Town boss Kieran McKenna believes the Blues have made some great strides over the time he has been in charge but is more interested in performances and how his team works than the League One table, which his side currently tops, at this point in the season.
The Blues remain unbeaten having won five and drawn two in their league campaign with Bristol Rovers visiting Portman Road tomorrow. They have won their first four away games at the start of a season for the first time in their history.
"I didn’t have any expectations around league position after seven games,” McKenna said when asked if he had anticipated being in this position at this stage in the campaign. "It’s not of interest to me.
"Our expectations around how we perform is a big interest, how we work is a big interest.
"I think our performances have been good on the whole, but still with a lot of room to improve. That’s where my focus and my expectations lie.
"We expected to start well, in terms of performances, and we expected to be a hard-working team who were well organised and had a plan, on and off the ball, and I think we are that.
"Now we need to keep on improving. We need to keep improving our work on the ball, keep improving our set plays, keep on top of our good defensive record, keep improving defensively.
"Our performances are around a level that I would be happy with but there is big scope for improvement and that’s what the next couple of months are about. Time for looking at league tables is a long way down the road for now.”
Reflecting on the work which goes on on a daily basis, he added: "The culture of winning is hopefully a by-product of the work we do. We don’t talk every day about winning, we talk every day about improvement and learning. We talk about maximum effort, we talk about everything on the training pitch counting to the bigger goal and we really focus on that.
"We focus on doing the right things day-to-day and improving, individually, as a team and as staff.
"Having an open environment where players can communicate, where they can question things, input into their own development - as individuals and in the team - we focus on doing all those things right.
"We feel if we do those things well and we work really hard at it Monday to Friday, the chances of winning a game on a Saturday are much, much higher. And the winning becomes a by-product of everything we do. That’s our approach to it.
"We have made some great strides in the last eight months, internally as a club. We get really good feedback from people who come into the club and watch us train having not been at the club for a while.
"I think the players know that themselves. They feel the standard every day, they feel the competition every day and that gives you a chance.
"That is what we will keep focusing on and keep working hard towards, respecting every opponent, obviously Bristol Rovers being the next in line and be humble and work hard on the pitch, doing everything we can to get three points at a time.”