Town defender Tommy Smith insists he is not surprised by the club’s improvement on last season, which has seen them leap into the Championship’s automatic promotion places as the midway point looms.
Asked if he could believe how well the current campaign is going — Mick McCarthy’s men have only lost one of their last 16 league games — the 24-year-old New Zealand international responded: "Yes, definitely. Last season was a big improvement on the previous one and we’ve done it again this time to become even better and step up a level.
"Can we stay there? I see no reason why we can’t. When you look at the teams around us I wouldn’t say they are miles better than us, personnel-wise or ability-wise.
"So as long as we can keep working hard and carry on producing a good run of results, as we have been doing, I see no reason why we can’t stay up there.
"Obviously, everyone’s expectations get raised when you are doing so well and as players we’re no different. We want to stay in that top two so we need to push on, have a good Christmas period and see where that leaves us.
"I don’t think there are too many differences from last season to this one. A lot of the personnel are the same but we have drawn on our experiences last season and where we have perhaps faltered before we have looked to learn from them.
"We seem to be better when it comes to managing games. I know we have still dropped a few points from winning positions but in the main I think there has been a lot of improvement.
"We are the team who have got last-minute winners, like we did at Charlton last month, and a couple of years ago they were going against us. That’s probably been the main area where things have got better.
"Last season we might not have got a couple of results but we have got them this season, which has made the difference.
"We were only a few points out last time but we’ve improved a lot and hopefully we can stay up there.
"Obviously, every footballer wants to be successful. We’re all in the same boat and want to push on towards that dream of playing in the Premier League.”
Town’s next task is this weekend when they travel to take on a Bolton side unbeaten in their last five games and much improved since ex-Celtic boss Neil Lennon replaced Dougie Freedman as manager.
But a confident Smith added: "Any away game in the Championship is a very tough one and it will be no different on Saturday. But we are in a great run of form at the moment and we’re not scared of anyone.
"We want to take all three points in every game we play but that’s not always possible, although if we go about our business the way we have been doing recently there is no reason why we can’t do it.”