Town skipper Luke Chambers admits he has dared to dream about crowning the current campaign with his famous fist-pump celebration at Wembley.
Chambers & Co must still negotiate today’s trip to Blackburn before they can lay claim to a play-off place — and there will still remain a lot of hard work to be done before a Premier League return is in the bag.
Asked if he had dreamt of staging his victory gesture in front of the Town fans at a packed Wembley on Monday 25th May in the play-off final, Chambers was forced to own up: "Maybe a little bit but there’s still a long way to go yet.”
Indeed there is and Chambers explained how he had to stop some fans getting ahead of themselves, adding: "We had our sponsors’ dinner on Tuesday night and a lot of people there were asking me about how they could get play-off tickets. I just said ‘Hold on a minute, we’re not even there yet’.
"But the fans’ excitement is obviously going to build — they’ll be thinking about the possibility of us playing Norwich and it almost seems as if it’s our fate. That would be the ultimate that could happen for the fans. They can talk about it and get excited.
"But as far as the players are concerned I can honestly say that for us it has been no different this week. I would imagine the lads are talking about it and thinking about it at home but our preparations have been fully focused and we don’t want people looking at us on the telly on Saturday afternoon having thrown our opportunity away.”
Chambers won automatic promotion with both his previous clubs, Northampton and Nottingham Forest, but he has also had a total of five cracks at the play-offs without any success.
He added: "I can say to the lads that they might never experience anything like this again — you’ve got to enjoy it because they are horrific memories for me and I’ll do everything I can not to have another one. When it comes the gaffer will probably send me on holiday!”
Where does the Blackburn game rank alongside the many others Chambers has played in his career? He said: "It’s massive. At the end of the day the previous play-off games I’ve played in are now only memories for me. This is probably the biggest game for this club in 10 years.
"They’ve been through their tough times and they’ve been through the seasons where they’ve been playing for nothing and it’s a chance for us to put the club back on the map.
"I feel we’ve done that this season with the TV games we’ve been involved in and the way we’ve been competing at the top end of the league.
"We’ve also had the loss of David McGoldrick, as well as Noel Hunt, who arrived and made a big impact, and Luke Hyam, who has been out long term. They are players who would have made a hell of a difference and we might have been a lot closer to the top two.
"We’re just looking forward to getting out there on Saturday, sealing what will be a massive result for us and moving forward into those play-offs.”
Chambers is proud to be leading Town and added: "I was captain at Northampton and then at Forest but when I came to Ipswich I was never one to say ‘I want to be captain’. It’s just happened, something I’ve fallen into, but I am so proud to be the captain.
"The lads seem to respect me and if they have any problems they seem to come to me and ask for my opinion. To have that level of respect from the type of players we have in the dressing room makes me feel fantastic.
"With the way they respond to me as a player and a person, I really couldn’t be in a better place as a captain at any other club in the league.”