Town defender Cameron Burgess has praised top scorer Macauley Bonne and the other attacking players as they approach Saturday’s home clash with Sheffield Wednesday in search of a second successive win for the first time under manager Paul Cook.
Burgess, a £750,000 signing from Accrington Stanley and only five games into his Ipswich career, was delighted to play his part in keeping a clean sheet in the 1-0 win at Lincoln last week, the club’s first of the season.
The Scottish-born Australian U23 international said: "It’s a huge comfort knowing that Macauley has what it takes to go up the other end and score at any point in the game.
"And it’s not just him; we have an abundance of attacking players who can do that. It’s not just three or four players, either, because we probably have seven or eight in that category.
"It’s massively beneficial to us at the back because we know that if we can keep a clean sheet we can go on to win the game, especially when you remember that we have scored in every league game so far. If we can do our part at our end we have a great chance.
"We face these guys in training every day and we know what they can do, although we like to think we can hold our own at least some of the time.
"We work a lot on our shape against these guys and if you’re practising against players of that ability, day in and day out, hopefully it stands you in good stead for what you are going to come up against on a Saturday.”
The victory at Sincil Bank and recording a first clean sheet of the season represented an amazing turnaround on events of seven days earlier when Town were beaten 5-2 at home by Bolton and the Imps went to Cambridge and won 5-1.
"For our part it was all about hard work on the training ground,” said 25-year-old Burgess. "The staff have put the effort in to give us what we need — all the tools to go into games, stuff like that, and I felt it was just a matter of time before it came.
"I think we all felt it from within, day by day, and it was just going to take a few things being ironed out on the training ground. It’s a new group of players and it managed to click on Saturday.
"I was relieved to hear the final whistle after all the stoppage time but at the same time I felt quite comfortable to be honest.
"Obviously, there were a few things that went against us in the second half — a few guys pulling up with injuries and we had to reshuffle the pack a little bit — but throughout the game I felt comfortable and considering what has happened to us I felt that was quite unusual. I felt we could see out the added on time and we did.”
Burgess even spent most of the second half in the left-back role after Middlesbrough loanee Hayden Coulson was forced off with an injury, Luke Woolfenden coming off the bench to slot in alongside George Edmundson in the middle of the defence.
He added: "Last season I played there a few times, actually. We went with quite a big back four at Accrington on a number of occasions, sometimes due to personnel or tactical reasons, so it’s not a role that is too foreign to me, although it was a bit different because of the way we play compared to Accrington.”
Burgess also admitted the bus journey back to Ipswich reflected the win. "It was very noisy and Joe Pigott is right up there as one of the noisiest guys in the squad,” he revealed.
"Nors [James Norwood] is also noisy and there are a few others who are starting to come out of their shells.
"The lads are getting more and more comfortable with each other and it’s good to see. After getting our first win we’ve got a taste for it and we want to back it up.
"There hasn’t got to be any let-up now. It’s only one win, we’re not the finished article yet and we know that.
"We’ve been working hard on the training ground on the things we still need to improve on for this Saturday and hopefully we can make it two wins in a row against Sheffield Wednesday.”
Burgess has impressed since coming into the side and has been partnered in the last two games, against Bolton and Lincoln, by George Edmundson, who had not featured previously due to injury.
But he said: "It’s not just about the partnership between me and George, it could be me and Woolfy [Luke Woolfenden] or George and Woolfy, plus we’ve got Toto (Nsiala) back in training now after his injury.
"It’s not just about the centre-halves, either, it’s the whole squad and relationships between everyone in the team. We’ve worked a lot on this aspect of the game, making sure we know where everyone is and that’s a big factor in us keeping a clean sheet.
"It’s about where we are in relation to each other right across the pitch and it was great that it worked at Lincoln on Saturday.”