Defender Tyrone Mings is confident Town can secure their play-off place with victory over Nottingham Forest at Portman Road tomorrow.
As things stand it is the club’s final home game of the season but that will change if Mick McCarthy’s men can clinch a top-six finish ahead of their trip to Blackburn the following week, which brings down the curtain on the regular Championship campaign.
Victory over Forest will put Town on 78 points and, depending how closest rivals Brentford and Wolves fare at Reading and Wigan respectively, that could be enough to make their position safe.
Left-back Mings said: "The good thing is that it is in our own hands. The worst possible situation would be having to wait for other results to go our way.
"As things stand it will only be our own fault if we don’t get into the play-offs, but we’re not really thinking about that. We are just looking to get the job done on Saturday and we’ll be going out there in a positive frame of mind.”
Town are going into the closing stages of the season having been beaten just once in their last seven games, an impressive run that followed a sequence of four games without a win that looked as if it might prove costly.
Mings added: "We went through a bit of a lull when results weren’t really going our way and performances weren’t what we were expecting, for whatever reason.
"But we’ve picked up recently, especially in the last couple of weeks, and picking up seven points from a possible nine has been crucial.
"I think a lot of people were writing us off before that, saying that maybe we had blown it and we didn’t beat the teams that we should have done. But hey ho, this is the Championship, and wins come round when you least expect them.
"There were probably people out there who, at the beginning of last week, didn’t think we would get the results we did get — especially when we went 1-0 down to Blackpool.
"But it’s been good, we’re all looking forward to the Forest game on Saturday and we are happy that it’s in our own hands.”
Town have been beaten just three times at home in the league this season and only Middlesbrough, who have gained 49 points from a possible 66, have surpassed their current tally of 47 and there will be no let-up against Forest according to the highly-rated Mings.
He said: "I think we’ll be even hungrier going into the Forest game than we were in our last home games against Blackpool and Cardiff, which we all saw as must-win games.
"Although it’s not necessarily a must-win game — we still have to go to Blackburn on the last day of the season so it’s not our last opportunity — we want to go out and put them on the back foot and impose ourselves on them in the first few minutes of the game or however long it may take.
"With the crowd behind us and with it being the last home game of the season, we have to prevent the occasion getting to us. It will be exciting, whatever happens.
"I think it will be a good game and I’m certainly confident that we will get the job done on Saturday and leave ourselves with obviously less to do at Blackburn. The last thing we want is to be going into the last game of the season needing a win.
"Winning your home games is a good basis. The manager has spoken about it before, winning at home, and if you can pick up points on the road that’s obviously a bonus.
"We have tried to make Portman Road a bit of a fortress and a hard place to come. I think we’ve done it very well, so hopefully we can do it again on Saturday. I enjoy playing at home, certainly. It’s a good place to play, a good stadium.”