New recruit Dominic Thompson has come to an agreement with a Town fan that if the Blues qualify for the play-offs both of them will dye their hair blue.
The left wing-back, who made his debut in the 2-0 defeat at Sheffield Wednesday and played his second game on Saturday in the narrow 1-0 win over a stubborn Gillingham side, is a likely starter tomorrow when Town travel to take on rock-bottom Doncaster.
Thompson, 21, was asked if he might follow in the footsteps of ex-Town favourite David Johnson, who many fans will remember sporting a brand new blue hairstyle at Wembley for the play-off final against Barnsley, which took place a few weeks before the Brentford loanee was even born along the road in Willesden.
Would he consider swapping his red dreadlocks for blue if he can help Ipswich to qualify for the play-offs this season? He laughed: "I don’t know about that, we will have to wait and see. I had a bit of interaction with a lovely set of fans on the day I signed here and I kind of came to an agreement with one of them that if I can help Ipswich into the play-offs we will both dye our hair blue. So watch this space!”
Thompson says he is enjoying his time at Town and is glad he opted to come on loan to a club with plenty to play for in the current campaign, having been at Swindon during the second half of last season and being unable to help them avoid the drop into League Two.
His league debut for the Robins actually came at Portman Road 13 months ago and he was credited with three assists in a game the visitors won 3-2, goals by James Norwood and Alan Judge proving worthless on the day.
Thompson recalled: "I played 25 times in League One last season for Swindon and to be honest it was tough playing for a team towards the bottom end of the league.
"I wasn’t on the ball as much as I would have liked and, not only that, we weren’t exactly dominating possession in our position or playing the way we would have liked.
"But experiencing what I did last season has definitely helped me to know what to expect at this level. Being at Ipswich is a different kind of experience, because we’re not fighting relegation, we’re looking to get into the play-offs, but my time with Swindon last year means I already have some insight into what League One is like and I hope to put that to good use in the remaining games.
"I think the experience of fighting relegation last season helped me to build character, although being relegated isn’t something anyone wants on their cv.
"But as far as I’m concerned it is in the past now and I feel I’ve managed to bounce back from that. But as an experience it is something to learn from and you take the positives from it as you move forward with your career.
"It’s a completely different kind of pressure here at Ipswich compared to what I experienced at Swindon. I would say it’s less pressure, in fact, because the way we play football at this club I think we can dominate most of the games we play.
"It’s about creating the chances and making sure we score the goals to win games and collect as many points as we can to stay in the race for the play-offs.
"When you’re at the bottom trying to escape relegation it’s a very different type of pressure, for the simple reason that no one wants to suffer relegation. There is definitely less pressure here and it gives me and the rest of the team more freedom to go and do what we know we can do.”
In Town’s situation, as they seek to bridge the eight-point gap between them and the play-off zone, they can ill afford to drop many points in their remaining 16 league games, but with new manager Kieran McKenna winning five of his seven games in charge they certainly look up for the challenge.
Thompson added: "Is Doncaster a must-win game? Yes, that’s certainly how I see it. We’re pushing for promotion and you could pretty much say that every one of our remaining games falls into that category.
"If we’re going to get into the play-offs every game is important and we can’t afford to drop many points. The ideal would be to come away from Doncaster with three points and we won’t be aiming for anything less.
"We’ve got to stay patient. We did that on Saturday against Gillingham, who sat quite deep and were hard to break down.
"Doncaster are at the bottom of the table but they are coming into the game against us on the back of a win at Sunderland, which was a terrific result for them and one that few people could have expected.
"If they can beat one of the top sides in League One they cannot be underestimated so we’ll stick to our preparation, plan and tactics as we do for every game, and hopefully that will carry us through.
"We’ve just got to keep chasing and chasing in the hope of narrowing the gap. You know what the league is like — teams will drop points here and there — and we have to make sure it’s not us.
"Our job is to keep winning if we can and to be ready to take advantage when others slip up. If we’re in the best form we can possibly be in, other teams around us will lose games and we will close the gap. We’ve got to stay on it.”