Results, rather than performances, have to be the priority between now and the end of the season, according to Town defender Christophe Berra.
He said: "At this stage of the season, with 13 games left, it’s all about results and picking up points. We want to put in good performances as well for our fans but I think if we walk away with three points at the end the fans will be happy.”
While Town remain very much in contention for a play-off place — they are currently ninth, four points adrift of sixth-placed Sheffield Wednesday, but have a game in hand on the Owls — it has not escaped Berra and his colleagues’ attention that a section of supporters have expressed their dissatisfaction with the quality of football on offer.
Berra added: "Obviously, there has been a bit of frustration, more so because we’ve not been winning at home so often and have drawn more games at Portman Road than we did last season.
"I think the league is a bit more competitive this season, mainly because so many teams are spending big money to improve their squads.
"We have been faltering a bit but we have been hit by a number of injuries, which is something we just have to deal with.
"We’re not world beaters and we’ve got to be a bit level-headed and realise where we’ve come from.
"We’re all down to earth guys who don’t get carried away. We’re not Arsenal so we’re not going to go and outplay teams and be on the front foot the whole game.
"This league is so competitive — the teams at the bottom can beat those at the top — and it’s about who takes their chances on the day or who gets a little bit of luck along the way. It’s very fine margins.
"We obviously had a dip in form recently. We always want to play as well as we can in every game but, let’s be honest, the other team is out to stop us doing that.
"It’s a very competitive league and just three years ago Ipswich were down at the bottom but for the last two years we’ve been fighting to get promotion.
"Expectations have risen and fans expect the best, which we fully understand and that’s what we are trying to do.”
Town’s hopes of at least emulating last season’s sixth-place finish were boosted at the weekend when they won 1-0 at Huddersfield, not only ending a miserable run of three successive defeats but also collecting their first clean sheet in nine games since the 0-0 stalemate at Burnley in the first game of 2016.
Berra said: "It was obviously good to keep a clean sheet after a run of games without one.
"We conceded two set-piece goals at Bristol and a late one right at the end at QPR after we’d defended well and their keeper did really well.
"I want clean sheets as a defender and the team wants them too so it was good to get one at Huddersfield and hopefully we’ll get another one on Saturday against Nottingham Forest.
"With a lot of our good results away from home we have scored early doors and just defended and been hard to beat.
"We’ve got one of the best away records in the league — I looked at the table the other day and the only team with more away points than us is Middlesbrough — but our home record is nowhere near as good as last year.
"But whereas last year we were really good at Portman Road, our away record was not the best. This season it has turned the other way.
"Against Hull last week it was a tight game against a very strong side. There wasn’t much in it to be honest but maybe we switched off from a counter-attack and a bit of quality from their goalscorer was enough to win it for them and keep them on top of the league.”