Goalkeeper Bartosz Bialkowski has confirmed Town’s target for the new season, due to start with Saturday’s home clash against Birmingham, will once again be a top-six finish.
The 30-year-old Pole said: "Ideally, that’s where we want to finish. The expectations have never changed since I joined the club — we have always been talking about getting into the play-offs.
"But every other team in the Championship wants to be in and around the play-offs and it is such a tough, competitive league.
"You just cannot predict anything and we just need to take it game by game, focus on our jobs and make sure we perform better than we did last season.
"A good start would be good. It’s always very important to start the season well because it can give you extra confidence. We need to make sure we are fully on it.”
At least replicating their play-off finish of two years ago may seem like a tall order for a Town side whose promotion chances have been written off by the bookmakers — who actually see them as a better bet for relegation — but a desire to prove their critics wrong could inspire an unexpected challenge from Mick McCarthy’s men.
Bialkowski was asked to assess the main contenders and said: "Teams like Middlesbrough and Aston Villa have a good chance.
"But there are others like Sheffield Wednesday, who always want to be up there, Derby spending millions and Wolverhampton now doing the same, although you never know how good they are going to be. I don’t know. It’s such a tough league that I cannot really predict anything.”
Meanwhile, Birmingham’s visit to Portman Road at the weekend could see a return for one-time Town loanee keeper David Stockdale, snapped up by Harry Redknapp on a free transfer after missing just one league game in helping Brighton to win automatic promotion to the Premier League last term.
Bialkowski admitted: "I was a little bit shocked. Straight away I called my friend Tomasz Kuszczak [Birmingham goalkeeper] and he wasn’t happy about it because he wants to be the number one and play in the team!
"But then again it’s about the competition for places and I’m sure David Stockdale is going to be a massive signing for them.
"He has proved in the past that he can do a great job and he’s been promoted with Brighton.
"Yes, I was a bit surprised he went there. He was in the Championship Team of the Year last season so he is obviously a great signing for Birmingham.”
Finally, the Town keeper recalled his holiday this summer in Jamaica, part of which he shared with supporters via social media by posting footage of him winning a fun sports event in which he participated with other guests at his Caribbean hotel complex.
Training session done ✅ 😜 pic.twitter.com/dA7qNX6mKW
— Bartosz Bialkowski (@1BartMan1) June 2, 2017
He laughed: "We had to swim a length of the pool, do 10 press-ups and then drink a pint as quickly as possible, which was good because I was a bit thirsty after it.
"I didn’t get a medal but there was a prize, a bottle of Jamaican rum. I smashed it — the next guy was 10 seconds behind me.
"I never said anything about being a professional footballer but the other lads came up to me afterwards and said ‘You must be an athlete’ so we talked about it. There were also some fans of other clubs there and they said they recognised me as well. It was all good fun.”