Richard Chaplow is determined to repay Town and manager Mick McCarthy for the faith he has shown in signing him on loan from Millwall for the remainder of the season.
Chaplow, 30, came off the bench for his debut in the 4-2 home win over Birmingham City and made his first start in the East Anglian derby defeat at Norwich when he was replaced at the interval by fellow loanee Luke Varney.
An unused substitute as Town suffered a second successive defeat at Leeds on Wednesday, the midfielder is delighted with the way he has settled in at Portman Road and looks forward to playing his part in what he is adamant can still be a successful campaign for the club.
Chaplow said: "It’s been fantastic so far. The group here have been second to none towards me and the other new boys. I am enjoying my time and looking forward to hopefully contributing a little bit more in the weeks going forward.
"The gaffer speaks a lot about the team atmosphere and it’s definitely a group that has welcomed me in and I’m very thankful for that. The atmosphere around the place is second to none and it’s one that is easy to come into. I’ve been accepted and I hope it will pay dividends for us all in the next few weeks.”
Suffering back-to-back losses for the first time this season has seen Town slip to seventh place in the table, although Saturday’s home clash with sixth-placed Brentford offers the perfect opportunity to regain a top-six slot.
Chaplow added: "Morale after losing at Leeds is very much the same as it was before to be honest. The boys are obviously disappointed that we didn’t win, which is natural because we want to get as many points on the board as possible.
"The teamwork, the group ethic and the atmosphere around the players pulls people through. We’re not down too much, just looking forward to putting things right on Saturday.
"It’s never easy going to Elland Road, is it? The Championship is a tough place and on any given day anyone can beat anyone.
"I think everyone knows that and it’s a bit of a crazy league at times. A Wednesday night against a Leeds team coming off the back of two losses themselves, it’s never going to be an easy game.
"Having watched it again, I think we did enough to possibly win it with the chances we had.
"We’re a little bit disappointed with the goals that we conceded and hopefully, on another day, we’ll be a bit more ruthless and put them to the sword. It just wasn’t to be but we’ve got another game on Saturday to put that right.”
Chaplow recalled his debut against Birmingham, which followed a good-natured jibe from Varney about his performance in training. He said: "I’ve never been a great trainer if I’m being honest but I do like to ply my trade on a match day.
"To get on the pitch and get some minutes in that game was fantastic and the fact that we won the game made it all the more special.
"In this league you can think you are home and dry but the next thing they score another goal and it’s backs to the wall. Luckily we managed to nick a fourth goal and I backed up that appearance with a start against Norwich.
"It’s just nice to be involved in a team that’s been winning games and are close to the top of the league. I like the fact that I’m fighting at the right end of the table.
"I was obviously very excited about being in the starting line-up at Norwich. It was a nice game to be thrown into, to be honest. These are the sort of games, if you’re a footballer, which you want to be involved in and the gaffer showed his faith in me to start me.
"I only played 45 minutes — I’ve not played much football of late — and I would have liked to have stayed on the pitch for a little bit longer to see if I could have contributed some more.
"But it wasn’t to be and we were disappointed to lose the game, just as we were at Leeds three days later. Saturday is a big one for us and we’ll be looking to try to rectify the things that we’ve not done quite so well in the last two games.”