Town skipper Sam Morsy knows only too well the prize for avoiding defeat at Portman Road tomorrow and believes he and his teammates will benefit from their experience of the near-identical situation that occurred a year ago.
A 6-0 thumping of Exeter earned the Blues the second automatic spot in League One and a point will be enough when all-but-relegated Huddersfield are the visitors on Saturday as manager Kieran McKenna and his team look to end the campaign in style by securing a place in the Premier League next term.
Midfielder Morsy, 32, said: "It’s a very similar experience, a similar fans’ welcome and similarly knowing a win will get the job done. It’s good to have experienced that and we have to stay professional and stay calm.
"The situation is not going to be a shock to anyone, which is important as well. There’s going to be some familiarity about it.”
Asked if the preparations since Tuesday’s 2-1 success at Coventry have been on a par with other Championship fixtures since back in August last year, he added: "Of course. I think, sometimes, you can try to do more and actually you’ll produce less.
"For the last couple of years now, we’ve had a way of preparing, training and whatever, and we’d be mad to go away from that to be honest.
"Our success, not only last season but also this season, and especially at Portman Road, has been with the same process and we’ve just got to give it everything we’ve got.
"I don’t want to think about what might be. If I spent time thinking about anything else, come Saturday I’d have no energy. I’m old and experienced enough to realise that.
"In your younger days it’s very easy to get ahead of yourself but I just want to get the job done on Saturday. We need to reserve every bit of energy for this game.”
Town are tantalisingly close to a top-flight return and while their success may have confounded some people, Morsy admitted the season had a good feel to it from day one.
He explained: "We had a really good pre-season. We beat Leipzig, we had a really good game against Luton, we had a really good game against Preston, so I think confidence was there early doors really.
"We started the season really well; we had a good game against Leeds early on and from then we’ve just gone out to attack and win every game. I think it has helped that the manager has never taken a backward step and it has taken us to this point.”
Asked if there was a moment in manager McKenna’s two and a half years in charge when he was thinking ‘We’re on to something pretty special here’ Morsy replied: "It was like that right from the off really. There was a lot of detail, a calmness and a structure, so a lot of the time, in football as in life, when you have a really good routine, really good habits, it’s not to say you’ll never achieve success, but it is the case that you will definitely get better.
"How much better? You never know, but for sure you could see the upward trajectory almost immediately.
"My first impressions of the manager were that he was thorough and really detailed. In his first statements and how he spoke at meetings, he said he wanted this club to be a big club again and explained what it would be like.
"Then he started to slowly change – lots of timings round training and routine as we decided to implement slowly what he wanted. But yes, a really good first impression, and right from the off I have had a really great relationship with him.”
Reminded that he is on the cusp of being a Premier League footballer for the first time, Morsy added: "Yes, it sounds good. It has been a really good season and up until this point we have done really well. We’ve competed really well and we have another big game tomorrow.
"It’s going to be a tough game because nobody is just going to say ‘Here you go, here’s three points’ so we have to fight for it and we have to earn it. We’ll have to do what we’ve done for a few seasons now.”
The midweek win at Coventry sparked wild scenes of celebration among the Town supporters but Morsy pointed out: "They’re pretty much like that after every game to be fair, for the people who follow Ipswich. We love to celebrate at the end, with the crowd, Clarkey with his fist pumps, it’s all regular.
"We went into the dressing room, obviously very happy after a great away day and a great away win, but we’re under no illusions about the task in front of us. Huddersfield are a tough side to play against and it’s going to be about us and can we bring our best level?”
Morsy insisted it’s not difficult to think about what he and his colleagues are so close to achieving.
"I don’t think it’s difficult because we’ve all been in football for long enough,” he continued. "Football can be a random game, and we know that, but we also know that to get to this point we have put the situation in our own hands.
"But, again, it’s going to be about what we do. We’re going to give it everything we’ve got and we’ll see where it takes us.”