Forward Sone Aluko says he’s always believed that the Blues would get themselves in the play-off hunt, Saturday’s 3-0 home victory over Burton Albion having moved Town only four points away from the top six with Cheltenham at Portman Road this evening.
While some fans had felt that the Blues had given themselves too much to do after an underwhelming start and then a period of inconsistent form under former boss Paul Cook, Aluko says he always believed the play-offs were reachable.
"To be honest, I feel they have been all season,” he told TWTD. "I’ve know we’ve been through ups and downs, but I’ve always said in the interviews I’ve done that until we can’t mathematically get into them, we’ve got a chance.
"With the squad we’ve got, I knew once we got to December, January, February when the games are coming thick and fast and there are a lot of Saturday-Tuesdays, our squad would start to be a factor.
"We’ve got a lot of depth and we were always confident that if we got on a run, teams would start to really respect us because of the players we signed and the money we spent, this was always a big game for a lot of the teams.
"We bring all our away fans to most games and can pack out a stadium quite easily, so I thought if we got some momentum going we could make the play-offs and now in the last few games our form has changed, we’ve had a pretty decent run and it’s really looking like we could make it.
"We’ve just got to keep the momentum going, but I’ve never lost faith that we could do it.”
Town, who have won seven out of 10 since Kieran McKenna took charge in mid-December, seem to be hitting form and gaining momentum just at the right time.
"If you look at it every year, in the Championship, in the Premier League even, and especially League One, there will be teams that fall away and teams at the back end of the season that suddenly have a very good league run,” Aluko, who turned 33 on Saturday, continued.
"I remember when I was with Hull, the year we got relegated [2014/15], Leicester won eight of their last 10 games. They were in the relegation zone and went on an absolute tear and the next year they won the Premier League. Things change and momentum can go a really long way.
"We’re hoping we can do that same kind of thing, put a really good run of games together and we’ll see where that takes us.
"Teams above us, if they keep winning their games, then that’s football, you get on with it. But if they slip up, we want to be there, we want to really push them to the end. And if we do well then teams will start looking over their shoulder at Ipswich, for sure.”
While fans’ belief has grown in recent matches, he says his team-mates’ faith in themselves has remained resolute all season.
"I can’t say that belief is growing because I never felt like it went,” he added. "Your form can go, your performances can flicker up and down but the belief has always been there that if we get this right with the squad we’ve got and the team we’ve got.
"A lot of the games we weren’t winning or were losing, we weren’t winning the games but no teams were coming and dominating us and blowing us away the whole season since I’ve been there.
"If we could sort our part out, if we could get this right, we’ll be OK. Now that’s starting to come through.
"So maybe from the outside it looks like the belief is starting to turn and they’re really starting to believe how good they are but it’s always been there, to be honest. I just feel everyone else is starting to believe in us rather than us ourselves.”
Perhaps only leaders Rotherham have outplayed Town this season in their 2-0 win at Portman Road with little between the teams in the rest of the Blues’ defeats or draws.
"MK Dons the first game, at home, I thought they were very good. They really passed well on that day, but again that day we didn’t play well at all,” Hounslow-born Aluko recalled.
"I don’t think there’s been a team when we’ve played well that have blown us away. Sunderland away, we played well and then somehow lost 2-0, but again it wasn’t like they dominated us, we gave away two goals at the back end of the game and we were disappointed with that.
"But throughout the game we were feeling pretty confident and we were feeling quite comfortable.
"I didn’t play the Rotherham game, to be fair, so I can’t really remember that one but there’s not been a team where I’ve felt ‘OK, they’re a better than us. Fair play, we gave it our best and it wasn’t enough’.
"That hasn’t happened yet this season for us. I’ve always had the belief that if we could get a run going, we’ll be fine.”
Since McKenna came in the Blues have won all four of their home matches and with Cheltenham visiting this evening, the Nigeria international knows how important maintaining the current Portman Road record will be between now and the end of the campaign.
Away from home, he says the performance in the 0-0 draw with the MK Dons needs to be replicated even if ultimately the team were disappointed not to have picked up all three points.
"If you want to do anything in any league, your home form’s got to be good, for teams to come and not expect to win. So your home form has got to be strong,” he said.
"The MK Dons performance, that should be the benchmark for how we perform away from home.
"Were we happy with a point against the team third? Happy is probably the wrong word, you’re content when you go and draw with the MK Dons away but we had the bigger chances in the game.
"I felt like we were the better team on the day, so I did come away thinking that we’d dropped two points.
"If you go and beat them away then that sends a message to everybody that they’ve really got to start fearing us. So I think we kind of missed a big chance there.”