Town boss Paul Cook still wants to be challenging in both cup competitions come January having seen what cup runs can do for stadiums and confidence during promotion campaigns.
The Blues progressed to the second round of the FA Cup via a 2-1 first-round replay victory at Oldham on Tuesday with a home tie against League Two Barrow next, while they are also in the Papa John’s Trophy’s round of 32 in which they host Arsenal’s U21s.
"I’ve been quite fortunate in my time, when I was at Chesterfield we got beaten by Plymouth at Wembley, I think it was 3-1, in a final and in the same year we got promoted and won the league, so I don’t see how cup runs become perilous to your league form.
"I genuinely think in the FA Cup, to get to the third round for any team outside the Championship it’s a challenge.
"I think once you’re in the third round it’s a little bit ‘what will be, will be’. I’ve been fortunate to have good cup runs and I’ve seen what it does for stadiums and players and confidence, and ,no different than anyone else, what winning does.
"You only create a winning culture by winning football games. So whatever cup competitions we’re in, we’ve got a good depth of squad, we don’t like the chopping and changing, I think we’ve seen a very indifferent performance from Ipswich on Tuesday night.
"It wasn’t a good performance by us at Oldham but it was a winning performance and if someone had offered me that before the game, I’d have grasped it with both hands.
"So the reality is that as we go into the period where the games are coming thick and fast, we’re in two cup competitions, come post-Christmas and going into January’s window, we still want to be in two cup competitions and we want to be challenging for where we want to be.
"That’s the challenge for us all ahead, the players, the staff, myself and the supporters included because, no different than anyone else, it becomes a little bit harder on them financially. The kids want to go to games and that’s a challenge for parents as well coming up to Christmas. The challenge for our success hopefully will be our supporters’ success as well.”