Town boss Kieran McKenna insists he’s not thinking about promotion ahead of Saturday’s final home game of the season against Exeter City with victory guaranteeing a top two spot and a place in the Championship next season.
Quizzed on what promotion would mean to him at his pre-match press conference ahead of the game against the Grecians, McKenna said: "Honestly, I'm not thinking about it. The time to think about it and answer that question, and I don't want to not answer the question, but the time to answer that is after the game.
"We're very aware of the position and, as I've said, I'm humbled and honoured to be the manager of this football club and to be part of trying to restore it to where we want to get to and where the supporters want to be.
"But the focus has to be on each step along the way towards success and that's where the focus has been, and that's where it is now. And the next step to success is going out and putting a performance in against Exeter.
"So, my mindset has been not to let my concentration or my thoughts anywhere past that. We've made sure that the players are the same. And I think the time to reflect on what has or hasn't been achieved, and the next steps and what we've done already is at the end of the season.
"We're really looking forward to the game, as we have all of the games at Portman Road. It's always a privilege to go there as a staff and a group of players and represent the club in front of a great support, so tomorrow is certainly no different in that regard.”
Has blocking out the outside noise since Tuesday’s brilliant 3-0 win at Barnsley been more difficult?
"Not particularly,” the Northern Irishman reflected.” We've spoken about these things since the start of the season. There are things you can control and things you can't control, and outside noise is one of those that you certainly can control.
"Of course, when you're doing badly, the outside noise gets a little bit louder. And then when you're doing particularly well or you get a couple of big results the outside noise gets louder, and we can't impact those things.
"It's lots of good things, lots of positive things going on, but our focus remains on what we can control, and that is preparing as well as we can to go and deliver a performance tomorrow.”
Has he allowed himself or the players to dream at all? Or has there been a conscious effort to block that out?
"Honestly, none,” McKenna said. "And the players have been really good about that as well. We've got some experienced players in the dressing room and they've managed that really well.
"There's no time to think of anything past Saturday. We have to keep focusing, as we have been, on our processes, on our performances and there's no time to let your mind drift to anything past that really because we know that in football as soon as you do that then that's when you're going to get caught out.
"We know the position that we're in, we know that nothing is done yet and we know that we're going to have to go out and deliver at least one more really good performance, so that's what we're 100 per cent focused on.”
The Town squad appears one which is level-headed and doesn’t need much managing in terms of the emotions surrounding Saturday’s match but McKenna says there have been conversations on that subject.
"We do speak about it and you’ve got different experience levels in the dressing room,” he said.
"We’ve got some younger players who are in their first season of playing senior football, we’ve got players who haven’t been involved in this type of situation.
"We’ve got players who have been involved in this type of situation a few times over. I think there’s no doubt at this stage of the season, emotions are higher, that’s normal, that’s healthy.
"We want to be in these situations, it’s a lot better than being at the end of the season with nothing to play for.
"But the group knows that we need to keep doing what we have been doing, which is not get caught up in any emotions and focus on the things that we can control.
"We’ve spoken about it, the players speak amongst themselves a lot, I know that there are good messages within the group and it’s just about trying to execute now under the conditions that we’ll be in tomorrow.”
How does he keep a lid on his own emotions as he goes into the game which could win him his first promotion as a manager.
"As a leader you have to practice as you preach and if I can’t control my emotions and stay focused on the process and preparing for the game and getting the details right, then you can’t expect anyone else to,” he said.
"Of course, you have experiences in the past that you draw on, experiences at previous clubs, whether that’s competing for Champions League positions or different things that come at the end of the season.
"We all have our different experiences that you draw upon and we all try and be consistent with our messages, and I think it’s really important that the staff model the things we want to see in the players and we try and do that.”
Has he learnt lessons from being alongside the likes of Jose Mourinho and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at Manchester United.
"All the people that you work with and the people that you come across, you live certain experiences with them,” he said.
"You also speak to them about previous positions they’ve been in and how they’ve handled different situations and, of course, competing for something at the end of the season is one of those situations.
"You draw on those experiences and the messages are always pretty similar in any walk of life, that you have to focus on what you can control, focus on doing the right things and being consistent with what you’ve done and not get caught up in anything that’s outside your control.
"There are certain bits about a week like this that we have to enjoy and the atmosphere in the stadium and those things are one of those, but we know that we know that we need to go and do our job, so that’s where our focus is.”
Asked wether, if all goes well tomorrow, whether he has a celebration planned, McKenna laughed: "Zero, I’ve not got any plans whatsoever past 4.45 tomorrow.”