If there’s one thing on Janoi Donacien’s wish list for the remainder of the season — apart from helping to clinch a play-off place for Town — it’s to score his first goal for the club.
Saturday’s home clash with Cambridge United, a must-win fixture if Kieran McKenna’s men are to close the five-gap on the top six, will be Donacien’s 76th appearance for the club and his only goal in 276 career appearances so far came for previous club Accrington in a 3-1 home defeat by Newport County in October 2016.
That was 18 games into his 92-game permanent spell at Accrington — and Saturday’s visit from Cambridge, whose 2,000 following should help generate another terrific Portman Road atmosphere, will be McKenna’s 18th in charge of Town.
While that could be an omen, Donacien and his colleagues will be concentrating on nothing less than winning the game, to make it 12 without loss, and hoping at least some of the teams above them drop valuable points at the same time.
Asked how the players were coping with the pressure and stress levels that normally accompany a team chasing success at the business end of the season, Donacien said: "I don’t think there’s any pressure on us — we just keep playing the way we’ve been playing, you know. We’re enjoying it and once you start enjoying it the pressure kind of eases off.
"We’re just really enjoying the way we are playing right now and I think the pressure is on the teams above us, not on us.
"The pressure is on them to stay where they are and we’ll just keep on doing what we’re doing. We’ll tick the games off and continue to work hard to pick up the points.”
Town have collected 35 points since McKenna first took charge of the Blues for the home game against Wycombe Wanderers.
Town have averaged 2.06 per game in the same time, compared to just 1.26 per game in the previous 23, of which former manager Paul Cook was at the helm for 20 and McGreal three.
Not surprisingly, given their clean sheet record, Town have only conceded at an average of 0.35 goals under McKenna and, while the figure for prior games was 1.48.
In terms of goals scored, it has been 1.24 per game so far under McKenna. During the period before he arrived it was 1.65 but a feature of McKenna’s time at Portman Road, which he highlighted himself recently, is that they have regularly failed to add a second goal after going ahead.
Donacien doesn’t see it as a major issue and added: "We’ve been creating so much recently and just haven’t been able to get the second goal. But someone’s going to get a 4-0 or 5-0 beating soon. Things will change, the second goal will come and I’m hoping my first Ipswich goal comes soon.”
Town were held to a 2-2 draw at Cambridge back in October after having gone 2-0 ahead through two goals from Sone Aluko. "They stole two points from us that day,” laughed Donacien, "so we have to make amends on Saturday.
"It will be another big occasion at Portman Road in front of a big crowd. The fans have been terrific. They’ve been coming out, even for away games. We had 7,000 at MK Dons, which was incredible, and we have to play with a high tempo to put on a show for them.
Donacien was asked about his partnership with wing-back Wes Burns on the right flank and added: "Wes is the man, he’s the man. If I’m ever in trouble I’ll just give him the ball and he’ll run past eight players and score.
"I know Wes from playing alongside him when I was on loan at Fleetwood last year and before that when I played against him. I’ve always known how much of a threat he can be.
"He got his feet in the door here and he was ready to go. He’s had a good run of games, scored goals and he’s awesome now.”
The pair are known to celebrate together every time Burns, who has scored 11 times in all competitions this season, finds the net.
Asked if they had a surprise celebration ready for when he breaks his Town duck, Donacien said: "We’ll keep it the same. I’m always happy for Wes when he scores so when I get one, we’ll keep it the same, just me and him.”
Donacien revealed he is more than happy with his current role in the side, operating on the right of a three-man backline, and added: "It’s where the gaffer wants me to play and I’m happy to play there. But if I was asked to play right-back, left-back or centre-half it wouldn’t be a problem either. As long as I’m playing, I’m happy, so it’s fine.
"The gaffer has given me licence to get forward because he wants me up supporting Wes, you know, helping to close the opposition out and box them in.
"We like to keep the game in their half, we like to keep the pressure on, so the gaffer wants us to squeeze right up, pushing up to the half-way line and even beyond that, squeezing on to the second striker if he drops in. The gaffer wants us to play forward on the front foot.”
Finally, Donacien had words of praise for goalkeeper Christian Walton, adding: "Everyone feels very safe with Christian behind us because he’s such a phenomenal keeper. When he’s been called upon, he’s made some terrific saves, and for us to know he’s there is a really good feeling.
"He can come out of his area and sweep up, he’s great on crosses and his distribution is really, really good as well.”