George Hirst has stressed the importance of a win against in-form Morecambe at Portman Road tomorrow night as Town look to put their recent below-par form behind them.
The Shrimps go into this one sitting in the drop zone but in a table based on current form they are actually ahead of the Blues, having won three on the trot to climb off the foot of the table.
While Town remain third, the gaps between them and second-placed Sheffield Wednesday has increased to seven points and they are ten points adrift of leaders Plymouth Argyle, who played a game more than the other two.
Manager Kieran McKenna has seen his side fail to win any of their last four games, taking three points from a possible 12, while a run of just three wins from their last 11, with 15 points gained from 33, has not only seen the gap to the teams above them widen, but also allowed the chasing pack of Derby, Bolton and Barnsley move closer.
Hirst said: "We know how big this game is. It’s a chance for us to win and collect three points. We can’t get a run going until we win one game and once you win one you can go and put two, three, four on top of it.
"With it being Saturday-Tuesday, we don’t have time to dwell on what happened at Oxford at the weekend, and what might have been or could have been.
"We’ve just got to look forward to Tuesday night and make sure that when 7.45 comes we’re as ready and dangerous as we can be.
"We know we’re a dangerous team anyway but after a few disappointing results that have hurt the boys our tails are up for this one and we can’t wait to get going again.
Asked if he felt it had the feel of a must-win game, he added: "Yes, I think if your aim is to get promoted then every game is a must-win.
"I’m not a believer in one game being bigger than another; you just have to take each one as it comes and at the end of the day, whether it’s Manchester United or Morecambe, there are three points up for grabs, same as any game you play throughout the league system.
"We’ve got to make sure that we turn up for this game and we’re at our best, otherwise Morecambe are a team that can make life difficult for us. It’s up to us to put our best on and hopefully get the result that we deserve.”
Hirst watched the FA Cup third round win over Rotherham and then appeared as a second-half substitute in the 1-1 draw with league leaders Plymouth, so Saturday could see him make his first home start since joining on loan from Leicester City through to the end of the season.
Asked for his verdict on the Ipswich fans, who have pushed crowds close to capacity this term, Hirst replied: "It’s crazy. I’m probably quite fortunate in the sense that I got to play last year at Portsmouth, another club whose fanbase tends to fill the stadium every week. That was my first taste of it but we are getting 29,000 and more at Ipswich.
"It’s the type of crowd you want to play in front of and I sometimes think even the fans themselves don’t realise how much of an impact they can make and how much it can really kick the boys on and give us that little spur over the last five or ten minutes, when the lungs and the legs are burning.
"You hear someone shouting your name and you realise you’re not just doing it for yourself, you’re doing it for thousands of others, not just the 30,000 in the stadium but the whole town.
"It’s amazing to have that kind of support and as long as we can have that for the rest of the season then hopefully it will spur us on to where we need to be.”