Town boss Mick McCarthy says this afternoon’s away game against second-bottom Wigan Athletic is “without a doubt” a “six-pointer”.
The 17th-placed Blues go into the match five points off the bottom three and seven points ahead of the Latics.
"It’s a six-pointer, isn’t it? Without a doubt it is,” said McCarthy, who has said he will make changes to his team for the visit to the DW Stadium.
He says the game is a chance for Town to put some distance between themselves and last season’s League One champions, who have struggled since returning to the Championship, and also an opportunity to gain some momentum going into the Christmas period.
"We’d prefer to be three more points in front of Wigan and we know over the season somebody picks up and has three or four good results, and we want to start on Saturday.
"If we get that result, then we can come back here and play with a lot more confidence against Fulham [at Portman Road on Boxing Day].
"If we don’t get beaten, we want to get something out of the game. There’s got to be a starting point.”
While he is targeting the win, he says a draw wouldn’t be a bad result: "I’m not going up there to try and get a point for anyone that thinks, ‘He’s being really negative about it’.
"No, that’s not the case, I’m going up there to try and win to try and put us in a much better position.
"But with the results we’ve been having, if we go up there and play as well as we possibly can and we put in a good performance and end up with a 0-0 draw, then, yes, I’ll take that.”
However, a first victory in four games is the primary target: "We need to win, we need to get some goals and we need to win games.”
Asked whether he believes his team is underachieving now having overachieved in previous seasons, he said: "It doesn’t really matter, we’re just not having a good time at the minute, we’ve got to change it.
"So, whatever’s gone on in the past, wherever I’ve been, whatever I’ve done, including here, it’s irrelevant. We’ve just got to turn it around.”
Meanwhile, a Blues side featuring U18s, U23s and academy trialists beat Chinese club Beijing Guoan's youngsters 5-2 in a behind-closed-doors friendly on the 3G at Playford Road on Thursday.
The Chinese team are currently in the UK with Liverpool among the other sides they're facing.