Midfielder Ben Pringle is delighted that his first two Town goals have seen the Blues to successive wins and put his side firmly back in the play-off race. Having netted the only goal at Huddersfield last week, the on-loan Fulham man repeated the trick as Town beat Nottingham Forest 1-0 at Portman Road on Saturday.
"The whole point of coming here on loan was to play and enjoy my football again,” the 26-year-old said. "I'm delighted to have contributed with my two goals and two wins.”
Pringle says Blues boss Mick McCarthy has told the players not to get too concerned by the match-to-match fluctuations of the play-off race with ninth-placed Town now a point off the play-offs having been seven points away only just over a week ago.
"The manager has said for us not to get too excited when we are near them and don't get too annoyed when we are not,” he added.
"We still have many games to go and it is very tight. As we have shown, you win a couple of games and you move up so we try not to get too sucked in by it all."
Reflecting on Saturday’s match, he said: "It was another good win and another three points. That's what it is about. No matter how we play we kept going and ground it out again.
"Bart pulled off a couple of good saves early on, which is what you want from your goalkeeper, then we managed to see off the threat before we played some good stuff and managed to nick it.”
Having joined Town early last month - his initial one-month loan deal includes an option for it to be extended until the end of the season - Pringle has had time to judge whether he and his team-mates are realistic top-six contenders.
"I have seen enough here to get into play-offs,” he insisted. "It is about how teams play and the manager knows what it takes to get out of this league.
"Some managers try to play football and try and pass their way to success.
"You can't do that in the Championship. You have to play the long ball, you have to fight and scrap as we have shown in the past two games, which have got us six points.”
He added: ”Nothing could be worse than the football at Huddersfield so it had to be better against Forest and at times we played some nice football and managed to put them on the back foot.”
Pringle, who joined Fulham on a two-year deal with an option for a further season after leaving Rotherham last summer, hadn’t started a game for the Cottagers since early December prior to joining the Blues and he says he’s getting closer to his best with every match: "I felt better and as each game comes I feel fitter and stronger.”
Meanwhile, Town’s U21s are in action away against Watford at the UCL Sports Ground (KO 2pm).