Kane Vincent-Young is optimistic about Town’s chances of qualifying for the play-offs at the end of the season to keep alive their dream of promotion back to the Championship after a three-year absence.
The Blues remain eight points adrift of the top six following Saturday’s 2-1 home defeat of an Accrington Stanley side unbeaten in their previous five league games, sitting one place and point higher in the League One table than they were prior to kick-off, leapong ahead of Stanley.
Town might have been two points closer to the play-offs but sixth-placed Oxford scored late in their home game against Sheffield Wednesday — currently one place above Ipswich, just two points better off but also with a game in hand — to maintain the eight-point gap.
However, with three wins and a defeat in his first four games in charge — the best post-war record of any Town boss — Kieran McKenna’s arrival at Portman Road has lifted the spirits of players and fans alike, while the new manager’s football philosophy has definitely struck a chord within the first team squad.
"We’re clear on the ideas and clear on the principles,” said Vincent-Young. "He come round and speaks to players about their own individual roles within the team and in training the coaching is very deliberate in terms of knowing where to be and when to be there. Everybody is very clear on what we’re doing.”
Asked if he still saw Town as play-off candidates, Vincent-Young added: "I don’t see why not. You have to be optimistic but at the same time you can’t look too far ahead.
"We just take it game by game, session by session, and we’d like to think that if we train well and our habits are good, it comes down to matchday and we’ll see what happens.”
Vincent-Young wasn’t the only Town player in Saturday’s starting line-up who had not previously been selected by the new manager and another, Tom Carroll, was also at Tottenham alongside him.
"Tom is a couple of years older than me so we never really worked or played together, although we did cross paths from time to time,” he said.
"Tom is a fantastic footballer, technically so strong and we saw it at the weekend. He’s so comfortable with the ball at his feet, keeps things ticking over and is so good in possession. He’s only a really good asset for us.”
Looking ahead to tonight’s trip to face AFC Wimbledon, Vincent-Young added: "Wherever we go we play to win but we can’t under-estimate anybody in this league. Every team brings their own different challenges and own different threats, and we’ll respect that.
"We’ll go there ready for a fight but of course we will back our quality to shine through. We won’t be complacent but we’ll be going there to take something from the game for sure.
"We stood up to Accrington and came from behind to win. I think it’s always going to be a case of us matching teams physically and it’s never been a question of ability in our group. It’s such a relentless league that I think it’s always about matching teams with the fight and trying to let your quality shine through, which was the case on Saturday.”