Town may already be relegated to the Championship, but Blues striker George Hirst insists there is still plenty to play for in the final weeks of the Premier League season.
Three matches remain before Town’s return to the top flight draws to a close with two of those at Portman Road, home clashes with Brentford and West Ham United sandwiching a trip to fellow relegated side Leicester City.
With an insurmountable 15-point gap to West Ham United above them, the Blues could be forgiven for beginning to prepare for life back in the Championship next season.
But Hirst, who scored his fifth goal of the season in Saturday’s comeback draw at Everton, says he and his teammates still have a point to prove at Premier League level.
"A bit of self-pride,” he said. "Go and prove a point and show that we will be back and we can compete at this level, that’s going to serve us well going into next season back in the Championship.
"It’s just about building, learning, continuing to do what we do and play the way we play, and I think that will serve us better in the long run.”
One of the biggest disappointments of the season has been Town’s home form, which has seen them win just one of their 17 league matches on Suffolk soil this campaign.
The Portman Road record is something Hirst is keen to amend in the final knockings of the season, highlighting the opportunity the Blues have to collect more victories.
Asked why Town have been better on the road, he said: "I don’t really know, it’s just the way it’s fell, I don’t think there’s any one reason. If there was one reason why that’s been the case, then we’d have probably tried to fix it by now.
"That’s just how it’s turned out, we wish we could have given them more to cheer about at home but we’ve got two home games left now and hopefully we can do that in the last two.
"We definitely want to give the fans something to cheer about, especially back at Portman Road. That’s a big aim of ours now towards the end of the season.
"We’ve got three games that I think are winnable games if we go and put on a performance as best as we can and show the character that we did [against Everton].
"They’re three games that we can definitely get points from.”
The Blues will once again be competing with Leicester and Southampton next season after the pair were also relegated back to the Championship alongside Kieran McKenna’s men.
While there may be motivation to finish 18th and above both the Foxes and the Saints, Hirst says that is not something that has been discussed.
"It’s probably not at the top of our thinking,” he admitted. "We’re not really worried about next season just yet, we’ve got three games left in the Premier League and we’re going to go out there and enjoy it first and foremost and give the best account of ourselves that we possibly can.
"If that means finishing third-bottom as opposed to second-bottom then great, but if it doesn’t we’re going to end up in the same place.
"It’s about us and what we can learn from this experience, what we can learn going forward and ultimately us as a team being better and putting ourselves in the best position come the start of next season.”
Town will likely be installed among the early favourites for an instant promotion back to the Premier League, but that is of no interest to Hirst.
"I don’t know yet, I’m not a betting man so it means nothing to me,” the 26-year-old said. "We’re going to go back to the Championship, give it the best shot we can and hopefully it can be a successful season.
"It’s an exciting thought and it’s definitely something that once the season is done we can really focus on. You can go on holiday and really think about that excitement in your belly that you know you can go on and be one of the best teams in the division next season. I’m sure that will be a nice feeling when it comes.”
On his first taste of top flight football this season, Hirst said: "It’s been very tough. Every team is a good team – there's no easy games, there’s no gimmes or anything like that and we’ve certainly found that out the hard way. It’s also been lessons learnt for myself, over the course of the season I’ve definitely improved ten-fold as a player.
"I think we will be a far better team in the Championship next season than we were last season, which is a pretty good place to be considering how good we were last season. That’s definitely something for us to take forward.”
The Scotland international added: "Just playing against better opposition. Even with the players we’ve brought in, you’re playing against a better standard of opposition in training. You’re playing against better players on the pitch so you’ve got to be smarter with your movement.
"At times you’ve got to be a little bit nastier, stronger, more physical and use your body better. I’d like to think that in every aspect of my game I’ve improved. I’m by no means perfect and there’s still plenty that I can work on which is also a nice place to be.
"It’s nice to know that I’m a better player now than I was this time last year but there’s also plenty more room for improvement.”