Town boss Paul Cook says there’s not much he would have done differently in his first few weeks at Portman Road, despite the Blues having won just twice in his opening 12 matches and now out of the play-off running barring a miracle.
Cook has had a tough introduction to life at Portman Road with the Blues down to 11th in the table, five points off the top six with four left to play having drawn five and lost five in addition to those two wins.
"Not particularly,” Cook said when asked if he’d have done anything differently. "If you look at the starting XIs that we’ve tried and the strikers that we’ve put in, the combinations of strikers we’ve put.
"One of the things I don’t like is that when you’re searching for something you’re chopping and changing and the reason you chop and change normally is because you haven’t found the solution. You’re searching for the solution.
"I’ve never managed like that, I never have. Gary Roberts has played for me at my last three clubs, the reason Gary played for me was because I knew exactly what I got out of him week in, week out.
"I’ve had Samy Morsy, I’ve had him as captain at two out of the three clubs, and that list goes on.
"Here, I’ve come into a different environment, a difficult environment for a lot of reasons, and an environment probably where certain people have carried the blame, whether that be the players, whether that would be Paul Lambert, whether that’s been Marcus Evans.
"The brutal reality is that we were all part of the problem. And we have to find a solution. In football today, there’s such a blame culture, everyone blames everyone else.
"You’ve been around me for six week, the blame being put on to these players stopped at the end of the Northampton game. There’s no more blame on the players, it’s on the manager. It’s all on me now.”
If he had the option just to end the season now, would he? "It’s a good question, I’ve changed my mind three times already while you were asking it. I think when you’re a player, if you’ve got any type of substance in you, in your make-up, losing football games is not tough and even last week at Charlton, the last 10 or 15 minutes we were crying out to lose the game.
"I struggle with it. We’re playing away from home at Charlton, we’ve done smashing in the game and we’re waiting to be beaten at the end. And you sense that in the squad, you sense that even in the staff a little bit now where we kind of hope we’re going to do well.
"I think in these next four games, Andre Dozzell’s been top class in the last two games, has played really, really well. I think these four games are a chance for people. Like I’ve told the lads, you have to be selfish now.
"As a club and as a team, our race is run. As an individual, you still probably have a chance to make somebody look at you a little bit differently so stand up and be counted.
"Losing games of football for any manager, we all know the perils of football today, that’s the job we’re in. You know that when you’re a manager. I was bottom of the league at Christmas at Wigan and you know the perils of what’s coming. And I’ve never shied away from that.
"Coming in here now, it’s been a challenge, it’s been difficult. It will not change me as a person or as a manager ever. I want to watch my team with pride. I love being a manager on the side of a pitch when you know what you’re getting out of your team.
"The famous one that I say to the players, and it’s difficult at the minute, all you ask at the end of a football match is that your supporters clap you off the pitch. When the supporters clap you off the pitch it means that what they’ve watched, they’ll accept.
"You don’t win football games just to be clapped off a pitch, you have to run and work and show them how much you care. And at the minute, that’s something that probably makes me glad that Ipswich fans aren’t in stadiums because we want them to be proud of us and at the minute.
"As you know, I don’t do social media and I’m probably glad, I know our fans are not proud of us, and I include myself right at the height of that. And that’s something that doesn’t sit well with me, that’s for sure.”
How does the challenge compare with the one he’s had at other clubs? "I think if you look at the immediate results, I think we've drawn five and lost five and won two. I think if you've watched the 12 games, including the game the other night where we've probably had the best phases of play in a game that we've had since my time here and lost 3-0.
"The games, including the ones we've won, I'd suggest nearly every single game could go either way on a 1-0. That's the brutal reality of it.
"You look at the results in the division, they’re similar, and then you look at the planning for the future.
"Yeah, it's going to be a tough job because of the changes that come. We all speak about recruitment, and as our fans will.
"I'm sure they will recognise we're all waiting for our first signing, second signing and the statements we make in the transfer market or the recruitment process to bring players in.
"My big thing, and everyone knows how much I love football, I love going to watch my team knowing we've got footballers who win us games and footballers who get it back.
"Unfortunately for Ipswich now for a period, we haven't had any real go-to players and that's sad for us as a football club.”
In terms of the games still to play, has there got to be an element of pride from the players regardless of whether they’re staying or going?
"I tend to disagree with you a little bit,” Cook reflected. "I think the pain has now set in, and as an Ipswich supporter and an Ipswich manager playing for pride is not something we should even be speaking about, is it?
"I think therein lies a problem that I am part of at the minute. And the solution, if you have to be told to play with pride, you shouldn't be at a football club.”