Town midfielder Massimo Luongo is looking forward to facing former club Queens Park Rangers at Portman Road tomorrow and with skipper Sam Morsy absent as he serves a one-game suspension, it looks as if he is a likely starter after only making the bench for the 1-1 home draw with leaders Leicester on Boxing Day.
Sydney-born Luongo was introduced in the 80th minute on Tuesday to replace Jack Taylor and the smart money is on them both featuring from the start against the third-bottom Hoops, who have taken just one point from their last four league games and suffered three consecutive defeats.
It was in the third minute of stoppage time that Morsy’s shot was deflected past Leicester keeper Mads Hermansen by defender Jannik Vestergaard to prevent what would have been back-to-back defeats for Town, following last week’s 4-0 loss at Leeds, for the first time in Kieran McKenna’s two years and 108 games in charge.
Asked how important it was to salvage a point on the back of such a heavy defeat at Elland Road, Luongo said: "We got a point from the Leicester game and the performance was really good. The reaction from the Leeds game was also good and sums us up as a group because we put a line through it and kept doing what we have been doing.
"If we’d played really well at Leeds and dominated the game but lost 1-0, I think we would all still be quite buzzing with it, although we wouldn’t have got the three points.
"We did that against Leicester and if we’d scored around 70 minutes, I think we would have pushed on and gone on to win it.
"It didn’t come but we got the point that we deserved and a bit of luck that I felt was overdue. We have another two big ones coming up now against QPR and Stoke on New Year’s Day.
"In training today we looked at a few things we could take into the next games, especially off the ball. We went toe to toe with them and we won a lot of duels against them. They got through a couple of times but we won the ball back in good areas and hurt them too.
"If we had been a little bit more clinical, just as they probably had a few one-on-one chances, we could have got the same.
"But going into tomorrow’s game against QPR, although it doesn’t really matter who we are playing, I think we have a good momentum going from the Leicester game. We’ll take that as long as we keep building on the performance level.”
Luongo admitted the unexpected one-game suspension to be served by Morsy is a blow. "He’s always a loss and he’s an important part of our group,” he said.
"When he plays he brings something different to what anyone else can provide, like winning the ball and controlling the game both on and off the ball.
"His leadership is so important but it’s a chance for someone to step up and take that role or bring their own kind of style to the role. It will be an interesting game.”
Asked if he had to alter his game when playing alongside Taylor in midfield, Luongo responded: "I don’t know. I think naturally our roles sort of change. We’ve played games where Sam has had to be further up the pitch and I’ve had to come across – the Leeds game was an example of that and I think the Millwall game as well. So, every game is different.
"I think the beauty of having two pivots is that we like to push one on a little bit and for Sam to be a little bit steadier but I think we under-estimate the Championship a bit.
"Every team plays with deadly wingers so we’ve got to be more secure with double-ups in the wide areas and the opposite midfielder coming across, so it’s kind of worked out to be the same role with different personalities and different styles.
"So, I don’t think much will change whoever goes in there, we’ll probably just have to adjust to the type of player that’s going to play in there.”
How does the top end of this season’s Championship table compare to what Luongo experienced in the past? He added: "I think teams are levelling out now. You see Southampton are coming up – they’re on fire at the moment – and Leeds, Leicester are there. The teams that you would have probably said pre-season would be up there are up there.
"We’re probably the dark horses a little bit but the top eight or nine would have been on someone’s automatic promotion list – West Brom, Sunderland and teams like that.
"It’s a tough league and always has been. My experience has been getting into the top six and that getting into the top two is so damned hard. Staying there, I’ve been told, is even harder and you can feel the other teams coming from behind and trying to catch us up. It’s just up to us to be just as good every week and keep the consistency up.”