Town are about to embark on one of their busiest spells of the season — and goalkeeper Bartosz Bialkowski is licking his lips in anticipation.
Starting with Saturday’s trip to Rotherham he and his Portman Road colleagues face five league games in the space of just 17 days to the end of February.
Bialkowski said: "It is going to be quite hectic with midweek games, as well as Saturday games, but I want to play as many games as I can. Sometimes you need a break but I am a player who would rather play games than train.
"There is a hunger within the squad. We are in a great position and we want to achieve something.
"We don’t want to put ourselves under any pressure but we realise what a good situation we are in. We just need to do our jobs because in the last few months we’ve been absolutely fantastic and I see no reason why we can’t go again.”
But the giant Pole, who is almost 6ft 5ins tall, knows after defeat at Brighton and a goalless home draw against Wigan that Rotherham, another side still seeking points to preserve their Championship status, will be no pushovers as they look to extend their unbeaten run to three games.
Bialkowski said: "The teams near the bottom all know they have to start picking up points if they are going to avoid relegation. I know that situation from my time at Notts County.
"We were fighting for our lives towards the end of last season and we managed to beat teams from the top to make sure we stayed up.
"Nothing has changed — everyone wants to pick up as many points as they can to make sure they avoid relegation but for us the goal is now to win promotion and we need to get the points wherever we can.
"Maybe there is more pressure on clubs like Derby after they have spent money to bring new players in during the transfer window.
"We are not under any pressure because before the season started no one thought we were going to be in this position. Now that we’re up there we are going to attack it and make the most of it.
"Maybe other teams didn’t know what to expect from us but we have shown we can compete against any team in the Championship.
"Now they realise how good we are and it is up to us to keep doing what we have been doing until now because it has worked for us to put us in a strong position.”