Town are heading in the right direction, midfielder Cole Skuse has insisted, regardless of whether or not they capture a play-off place this season.

Skuse is in his first season at Portman Road but his conversations with colleagues who have clocked up several years’ service have confirmed progress is being made.

He said: “I have spoken to the lads here regarding last year and recent years. They’ve said how big a stride has been made in such a short time. It’s unbelievable really.

“When the manager came in I think the town and the club in general sensed that they’d got the right man. I can only speak about what I saw last year and the strides that have been made are tremendous.

“It’s a great club trying to do things the right way, on and off the field. They’re not trying to cut any corners. It’s a very, very good club and a very stable club.

“I can only speak from what I’ve seen. I’ve only been here a short period but I know a lot of the lads have said that the club has made strides from what was happening last year.

“Obviously, Ipswich were in a similar boat to Bristol City when I was there last year. They did well to drag themselves away from the bottom three.”

Things changed immediately for the better with the arrival of manager Mick McCarthy, who inherited a team stuck at the bottom of the Championship with seven points from their first 13 games of the season when he took charge in November 2012.

Having achieved his aim to ensure Town avoided relegation, McCarthy has taken Town to the fringes of the play-off places in the current campaign, despite spending virtually nothing on transfer fees to assemble his new-look squad.

Skuse added: “I think our form all season has been pretty steady. We’ve not picked up as many wins as we’d have liked and we’ve drawn games we think we should have won, but away from home we’ve been good. We’re hard to beat, we’ve looked solid and teams are finding it hard to break us down.

“It’s a great dressing room. It’s a great, honest, bunch of boys. To be right in the mix with quite a small squad, I think we’re doing an unbelievable job and hopefully we can go on a final little push now and finish in those play-off places.”

Just how hard they are to beat will be severely tested tomorrow when they take on league leaders Leicester at the King Power Stadium, where Nigel Pearson’s team have won 11 and drawn three of their 15 Championship fixtures this season.

Skuse said: “He is a good manager. He’s proven he’s no mug in the football game and he’s very highly thought of.

"The squad of players they’ve got is good. They spent a bit of money in previous years and didn’t get it quite right, but they seem to have struck a good balance now. Fair play to them.”

Photo: Action Images

brian_a_mul added 08:02 - Feb 21 Fair play to you Cole! A good consistent performer from day 1!
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Surco72 added 08:16 - Feb 21 We actually have less wins this season than in Jewells first full season in charge at this stage 11 compared to 12 . MM has amassed 5 more points though with more draws , mostly 0-0 . I will still say this is hardly the massive turnaround that everyone is claiming ,and certainly less entertaining football to watch . I appreciate MM has perhaps taken the weakness of the whole team folding during certain games but at what cost ? We could really battle against Leicester and take a good point but still would be less than if we had attacked Blackpool and taken 3 over the two games if we get beat at Leicester

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SouperJim added 09:08 - Feb 21 Surco, while I understand your caution, the limited success Jewell had in his first season was largely built on a run of stunning form from two midfield players who weren't ours. What is promising about our current state of affairs is that there is very little sign that we will go backwards as a club under Mick. The only way is up, if Mick is given time and modest funds to build a team then there is every chance that we will be competing for the play-offs over the next few seasons. That is progress. I certainly agree that at times we have been very dull to watch and the solid platform Mick has built is very dependent on how the opposition play. Against the likes of Blackpool where we have time and space, we haven't got a clue how to play football. I do believe Mick will fix this given time however and I would rather tolerate the odd Blackpool performance then risk staring down the barrel of a gun every other season as another flash in the pan man is found out. In short, you can't have it all ways. We have been desperate for years for a little stability, Mick McCarthy is that stability.

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Blue041273 added 10:11 - Feb 21 Surco72 While I understand your logic, in reality the comparisons are meaningless. Essentially PJ left us worse off than when he took over. His managerial reign was ultimately a disaster for the club. OK we had the odd good result but these were far outweighed by the bad ones. MM had to pick up the pieces with no transfer pot for engineering instant success. He has brought a discipline into the structure of the team and breathed life into the team by bringing ing in a raft of aspirational players. Again these players are not going to set the world alight but they, with their fundamental performances are buying time. Given the standard of squad quality required to earn promotion these days most fans would accept that at the moment we are perhaps somewhat short, but every good result should tell us we are getting there. Maintaining this progress is in itself a challenge let alone raising the game a notch to be a 'big boy' in this league. Those that demand a more stylish expansive game from the players we have will have to accept that we will quickly become another Doncaster or Sheff Wed getting thumped more often than not. This was the PJ style, but we needed better players and better management/coaching to make this successful. Whether MM can ultimately bring success to Ipswich is not certain but for the moment the hope is there and in my view for the first time for many years.

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Beattiesballbag added 11:10 - Feb 21 SouperJim there is very little sign that we will go backwards as a club under Mick. The only way is up. Can't agree with you on the last part of your statement. If MM continues as he is & as no funds are going to be made available the only way is stagnation, As waiting to pick up other peoples cast offs is not going to move us forward, looking through the lower leagues for the right players might but that isn't happening! Nor will looking to match other teams as your first priority take us forward, If you don't have the confidence in your team to try & go out & impose yourselves on your opponents this will eventually wear the enthusiasm of the players down as well as the fans,..............unless of course you have a bunch of players who are happy being told to defend first as long as they are in the team. If you want to be in the playoffs or higher you have to be more positive than hoping to contain the opposition & nicking the points every week & you have to go out & find the right players at the right price not wait for them to fall in to your lap!

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SouperJim added 12:04 - Feb 21 Mr ballbag I draw your attention to Dids, Skuse, Berra, Mings, Hunt, even SEB. Mick will improve us.
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TimmyH added 13:04 - Feb 21 Hopefully Mick will change his tactics once and if we get some more funds as personally have felt this has been his downfall this season setting up the team incorrectly against the likes of teams struggling as per last Saturday, if he doesn't I can't see us improving that much, most of the teams in the play-offs currently are largely attack minded and tend to play better passing football than us. On the flip side Mick has aquired certain quality names to come here on the free which is a bonus namely Berra and McGoldrick, I won't mention the other above names as I feel they haven't done enough (as of yet) to be merited.

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Surco72 added 15:13 - Feb 21 Souperjim .. a lot of MMs success in saving us last season was down to loans also , mainly DJ Campbells goals who MM didn't even get in .MM has also used loans also Tunnicliffe has played most games this season the difference to the midfielders you quoted are that he didn't score or create anything . I for one think his signings Dids aside have been decidedly average and certainly no better than what we have got rid of or are not playing . Berra is solid but has split up the Chambers/Smith partnership that for me was better . Tabb/Hunt are no better than Martin on the left .Anderson is no better than JET. Nouble is no better than Taylor or even Chopra. Mings is no Cresswell . Gerken is no better than Loach .Skuse may be better than Hyam but has been played with him so again adding nothing . I agree we may not be going backwards but I don't agree with the thought we have made massive leaps , realistically we are not in the playoff picture as the next few weeks will show ,mid table finish at best and I personally think this squad is poor , we haven't even got a right back playing . And I will ask the question again ,how many of the top 6 sides would have played the likes of Tabb and Nouble so many times this season , shocking . TimmyH why do we keep using the funds excuse for MMs tactics Taylor has been here all season , it is not funds that keep playing Nouble or three defensive midfielders while Anderson,Edwards,Taylor are sat on the bench .Chambers at right back while our young attacking right back is on loan elsewhere

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TimmyH added 21:30 - Feb 21 @surco - I think it's more out of hope that extra bit of quality might be signed in the summer (but I'm not holding my breath) AND maybe he might start to get more attack minded.
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