Goalkeeper Tomas Holy is wearing a big smile at the moment and believes Town’s 1-0 midweek win over Hull can help to bring the good times back to Portman Road.
Confidence is a huge factor in football — indeed every professional sport — and should the Blues follow up their win at the KC Stadium with another three points at home against Doncaster tomorrow it will put a smile on the faces of supporters frustrated by their team’s slide down the League One table.
Holy said: "I like to keep my spirits up and try to keep smiling. These are tough times for a lot of people and our fans have not had too much to cheer about in recent weeks.
"But we have improved our results recently and want nothing more than to keep winning, which I hope will give everybody something to smile about.”
Town can close the gap between them and the play-offs to just two points with victory tomorrow over Darren Moore’s sixth-placed Rovers, and one of the reasons for Town’s mini-revival — five points collected from the last three games without any goals conceded — is a change of style implemented by manager Paul Lambert and his coaching staff.
While the 0-0 home draw with struggling Northampton was a major disappointment for everyone, Lambert made seven changes for the goalless home draw with in-form Oxford and stuck with that line-up to bring three points back from Hull in midweek.
Those who watched the last two games via the club’s iFollow service could not fail to recognise how Town were looking to get the ball forward earlier, the presence of fit-again James Norwood up front along Tottenham loanee Troy Parrott making them effective targets for an obviously more direct approach.
Gone was the transfer of the ball between Holy and his defenders, as they looked for opportunities to pick passes into their midfield colleagues, which epitomised the Blues’ tactics earlier in the season.
Asked if it suited him better, Holy said: "It depends on a lot of details, like who the opposition are and whether they are going to let you do what you want to do.
"Do we have enough time to play from the back? Are the conditions good enough to do it? As far as we are keeping the ball away from our goal, there is less chance of the ball ending up in the back of our net.”
Did the players play a part in the tactical change or was it purely down to Lambert and his coaches? Holy replied: "It has been introduced by the manager and the coaching staff since the Peterborough away game when the pitch wasn’t in a very good condition and the decision was taken to make our football simpler.
"I think it suits us a little bit more but it’s all about the tempo of the game and what you can get away with doing.
"Sometimes you have to play long ball and other times you can keep it on the floor. I was told many, many years ago by a coach that you cannot play all the game on the floor, the same as you cannot play all the game in the air.
"It depends on the situation throughout the game. We have definitely been following the instructions from the manager and one of them was to make the football simpler at the back.”
The new-look style of play has coincided with the recall of central defenders Toto Nsiala and James Wilson, the latter of whom had been absent with a knee injury that saw him miss 18 league games before making his return to action six days ago against Oxford.
Asked how he felt playing behind the pairing of Nsiala and Wilson, Holy responded: "I feel safe. All credit to Woolfy [Luke Woolfenden] and Mark [McGuinness] — I felt safe behind them as well — but Toto and Willo are maybe a little bit more experienced.
"But the other two guys have many, many years in front of them and both are going to have long and successful careers in the game.
"Toto and Willo are also confident and they have made me more confident too. When I feel confident I can affect the boys in front of me. What happens is that our confidence rubs off on each other and in turn it helps the team. In short, it works.”
Holy has been impressed with 19-year-old Parrott, who may be down the pecking order at his parent club but has already represented the Republic of Ireland at full international level and has shown flashes of real football intelligence and true potential in his five appearances to date.
"I think Troy is the kind of striker we needed and along with Nors [Norwood] we now have two very aggressive strikers up front,” said Holy. "They are also what I call cheeky strikers and I admit I wouldn’t want to be coming up against them in games. I am really pleased that I am on their side!
"Troy is still very, very young but he is clever, smart and, like I said, cheeky. He’s not afraid to go one v one or even one v two, and his partnership with Nors, well I can’t speak for the defenders they face, but it must be hard to play against them.
"I know Troy has yet to score a goal for us but I feel it is just a matter of time before he gets one. He was very close against Oxford last week and you can sense he is getting closer all the time.
"And, you know, when he scores one it could set him off on a good scoring run. Strikers love to score and get off the mark at a new club so I will be delighted if he scores tomorrow.”