Midfielder Emyr Huws knows only too well that Town are going to have to beat at least some of the leading sides if they are going to have any chance of realising their promotion dream.
Paul Lambert’s team are sitting third in the League One table and ideally placed in the battle to return to the Championship — and this week’s Portman Road double header, against leaders Hull tomorrow and fifth-placed Charlton on Saturday, provides an opportunity to cement their place as genuine contenders.
Huws, 27, is poised to make his fourth league start of the season when the Tigers come to Suffolk in search of a sixth successive league win, while they also boast the best away record in the division this season with five wins from their seven games on the road.
The Welshman said: "It’s a big week and big results would be great so that’s what we are going to be trying to achieve. We are definitely going to have to beat one of the teams at the top at some point and the sooner the better. I am sure it will come.”
Asked why he thought Town were experiencing little success against the leading sides, a problem that also proved costly last season, Huws added: "I don’t think there’s any issue. All the games are different and we’ve just got to keep imposing our game on the opposition and give it our all throughout the 90 minutes to try to get a win.”
Huws agreed that two wins over the next five days would give the Blues a massive boost but even if they took four points from a possible six it would be a decent return at this stage of the campaign and keep them firmly in the promotion picture.
Looking back to the weekend’s last-gasp triumph over struggling Shrewsbury, who have tasted victory only once in the league this season, Huws continued: "It was really important to start the run of three successive home games with a win.
"It was difficult after we conceded early but we got the three points in the end and now we move on to the next one. The next two are obviously going to be tough for us but you can’t expect anything else against teams who are top and fifth in the league.
"You might expect Hull to be more difficult to beat than Shrewsbury but it’s tricky to say whether or not that will actually be the case. We conceded very early against Shrewsbury so it was always going to be a tougher game than it might have been.
"We’ll just continue doing what we’re doing and we’ll be looking to make it seven wins out of seven at home this season. It’s a game we’re all looking forward to.”
Huws looks certain to start after Teddy Bishop, the man he replaced on Saturday just five minutes after the interval, hobbled off to leave manager Lambert with few midfield alternatives when he names his side for the clash with Hull.