Town newcomer Jonny Parr is confident he could be celebrating promotion to the Premier League for the second time in three seasons.

He has helped Mick McCarthy’s team to climb to seventh in the Championship and they will be looking to extend their unbeaten run to five games when newly-promoted Rotherham visit Portman Road this weekend.

Parr said: “It’s where we want to be, up there pushing for promotion, so we have to keep it going.

"I said when I first signed for Ipswich that I had seen what the team did last year, finishing not too far off the play-offs, and the gaffer told me before I signed that he wanted to push on into the top six this season. I think it’s something that we can do and that’s what we are pushing for.”

The Norwegian full-back was part of former club Crystal Palace’s promotion to the top flight in 2013 and he clocked up a total of 101 appearances, scoring twice, for the Eagles in three seasons at Selhurst Park before being released in May this year.

He recalled: “In my promotion season with Palace we had a bit of a strange start when we lost our first three league games. But after that it was a lot better — we went on a 14-game unbeaten run that included 11 wins — and it’s very important to keep the momentum going.

"You are happy to win but you have to focus on the next game and try to keep the run going.

“Every point is vital in this league and if you are going to go up you have to keep picking up three points. It was a great season at Palace and once we started to build up momentum we kept it going for almost the entire season.

"We dropped down a bit during the last month or so and ended up in the play-offs but we got promotion.

“It was a great season and we had a great team spirit as well, just as we have here at Ipswich, which is very important. When you are in and out of the team you must keep supporting your team-mates and ensure everyone is pulling in the right direction.

"One thing’s for sure — you are always going to use a lot more than 11 players during a 46-game league season.

“It’s tight, this league. There are only small differences between the teams and you have to be on it 100 per cent for every game if you are going to come out on top.

“Hopefully we will have recovered from our game at Wigan on Monday and be ready for Rotherham. I think we will and we know it’s not going to be easy. It will take another good effort — 100 per cent from everyone — to get another three points.”

Photo: Action Images

Steve_ITFC_Sweden added 07:27 - Sep 26 Let's keep our feet on the ground, lads. A couple of setbacks and we would be middle-table very quickly and then the negative comments would start to re-appear. I prefer to be hopeful but realistic. We should definitely have as our ambition a top-6 place. In our present situation that's a realistic aim - which is not the same as an aim realised.
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IpswichFan26 added 08:04 - Sep 26 Its nice that everyone at the club has been saying and believing we can make the playoffs this season, I just hope that we don't jinx it by talking about it publicly too much! As MM would say, this is a 'bonkers league'! But this is nice in contrast to a couple of weeks ago. Lets just take it a game or two at a time see what happens, hopefully by adding to our to our unbeaten streak tomorrow.

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Orraman added 09:02 - Sep 26 OK we're far from certainties to get promotion this season and we are far, far away from storming up the Premiership but after watching four/five years of absolute rubbish (apart from a few exciting games), the current spell of success should be enjoyed as a welcome change from what has gone before. There are definite signs that a plan is coming together. It disappoints me to continue reading negative comments in this forum. No one has suggested we are suddenly world beaters so just enjoy the moment. An excellent back four, the younger players are getting a chance, great experience up front and with one or two additions at the right time we can, as the season progresses, begin to anticipate greater things. Until then.....enjoy!!!!

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