Ipswich Town captain Sam Morsy was full of praise for his team-mates after yesterday’s impressive 1-0 win over Plymouth Argyle, Morsy's second goal of the season having ended the Pilgrims' six-game winning run.
The much-needed win leaves Town five points off of sixth place with six games remaining, but with many of the teams surrounding them having at least one game in hand.
Saturday afternoon’s win was the Blues’ second over a side in the upper reaches of the division since manager Kieran McKenna took over - Wycombe were defeated by the same scoreline in the new boss’s first match - and Morsy is well aware it was a must-win game to keep the season alive after two draws.
"We just have to put wins together and we had to go a step further today,” Morsy said. "Portsmouth and Oxford were good performances but draws.
"Today if we lose, we are playing for our summer holidays. If we win, we're still in it and that's how it's got to be.
‘We’ve got to give absolutely everything and we have to win successive games, there's no way about it, and if we don't win successive games we weren't good enough to get there anyway.
"We have to put a couple of wins together, no doubt about it, we have to win successive games, but they won six in a row and I think we completely blew them away, to be honest, without even being at our best.
"They are a really good side, well organised and doing really, really well, but today we showed our quality.”
He added: "It was a big win. It was disappointing not to get the three points in the last two games, especially the last game, but a really good performance and a good three points today.”
The team effort required to win six games in a row isn't lost on Morsy, but he is confident that everyone can play their part, from Town's record-breaking defence to his midfield partner Tyreeq Bakinson.
"Ty is a great kid and he's a young lad who's learning,” the Egypt international said. "He's a really good player, he's still a baby, he's only 23 and I said to him today I might be your manager in five years' time, and he replied saying ‘Please God, I hope not!’.
"But he's a great kid and I've got a really good relationship with him, and he's improving every game.
"Like I said, he wants to learn, he's a really nice kid, and I'm really enjoying playing with him.”
When asked if he is happy to mentor young players, Morsy, who was joined for his post-match press conference by four-year-old daughter Sienna, continued: "Definitely, and especially players who want to learn. Some young players, not every player wants to learn, that just goes without saying.
"But he is definitely someone who wants to learn, he takes advice on board, he's got really good qualities in his game, and obviously, at 23, you're still learning as you are at any age, to be fair.
"But the main thing is him wanting to learn and he wants to, so that's great for me because it comes to the point where when younger players don't want to learn, you can't put your energy there because you get nothing back and it's counterproductive, but when someone wants to learn like that then it's great for me.
"But at every club, it's a mentality thing. There are some 21-year-olds who don't want to learn and there are some 31-year-olds desperate to learn. So it's all a mentality thing, but he's got a really good attitude, he's showing a really good attitude and everyone is enjoying having him in the group.”
Town’s solid defence recorded their 12th clean sheet in the 17 matches McKenna has been in charge with Cameron Burgess having slotted into the left side of the back three since George Edmundson suffered his ankle injury.
"George has had a really good season and Cam has come into possibly some of the toughest games of the season really, the toughest run, and I think we've only conceded one in the last three,” the 30-year-old said.
"But we've got a really good platform and the defence is doing well, and everyone is doing well. Wolf [Luke Woolfenden] is a really calming influence at the back, I think he's doing exceptionally well, but it's a really big team effort.”
Individual application is making the team effort pay off with Morsy a prime example. A hamstring injury which forced him off in the Lincoln and Portsmouth matches threatened to keep him out for the rest of the season, but Town's influential captain returned to the staring line-up on Saturday to open his Portman Road account.
"Obviously, that was my first goal at home and I think potentially I could have had a few this season,” he reflected.
"But it's my second of the campaign and I'm really hoping to add a couple more within the next six games of the season.
"When we had the scan on the Monday [after the Lincoln game], I was coming back in and the physio told me it was a grade two, and I've had a grade two hamstring before and I thought that was my season done, to be honest.
"But the medical guys here have been fantastic with me, have been really good, and the hamstring is strong and luckily I'm back fit and available.”
Regarding the goal, he added: "It was definitely a goal I wouldn't have scored earlier on in the season. But the manager has given me the licence, he wants me to run late and I know what it's like as a midfielder when a midfielder keeps running past you in the box.
"It's hard to stay with and I was probably on my own a couple of times in the box today and another day I could have had a few more.
"I started off my career as a box-to-box player at Port Vale and I think one of the first things the manager said to me was ‘I see qualities in you where I think you can do that, do you think you can still do that?’. I said yeah and we worked at it, and obviously it's great when it comes to fruition today.”