Midfielder Cameron Humphreys wants Town to put on the sort of performance in tomorrow night’s FA Cup fourth round replay at Burnley that will banish the memory of a below-par display at Cambridge United on Saturday.
The 1-1 draw at the Abbey Stadium saw the third-placed Blues surrender further valuable ground to League One’s top two, Sheffield Wednesday and Plymouth Argyle, while Derby County in fourth moved to within two points of Kieran McKenna’s men.
With the in-form Owls, who visit Portman Road this weekend, and the Rams also having a game in hand on Town, who have won only one of their last six league games, it is important that they rediscover their best form as soon as possible — and the 19-year-old midfielder wants him and his colleagues to put on a show at Turf Moor.
Humphreys said: "It was obviously disappointing because we wanted to go to Cambridge and put on a performance and get a better result.
"It didn’t quite happen for us but the good thing is that we have another game tomorrow night at Burnley and we’re focusing on that now. We had a good training session this morning and our eyes are now on the game at Burnley.”
Asked what he thought was required to exit the recent poor run of results, Humphreys added: "I don’t think we need to do much different to what we’re already doing.
"We’re practising really hard on the training pitch and we’re trying to get better, both individually and as a team, and I think we’ve still got improvement to come. I don’t think we’re far off and hopefully more points will come.”
Following the sides’ goalless draw at Portman Road in the first game, a replay is probably not seen as ideal for either side, but Humphreys refuses to see it as a hindrance or a distraction.
"I think you can only view it positively,” he added. "In the first game we went toe-to-toe with the best team in the Championship and one that will probably be back in the Premier League next season, and we gave as good as we got.
"I’m really looking forward to the game and we all know it’s a challenge. But we want to be challenging ourselves against the best and in terms of challenges I would say this is going to be really big.
"We’re all excited to see what we can do against Burnley. We are going there looking to get through to the next round.”
Humphreys was asked if he expects a tougher game tomorrow night against the Clarets and he replied: "We were expecting a tough game first time round and it was, but we played well and even their manager agreed the draw was a fair result.
"Tomorrow, we’re expecting another tough one, which you would against a team sitting at the top of the Championship. We’ll need another really good team performance and if we can provide that then hopefully we can also get a good result.”
Does he believe Town need to be a bit more pragmatic if they are going to have any chance of pulling off a major FA Cup shock? "There are always going to be spells against a team like Burnley when they will have possession and we will have to defend well to keep a clean sheet,” he said.
"But we will stick to our principles and it’s when we play as we intend to play that we’re playing at our best. I don’t think we can change that too much. We’ll go there and give the best account of ourselves that we can.”
Should Town cause an upset in Lancashire, they will be at home in the fifth round against either Sheffield Wednesday or Fleetwood, who also have to replay tomorrow night. But Humphreys is in no mood to consider that prospect just yet, adding: "It’s good to be drawn at home but I’m not sure we can look that far ahead just yet.
"We can’t look past what is going to be a very tough game at Burnley, so it’s about focusing on that one and then, hopefully, we’ll be able to talk about what’s next for us.”