing regularity he finds himself the third longest-serving boss in the Championship, although he points out that the two ahead of him are at clubs who only came into the division this season.
"I’m the third-longest behind Steve Evans and Eddie Howe but those two got promoted, of course, so you could say I’m the longest-serving Championship manager.
"Let’s hope I make it so I am the longest-serving at some stage. Actually, no, let’s hope I’m not because we got promoted!”