Town midfielder Teddy Bishop sees Oxford United, tomorrow’s visitors to Portman Road, as a prime example of how a sudden, sustained change of form can go a long way to transforming a club’s season.
Karl Robinson’s men sit three places and three points above the 11th-placed Blues, and only two points adrift of the play-off zone, thanks to a run of nine wins and a draw from a 10-game run — exactly the sort of form Bishop believes Town can replicate.
The 24-year-old admits the 12-point gap to the automatic promotion places means they are likely to be beyond reach, but isn’t ruling it out altogether. "You just never know in this division,” he said.
"Everyone beats everyone. If we could put a run together, say over the next 10 games, and see how many we can win, look at the table after that and see where we are.
"Oxford are a good example of how things can turn around. They have almost come from nowhere after an average start to the season. They have picked themselves up and are doing really well at the moment, so it shows it can be done.
"It’s about consistency. We showed at the start of the season that we can put a consistent run together with five wins and a draw in our first six league games, which got us to the top of the league. We need to rediscover that form and I believe we can do it.”
This would be a great time for Town to turn the corner. Starting tomorrow against Oxford, seven of their next 10 games are against teams above them in League One.
Okay, the Blues have a dismal record against the leading sides, both this season and last, but it has to end sometime and if it does over the next few weeks it could boost their play-off hopes considerably.
Bishop added: "It’s a tough run of games and it looks like being a tough time for the remainder of this month and through March. But at the same time it’s a great opportunity for us to go and nick points off the teams ahead of us. It works both ways really.”
With his contract due to expire in the summer, although the club have the option to trigger a 12-month extension, the Cambridge-born player admits he would like nothing more than to extend a stay at Portman Road that goes back to when he was first recruited to the academy at the age of seven.
Indeed, Bishop has one particular ambition he would like to fulfil, admitting: "I would love to captain Ipswich Town. It would be a real honour after being here since I was just seven. But there’s nothing to report at the moment about a new deal, so we’ll wait and see what happens with that one. Would I like to stay? Yes, of course.
"Along with the likes of Flynn Downes and Andre Dozzell, I want to play my part in driving this club forward. We share the belief that we can help to do that, plus we have friends and family who are close and even involved with the club.
"I suppose that does bring added pressure and responsibility. All of us boys who have come through the academy know where this club should be.
"When I was growing up I used to watch Ipswich all the time, every week nearly, so our aspirations are definitely to try to get the club back to where it was.”
Finally, Bishop agreed that there is a level of anxiety in the squad right now. "I think you could say that,” he added. "When a player or a team has a few bad performances anxiety definitely creeps in.
"But it does only take one good performance, one good result, to get rid of all that and that’s what we need to try to achieve tomorrow against Oxford.
"The manager has made it very clear that our target is still to go up this year. Everyone, the loan players included, knows that is the aim. They have brought added quality to training and I feel sure we’ll see the best of them in the coming weeks.”