Boss Mick McCarthy says that given the recent run the only thing that matters is the Blues getting back to winning ways against Cardiff City at Portman Road this afternoon. Town are without a victory in their last six Championship games and have won just one of their last nine league matches.
When it was pointed out to him that a win today would put Town just a point behind where they were at the same stage last year, McCarthy said looking at the wider situation isn’t what’s important at this juncture.
"I know that’s the case, but the reality is that when we’ve been going like we have big pictures and perspective’s bullshit - we need to win.
"We need a win. I don’t come here and start preening myself and saying how well we’ve done, ‘It’s been great…’. We need to win now, it’s today, it’s not last year or the year before. We need to start winning.”
The Town boss isn’t bothered whether it’s scruffy victory with a goal going in off someone’s backside, returning to winning ways is the important thing.
"We need to win, I can sit here and waffle all day about football, but none of it will matter - how nice we all look in our club suits, that whatever happens the club’s going great, there’s great team spirit, everything that’s good about the club actually counts for nothing to fans unless we’re winning games. And it doesn’t really count much for me.
"I was interested to hear [Liverpool manager] Jürgen Klopp say that it’s not what they think about you coming in, it’s what they think about you when you’re going out.
"I like him but I thought, ‘What a profound statement that is’ because you can end up leaving and leaving a great club that’s all organised, everything’s sorted out but if you lose too many results you go.
"I’m not on about me, I’m talking generically, that’s just the way it is. So it doesn’t matter what’s gone on, what’s going on, we need to win.”
McCarthy has had a busy week, travelling to Cardiff to watch their 0-0 draw with Bristol City on Monday before spending the week on the training field and then answering fans’ questions at the Supporters Club’s AGM on Thursday evening.
"That’s the job,” he reflected. "Did I have to go down to Cardiff? Not really, I could have watched it on the television and got a scout to watch it but it was an opportunity to see them live, and also another opportunity to see Bristol City and they were excellent again on the night.
"It’s been a busy couple of weeks with games in midweek and we’ve got another one ahead, Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday. That’s just how the job is.”
He says he enjoyed the AGM, despite the mood being lower than in previous years due to recent results.
"I’ve been at the Supporters AGM every time since I’ve been here, that was my third,” he added.
"I quite enjoy going and speaking to them. It’s interesting to hear what they think and what they ask me.
"I think it was different because every other year we’ve been in the ascendancy and I’d probably just had two or three good results before going into it and everybody’s a bit more warm and friendly and receptive towards you.
"For this one we haven’t been in the ascendancy, we’ve had a bit of a dip. Not that anyone was rude or disrespectful or any other way, it was just a little bit quieter, nobody knows what to say when it’s going badly, strangely enough.
"It’s like being in the street. When things are going well it’s, ‘Hi ya Mick, how ya doing, things are great, aren’t we great, fabulous club..’.
"When it’s not I don’t get nasty things said to me wherever I’ve been but people tend not to say anything, they don’t know what to say.
"I’ve had that before, that doesn’t worry me but I prefer it when they’re all saying ‘Hello Mick, things are going great. We’ll try and get back to that.”
He says he saw positives in the Hull and Forest matches: "Yes, without a doubt. Hull were a good side and they deservedly beat us. But at Nottingham Forest we were the better team.
"I can say we should have come away with the points but you’ve got to earn them. We should never have let that ball get to where it did for the throw-in.
"I thought we controlled the first half, the main part of it. They had a couple of chances on the break.
"And it wasn’t that they were sitting back and trying to catch us on the break, we’d had the best part of it.
"When we scored we’d had a good spell and deserved to score and I thought we managed it really well, almost right to the bitter end in terms of keeping the ball but we just allowed them to get out, which cost us in the end.”
He added: "I went to go and beat Nottingham Forest, I went there with the intention of trying to beat them and except for 60 seconds we should have done.
"I think the teams I’ve sent out every week have been attacking teams. We’ve got Ryan Fraser and Ainsley and two centre forwards and whoever else, and they are attacking. I’d certainly like to get Murph and Didz back in goalscoring form.”
As was the case with McCarthy when he took over at Town three years ago tomorrow, Cardiff manager Russell Slade appears to be building his side on the platform of a strong defence and the Bluebirds go into today’s game having kept clean sheets in their last three matches.
"Not giving goals away is a talent,” McCarthy said. "It’s much maligned when compared to scoring goals, of course.
"Teams that win 1-0 are generally on the back of a defence that’s been hard to beat and doesn’t give too many chances away.
"If you watch games, very often there’s a chance at one end and really good defending, someone stops it.
"And then there’s a chance at the other end within seconds sometimes, certainly minutes, and while one team has been doing all the attacking and having all the chances, it’s the team that’s defending that scores.
"If they don’t give goals away it’s very hard to break them down. It’s a skill that, it’s just as much a skill as attacking is for me.”
Despite the poor run McCarthy says he’s not tinkered with his team too much believing that the tried and trusted core of his regular XI will eventually bring positive results.
"I think we’ve had a fairly settled side,” he continued. "We lost Ryan Fraser and we lost Kevin Bru.
"It’s great if you can get a settled side, of course it is, but settled sides usually come from winning games. If you win you usually leave it where it is and don’t change it.
"The other side of that is that you might just have to leave it alone and let it transpire and see what happens and get people back to playing well and scoring goals and the team just being solid as a unit. I don’t think it’s been tinkered with too much, to be honest.
"I’d like to get a winning team back again, whether it’s settled or whether I make changes a winning team is the most important thing.”