Blues midfielder Jon Nolan says League One is stronger now than it was when he previously played at this level with Shrewsbury in 2017/18 but still believes Town have a strong enough squad to win promotion.
Nolan, 27, was one of the Shrews’ star performers as they reached the play-off final two seasons ago prior to following his manager Paul Hurst to Portman Road.
"I said at the end of last season that with the squad we’ve got, we should have enough to go up and I still think that,” Nolan told the club site.
"I’d say there are definitely stronger teams in the league this year than when I was at Shrewsbury though.
"That season, it was only Wigan and Blackburn you looked at and said ‘they will go up’.
"You look at it this season, five, six, seven, eight teams. That has surprised me. There are no runaway leaders. It’s a very competitive league this year.
"Home games are going to be massive for us and when you look at the number [of games] we have, you think it’s an advantage to us.
"It’s in our own hands. We’ve got the ability. We are playing the teams that are around us at home so if we win, we take three points off them as well. It’s down to us.”
Meanwhile, Nolan, his team-mates and the Blues staff took part in a team bonding session at Escape Ipswich yesterday.
"There isn't that long to go in the season and we wanted to get the lads together, off the training pitch, for a different type of team bonding," first-team coach Matt Gill explained.
"My group of six managed to escape and it was really enjoyable to see the lads in a different environment.
"After Saturday's win we've been working hard in training so it was nice to come here for a couple of hours. Doing something like this lets you see other characteristics in the lads and I think we all enjoyed it.
"Escape Ipswich were fantastic hosts and I'd definitely recommend taking on one of their challenges."