Ipswich Town winger Marcus Harness felt that the Blues’ last-minute draw against Sky Bet Championship leaders Leicester City will have given the squad “more belief”.
Sam Morsy’s 93rd minute effort deflected off Ricardo and Jannik Vestergaard to cancel out Stephy Mavididi’s first-half opener and put Kieran McKenna’s side five points ahead of third-placed Southampton after an enthralling Boxing Day encounter.
Harness said: "I think it was a good performance and it gives us more belief and shows us that we’re onto something, so we’ll just carry on.
"This is what you play for, games like that, against some amazing players in a packed stadium. You can’t really ask for much more. It’s a pleasure.
"It turns out to be a good point. I think we would have been disappointed to come away with nothing.
"Happy that Skip’s [Morsy] managed to drag it by the scruff of the neck and get us a goal at the end. We’re happy with the point and we move on to two more tough fixtures in the next couple of days.”
Asked whether the equaliser was Morsy’s with some sources crediting it as a Vestergaard own goal, Harness said: "It’s got to be his goal, hasn’t it? I didn’t think there’d be an argument about it!”
He added: "We played well. Just the final ball and the final finish maybe let us down a bit but I think over the balance of the game it was probably fair to get the draw, so we’re happy with it.”
The 27-year-old was asked about Town’s mentality after the 4-0 defeat at promotion-rivals Leeds United on Saturday but the Blues’ number 11 stated that the side is full of confidence.
"We’ve got a lot of belief in what we’re doing and in each other and in the group, but it was probably one of the best teams to come to Portman Road since I’ve been here [Leicester] over the last couple of years and we’ve shown that we can compete, which we’ve done over and over again,” said Harness.
"I think it was a good performance and gives us more belief and shows us that we’re on to something.
"We never want to lose two games in a row or when we do lose we want to back it up with a good performance.
"But it’s only one game of football, we can’t get too wrapped up in narratives that other people might have.
"We drew a line on it [the Leeds defeat] and just moved onto a fresh game of football. I think we played well and are happy to get a point.
"We’ve probably gone behind a bit more than we would have liked lately. There’s been quite a few times we’ve gone behind, reacted well and come back and shown good character. But obviously it would probably be better not to go behind in the first place.
"Whenever things go against us we’ve got a lot of character in the group, we stick together, keep doing what we’re trying to do, playing to our principles and we’ve dealt with it well so far. We’ve got a lot of confidence that even when we go behind, we’re still in the game.”
Harness was happy with his performance having made his second start of the month, having also been in the XI which beat Watford 2-1 at Vicarage Road, and knows members of the squad often have to bide their time.
"We’ve got a squad full of good quality players and not everyone can play,” he reflected. "It’s about taking your chance when you get it, I guess, that’s all you can do.”
He was also asked about the hamstring injury suffered by George Hirst, which saw the striker withdrawn in the first half.
Harness said: "Hopefully it’s not too bad. We’ll see. We’ve got a big squad of a lot of fit and good quality players who can come in and add a lot to the group. I’m sure we’ll be fine.”
Once again there was a sell-out 29,000-plus crowd at Portman Road and Harness thoroughly enjoys playing in that atmosphere.
"It’s great, another full house,” he continued. "Always a pleasure to play here, so on to the next one. Hopefully we’ll have another full house in a few days and we can get three points.”
Town remain second, six points behind the Foxes, with the Saints now third with Leeds back to fourth having been beaten 2-1 at Preston.
The former Pompey man, who is now looking ahead to Friday evening’s home game against third-bottom QPR, believes the Blues fully deserve to be where they are in the table.
"Definitely, but we don’t look at it too much, like we didn’t last season,” he insisted. "It’s a cliché to say we take it game by game, but that’s what we do, that’s what we’ve done and it’s got us to this point.
"We’ve got another tough game against maybe not one of the big names that was in the Premier League, but it’s going to be another tough game. We’ll be ready to get some recovery tomorrow and prepare for the next one.”