Cole Skuse is hoping he can play his part in extending Town’s six-game unbeaten run, which would undoubtedly help the sale of season tickets for the 2017/18 campaign.
Some supporters have made no secret of their intention to not renew, while others are sitting on the fence before finally making up their minds, but as manager Mick McCarthy has been quick to acknowledge the main factor in the decision process will be the team’s performances.
Skuse said: "The performances of late have been more positive and I think the fans would agree with that. Against Norwich last week you could feel there was a real sense of positivity both before and after the game. I think we were unlucky not to win the game really.
"The recent performances have given everyone a boost and a bit of a lift, and to keep ourselves on track we need to keep putting in the work on the training ground and, of course, on match days. Hopefully we’ll be ending the season on a positive note.
"We can all understand the fans’ disappointment this season because we feel it ourselves. You can never knock us for not trying but no one would disagree that some performances have been poor. We go home to our families and friends and feel it as well, the disappointment.
"I can assure you we don’t go home saying ‘Why are they booing us?’ and thinking we’re brilliant. We’re telling ourselves ‘That was shocking’ and we understand only too well how the fans are going to be disappointed.
"We’re not pretending everything has been good but recently we’ve improved and our aim is to finish the season on a high.”
Skuse has only missed three league games this season, most recently because of an Achilles injury, and he admits it was a boost to be recalled straight away to manager Mick McCarthy’s starting line-up once he had been able to prove his fitness.
He added: "I’m not the one who picks the team. That’s down to the gaffer and he’s put me in, which is a nice vote of confidence. The Achilles is fine and I’m keeping on top of it, looking after it, which you have to do when you get to the ripe old age of 30.
"I’ve never been complacent at any stage of my career. I know it’s been brought up in the press before with articles saying that certain players here play most games but I’ve never thought to myself that I’d play every week. I don’t think that’s ever the case in anyone’s mind.”
Competition for midfield places is stronger than ever after the signing in January of loan duo Emyr Huws and Toumani Diagouraga, who arrived from Championship rivals Cardiff and Leeds respectively to play a part in Town’s upturn in fortune.
Skuse said: "They are both very good players. I’ve played against them a lot in my career, probably Huwsy more than Toums. They are great footballers — Huwsy has chipped in with a couple of goals as well, while Toums is a really experienced head and has been around the league a little while.
"I’ve been around the game and I’m old enough — plus the gaffer said it as well — to know that we were in need of bodies to come in during the transfer window and play.
"They have done very, very well and as you get older you get less insecure about new faces arriving. In fact, you relish it really. It’s been good for us because the new lads arrived when we needed them and they’ve all done well for us.
"We’ve also got Luke Hyam coming back and there’s Grant Ward, Kevin Bru, Teddy Bishop, Andre Dozzell and Kundai Benyu as well.
"Bryan (Klug) has been to watch Kundai a few times during his loan spell at Aldershot and says he is doing very well.
"With the extra numbers the standard of training has improved over the last few weeks and you can see the results of that in the games when improved performances have seen us gain a lot of useful points.”
But despite several younger players emerging to challenge for senior places, Skuse was keen to point out that the most recent Old v Young game in training on Monday went the way of the more experienced players.
He laughed: "We beat the young lads and one of them picked up the yellow bib. I’m not going to name him but I felt sorry for Kieffer Moore!”