Town U23s coach Gerard Nash, currently seconded to the senior set-up under caretaker-boss Bryan Klug, says he’s pleased with the way the season has gone for his development squad.
The Town youngsters, coached by Nash and Chris Hogg, who is also assisting Klug, are currently third in the Professional Development League Two South table with one game - Monday’s match against Bolton at Portman Road (KO 7pm) - remaining.
"I have to be honest, I haven’t see the table,” said Nash, whose mind has been on first-team matters for the last week with Geraint Williams taking charge of the squad in his absence.
"I’m pleased with how it’s gone this year. I’ve said it a lot of times, it’s always better to be winning games and it really helps I think in terms of keeping the momentum of the season.
"The U23s job, like the U18s job, is a very tough job because the team changes literally daily, weekly. You get a real mix of trialists coming in, senior players coming down, players coming back from injury.
"So, as much as you might want it to be a team, it’s not a team. We all represent Ipswich Town Football Club and you want the team to do well, but I wouldn’t read too much into the league table.
"Chris Hogg and I have certainly worked hard all season to prepare them for games as we would if it were a first team, but there’s a lot of things that go into a league table.
"If we were third from bottom, which I think we were last season, then I’d be coming in and saying the same things, so I’d have to be consistent on that.”
With the U23s more about development than results it’s sometimes the case that the better you’re doing as a coach the worse the team gets as players move on up to the senior side.
"Yes, and that’s what the job should be, if that isn’t happening then that’s probably an issue,” Nash reflected.
"Fortunately, we’ve been able to send a lot of players out on loan this year if they weren’t playing in the first team and certainly that’s been more beneficial for them than staying and playing in the U23s.
"But the players who have stayed and played have been professional and have done things properly.
"We’ve had a much better season than seasons gone past but it was never about winning the league or anything like that.”
Among those who has benefited from going out on loan is central defender Chris Smith, who was recently recalled from his spell in the Vanarama National League South with Chelmsford City.
Nash says the 20-year-old former Kesgrave High School pupil is settling into life back at Playford Road having benefited from his time with the Clarets.
"Chris has settled in fine, he literally couldn’t be any more local, he lives about a hundred yards from the training ground, in the next cul-de-sac,” Nash said.
"He’s settled in fine, he’s a good player, he’s been here a long time and like a lot of the young players you’d like to give them an opportunity to gain some more experience.
"The game time is important, but I think it’s more about the change of environment that’s probably best for Chris’s situation.
"He’s been here a long time, Playford Road training every day is more or less all he’s known. It’s a change of environment that’s really good for him, seeing something different, experiencing something different.
"A lot of those loan moves for the young players have worked very well. Sometimes, in some respects, the lower you go you get a different experience and it helps you just as much as if you go to another league club.”
The season is reaching the point where young players, including some regulars in the U23s, will learn whether they will be kept on for next season, but Nash says they’re not decisions he’ll make: "That will be above my head, that’s a question for Bryan.”