Former Town captain Mick Mills thinks that Town will have to rely on others if they are to avoid the drop. Mills, recently taken on at Crystal Palace as a scout, thought that luck deserted the Blues whenever they were near the Villa goal.

Mills said: "It looks as though they might now have to rely on others slipping up. I don't think Ipswich are going to get to the 40 point mark now, although who can be sure, they might. I think that several other teams may be below that level too.

"Town played very well at Newcastle to get a point and could go even better at West Ham next Saturday. Statistics show that sides get more points at home, but perhaps less pressure away may help them."

Mills also notes a more direct approach from Town at present: "The club have achieved so much in the past few years and now they are in a battle for Premiership survival. The fluent passing game that has been their hallmark is not evident so much now. A team that deep down always wants to play good football deserves to survive."

The cup-winning skipper thought his old side did enough on Saturday: "In the first half against Villa nothing much happened. In the second period both teams went for it more, Ipswich in particular.

"As Ipswich stepped it up, Villa did too and it made for a more interesting game. I thought my old club were going to get the points that would have send the big crowd away happy. But that little bit of luck deserted them in the last third.

"When you are down at the bottom that's the way it goes quite often. It's going to be hard and will probably go to the wire. At the end of the day it might boil down to whose nerves hold the best."

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