Town boss Mick McCarthy says there’s no problem with team spirit or confidence, despite this week’s back to back away defeats which saw the Blues drop out of the top six for the first time since November.
"The team spirit and the confidence are fine,” McCarthy said. "When you lose games it always gets knocked, that’s all of us.
"I feel a lot better when I’ve won 2-1 as opposed to losing 2-1 and I’d guess the players are the same.
"But as I keep reminding you, if we fluctuate up and down on a couple of results, that we get really knocked and stop believing in what we do and how we do it and whether we can play, we wouldn’t be in as strong a position as we’re in.”
He says the team spirit is still evident even when results don’t go the right way: "I’ve seen it all season. It was there against Norwich and it was there against Leeds as well but we conceded goals that we wouldn’t normally.
"Because you’ve been beaten it doesn’t mean the team spirit has been lacking or the courage or the desire to play or the professionalism or the will to win.
"That’s all been there but we lost the games. Of course it’s a time to get back to winning ways.”
McCarthy says it was a less than buoyant team coach which made its way back to Suffolk in the early hours of Thursday morning.
"Completely pissed off, all of us,” he added. "It was very quiet, maybe reflective. I don’t go to the back of the bus and chat to them.
"Having spoken to them on Thursday morning they were all reflecting on it and I think they all thought we should have got something out of the game, they thought we ought to have won it, actually, with the way we played and the possession that we had.
"But that wasn’t the case, so they were all in the mood for a fight on Saturday. That suits me fine.”
He says he’s not a manager who makes a habit of giving his players the hairdryer treatment after defeats.
"I don’t and I think that surprises people,” he continued. "About twice a year I lose the plot in the dressing room and that’s usually if someone does something grossly stupid or something that they shouldn’t do that they know is going to cause us something and it costs us a game.
"That hasn’t happened. I wasn’t happy on Wednesday night, I was very frustrated and I had a bit of a growl but I had a bit of a growl because I think they know they should have got something from the game, they should have won the game.
"It’s borne out of frustration as much as anything. But there’s no point in screaming or shouting at them, it doesn’t get the best out of them.
"I tend to find that when people are looking at the floor, it’s not them hanging their heads in shame it’s looking at the floor and saying ‘Shut up and get on with it and let’s get out of the place’. I think it’s counterproductive.”
McCarthy was impressed with new strike pair Chris Wood and Luke Varney at Leeds and says he could use three of his main currently fit strikers at the same time at some stage.
"I could do if I wanted to change the way I played or play one wide, of course," he said. "I thought Chris and Reg were excellent on Wednesday night. Two really good signings for us.
"I thought in the first half the pair of them ran the line well. Reg, as he’s affectionately known, scored a great [disallowed] goal and is a constant threat. I thought he just fitted into the way we play.
"I thought the two of them linked up well together. There weren’t many chances in the first half and just the way they’ve fitted in with the rest of the squad has been great. They’re two good pros, they’ve both been good Championship players for a long time.”
Meanwhile, he says young wingers Cameron Stewart - still to make his league debut for Town - Alex Henshall and Dylan Connolly are not yet showing enough to push the likes of Paul Anderson and Jay Tabb out of the team.
"We’ve played 4-4-2, whether you’d describe them as out and out wingers or wide players or wide midfield players, but that’s predominantly what we’ve played.
"The young wingers need to get in the team and they’ve not done enough to get in the team. If they had, they would have had more opportunities. But that’s down to them. I know I pick the team but they’ve got to push their way in.”
He says he expects the promotion battle to go to the wire in a division as close as he can recall.
"I don’t keep a mental history of what Championship races have been like, but if there’s been one tighter than this then somebody will have to show me the stats because this is a remarkably tight one,” he said.
"I think it may be fewer points for the top two and more for the top six this year the way things are going."