Wes Burns has spoken of his frustration that Town have been unable to string three league wins together this season but insists they still have a chance to end the campaign on a high note.
The last time the Blues achieved a hat-trick of successive victories was almost a year ago, ironically at the end of former manager Paul Lambert’s reign and the one game when caretaker boss Matt Gill was in charge before Paul Cook took over.
A 1-0 win at Hull City was followed by a 2-1 success at Portman Road against Doncaster, after which Lambert was dismissed, and with Cook looking on — his appointment was confirmed the previous day — Gill’s team achieved a 2-1 victory at Accrington that made it three in a row.
But it was a feat of which Town rarely looked capable during Cook’s nine months at the helm and although new boss Kieran McKenna’s record of four win from six games is commendable he has twice failed to complete a treble of consecutive wins in his first few weeks at Portman Road.
Having beaten Accrington and AFC Wimbledon in their previous two games, the Blues travelled to South Yorkshire last weekend looking to make it three on the bounce, but instead suffered a 1-0 defeat to fellow play-off hopefuls Sheffield Wednesday.
Burns, 27, said: "It is very frustrating — of course it is — because obviously we wanted to go to Hillsborough and pick up the three points. It’s this three wins in a row thing that we just can’t seem to get over at the moment and it’s just one of those things.
"But we’ve said as a team that if we can win two games in every three between now and the end of the season we’ll be there or thereabouts in terms of the play-offs.
"It’s not the end of the world but it would be nice if we could go on a little bit of a winning streak and more than two in a row would be nice. We’re just focusing on each game as it comes, trying to take three points from every one really.”
The Welshman — fluent in his nation's language — firmly believes Town have the quality in their ranks to edge their way into the top six come the end of the season. He added: "When I look around the squad I can see the quality we have in it, plus experience and strength in depth, so it’s definitely there for us to go and do and we literally just have to go and do it.”
Asked if it was taking time to adapt to McKenna’s approach, Burns continued: "Obviously, when he first came in, with the change of style of play and the ideas that he had, it was completely different to the previous manager.
"It probably has taken us a bit of time to adapt to it, learn the patterns of play and to be as confident and bold as we are on the ball in playing out from the back. The lads have taken it all on board pretty quickly and I think the fans can see the difference in how we play.”
Burns accepts supporters will be expecting a full house of six points from Town’s next two games against League One’s bottom pair. Gillingham, whose narrow 1-0 win over fellow strugglers Crewe in new manager Neil Harris’s debut game was their first in 15 league games, are the visitors to Portman Road on Saturday and one week later McKenna’s men head back to South Yorkshire, this time to take on bottom club Doncaster.
The right wing-back said: "That level of expectation is what comes from playing for a massive club like Ipswich. The fans are looking for and expecting three points from every game, no matter who we are playing, and I certainly don’t blame them for expecting us to win the next two and even the one after that.
"I know it’s at MK Dons but nothing should stop us going on that little winning run I spoke about earlier or even four, five, six on the spin. If you look at the fixtures in February there are still a lot of points to play for.
"We’ve got 17 games left this season, so it’s all still to play for. We just need to take each game as it comes with the attitude that we’re going to go into every one of them and take three points every time.”
Tuesday’s League One games left Town nine points from the play-offs and Burns admitted he was keeping a close eye on what was happening. "Of course I was and I think that’s natural for every footballer,” he said.
"You always want to keep an eye on the teams above you, the teams you are trying to catch, just to see if they’ve dropped points or if there has been an upset somewhere.
"The draw between Wigan and Oxford wasn’t the worst result but Sheffield Wednesday beating Morecambe doesn’t help us massively.
"But it is all about us, and I know it’s a cliché to say that. It’s literally down to us and if we win more games than not we’ll definitely be in with a shout.”
Town will still be without the services of skipper Sam Morsy for the forthcoming games against Gillingham and Doncaster as he completes a four-game ban for an off-the-ball incident against Accrington Stanley that saw him punished retrospectively on the strength of video evidence.
Asked how Morsy was coping with being temporarily sidelined, Burns said: "Training is now the outlet for his competitive edge and he takes it out on us. Put it this way, when we have a game in training you want him in your team rather than against you!”