Town midfielder Massimo Luongo has reflected on the goalless midweek draw with Watford after being asked if it was a disappointment or a good point as it lifted the team back into the Championship automatic promotion places.
The Blues go into tomorrow’s home clash with Middlesbrough, the penultimate game at Portman Road this season – unless they have to negotiate the play-offs of course – with Luongo having made way for Jack Taylor on Wednesday before coming off the bench to replace the ex-Peterborough player after 63 minutes.
Looking back almost 48 hours, 31-year-old Luongo said: "There seemed to be a little bit of disappointment, shoulders down, at the final whistle as we came off the pitch, but we played well. We knew it was a big opportunity, we dominated the game really well and we could have been one or two goals up at half-time.
"But when we got into the changing room it was pretty cool actually, quite chilled. Not like we are when we win, but it was definitely quite placid. We just focused and talked about it a little bit before going straight on to recovery, showering and heading home.”
The draw against the Hornets made it one point from back-to-back games, although Town and both their closest rivals, leaders Leicester and third-placed Leeds, have slipped up lately and the climax to the campaign looks no more clear-cut as a result.
Leicester head to struggling Plymouth tonight, while Leeds are at home at lunchtime tomorrow to another relegation-haunted side, Blackburn, which means Town will know exactly how their rivals have fared before they even take to the pitch to face a Boro side unbeaten in their last eight league outings, comprising five wins and three draws, but still six points adrift of the play-off places.
Asked if it was difficult to avoid their closest rivals’ results, Luongo said: "Yes, it is hard. I got a text message this week from a friend – "results are going well for you” – and I didn’t really want to know. I was watching the Champions League, not the Championship, on Tuesday and I think everyone probably was.
"There was still about 60 minutes left to play when I received the message and I was thinking ‘Why are you texting me now? Text me at the end of the game’. Yes, it’s definitely hard to avoid. Everyone’s sort of different in the way they want to approach it.
"I saw Vaz [Vaclav Hladky] before the game, funnily enough, and I asked him what he had been doing. ‘What did you do last night?’ I asked. He said he had watched the Leeds game and I said I had watched the Champions League, so everyone’s different.
"I think over the course of the season I haven’t cared about anyone, really, only us, and it’s easy to just keep doing that. But it’s definitely hard to avoid [what other teams are doing], especially if you are on your phone all the time.
"I try not to worry about them, especially if they are playing after us, because then you are chasing their results.”
The Australian was asked if he would skip the Plymouth-Leicester game tonight and replied with a smile: "Well, I didn’t even know they were on tonight!”
What about Leeds tomorrow then? Their game will finish about half an hour before Town’s game against Boro gets under way and Luongo added; "Our matchday routine is quite relaxed and structured with a lot of meetings at the training ground before we get on the bus to come back down to the stadium.
"It is hard to stop and have a look at your phone and they’re probably in our lockers anyway, so we tend not to worry about that and just try to focus on the game.”
Manager Kieran McKenna seems his usual level-headed self – win, lose or draw – and Luongo continued: "It’s the same with us and that’s probably why we are the way we are. He’s a never-too-high, never-too-low guy. We only worry about ourselves.
"We set up to play the way we want to play and not worry too much about the opposition. We rarely change for a team. We always try to stick to our guns, stick to what we do best and try to do it better than we did before. It’s the same in training Monday to Friday – we only worry about ourselves.”