Town striker Kayden Jackson has a hunch he and his team-mates will have to work every bit as hard against Shrewsbury at Portman Road on Saturday as they did to collect all three points in the home clash with AFC Wimbledon last week.
The Londoners led 1-0 but Town came back strongly in the second half, their persistence eventually rewarded when James Norwood levelled with nine minutes left before Jackson, a 60th minute substitute, pounced deep into stoppage time to clinch a dramatic win courtesy of his first goal of the season.
The former Accrington Stanley man, for whom ex-manager Paul Hurst paid £1.6 million in August last year, added two more in Town’s 5-0 demolition of Bolton last weekend and is bang in form ahead of the Shrews’ first league visit to Portman Road in more than 30 years.
Jackson, 25, who was at a busy signing session at Planet Blue yesterday, said: "I think they will be a good, physical side and tough to break down, like you saw with Wimbledon. We will just have to work hard and try to break them down, hard as it might be.
"I’m sure we have enough quality in the side, and on the bench, to get the three points we need.”
Recalling the moment he clinched all three points against AFC Wimbledon, he added: "It felt good at the time but not so good in the time leading up to it.
"The most important thing now is that we get the win that we all want and whether it comes in the first minute or the 95th minute, it doesn’t really matter. The important thing is the win, three points and staying top of the league.”
It came as no surprise to Jackson and his team-mates that the Dons were stubborn opposition, to the point that they expect most, if not all, their League One rivals to adopt similar tactics in frustrating Town and looking to score on the break.
"At the end of the day we’ve got big targets on our backs,” said the striker. "We’re Ipswich, just relegated from the Championship, and when teams come to Portman Road and see the surroundings it will give them an extra 10 per cent.
"That might make our job that bit harder but it up to us to keep our work rate and performance levels high. We’ve stood up to the tests that we’ve had thrown at us so far this season and we’ve done enough to be at the top of the league. The job now is to stay there and that’s what we are looking to do.”
With three goals this season, all of them coming in his last two outings, Jackson believes it is a case of reaping his reward for the amount of hard work he has put in. "I’ve been working hard to improve my game from the back end of last season ,” he said "and things are coming together now.
"It helps having a partner like Nors [James Norwood] up there because he occupies defenders and lets me do what I do best, getting on the knockdowns and stuff. I’ll just keep working hard and hopefully I can score plenty more goals and help the team to get plenty more wins.”