Skipper Luke Chambers has admitted that leading Town into the Premier League would be “beyond a dream” for him.
But there is no danger of Chambers jumping the gun and with the Boxing Day visit to Brentford representing the halfway point in the league campaign he stressed there is much work still to be done if the club is to regain top-flight status.
Chambers, 29, said: "It really would be beyond a dream for me so fingers crossed we can keep doing what we’ve been doing.
"There’s still a hell of a lot of football to be played but it’s nice to look at the table and see you are second, on 41 points, after playing 22 league games. The lads are saying three more wins and we’re safe!
"We’re all having a bit of fun about it but we know when it’s match day and when it matters. We’re producing the goods at the moment and if we can continue to play the way we have been doing I can’t see us not being right up there for the rest of the season.
"I think we’re playing with so much confidence now and if we can keep everyone fit — and possibly add a few in January — we can keep progressing.
"I don’t think we’ll be losing any players from what the gaffer’s been saying, which is good news, and even if we do drop form I think we’re still capable of grinding out results. We’ll still be playing the same way because we have boys who can come in and make a difference.”
Chambers was delighted with Saturday’s home win over promotion rivals Middlesbrough, who came to Portman Road on the back of an impressive home win over Derby but suffered only their second defeat in 17 league games as Town extended their own record to only one defeat in 18 Championship outings.
He added: "It keeps us moving in the right direction. Middlesbrough obviously had a great result the week before and we had a good point at Bolton. We knew it would be a tough game but we approached it the same way we try to do every home game.
"We were on top pretty early on and Tommy had a chance with a header, and from that moment on I think we were always going to be giving a good account of ourselves.
"If I’m honest I thought that as long as we played our game and didn’t let anything affect us, which I think we’ve done most of the time, we would have too much for them. It might be a different story when we go up to their ground but we’ll have to wait and see about that.
"The lads are playing with a lot of confidence. Winning games breeds confidence and we’re second in the league. When you’re that high it can bring pressure but I think the boys are thriving on it at the minute and it seems to be bringing out the best out in people.
"Bolton were flying when we went up there — I think they had won four in a row at home — so we stopped that run and while it was a great point we were still disappointed not to pick up all three.
"We are just very pleased with the way things are going and when things do go wrong, like when we fell behind so early to Leeds, we know how to cope with it.
"Being together for as long as we have, I think we have learned from our mistakes last season.
"We threw a lot of points away from winning positions and we seem to be maturing as a side. We have a lot of experienced players in the squad that we can draw on.”