Boss Mick McCarthy believes the Blues’ back-to-back victories over Bolton and Rotherham were big wins at an important point in the season with some fans beginning to criticise his management.
Town halted their winless run at seven by beating the Trotters 2-0 at Portman Road last Tuesday then thrashed the Millers 5-2 at the New York Stadium.
"Those two wins were big victories for us and at a really important time,” McCarthy told the club site.
"We had dipped from our early season form and people were starting to be critical. They started to be critical of me and I understand that. It starts to creep in, all that ‘taken the team as far as he can’ stuff.
"I had it at Wolves when we went something like one win in 11 games. Then we went to Crystal Palace and won 1-0 in a real scrap and then did the same at Sheffield Wednesday on a mudbath of a pitch. That got us back on track and we ended up winning the league by seven points.
"It was obviously important to end the run we were on and people would have looked at Bolton and Rotherham and the position they are in the table and said ‘We should win those games’.
"It’s never that easy. If it was that easy teams would have beaten us when I arrived here and were at the bottom of the league. We would have been relegated.
"We had to play well against Bolton and do the same again at Rotherham and we did that. It was a real high tempo, exciting performance there.”
As usual during international breaks those players not involved with their countries will be given some additional time off to rest after a busy schedule of Championship fixtures.