Wes Burns is Town’s man for the big occasion after scoring in each of the four biggest attendances at Portman Road this season.

He did it to decide a five-goal thriller against Portsmouth as the Blues won 3-2, he netted the only goal against Derby and he was on target again in the 3-0 Boxing Day win against Saturday’s opponents, Oxford United, with all games attracting bumper crowds of more than 28,000.

His latest success came in last week’s 1-1 home draw against League One leaders Plymouth Argyle, who trailed to his glorious 63rd minute opener before Norwich loanee Bali Mumba earned the visitors a point with a deflected shot in the third minute of stoppage time in a game witnessed by more than 29,000 spectators, the biggest crowd since the Gamechanger takeover almost two years ago.

Burns, 28, agreed that he thrives on the electric atmosphere generated by the bigger crowds, adding: “I do enjoy them and they are moments in your career that you will always look back on and you will always hope that you got the best out of yourself on these big occasions.

“There’s nothing worse than looking back on a big game and having regrets. On Saturday against Plymouth, personally I don’t think I had the greatest game but I produced one of the big moments and if you’re not having the best of times out there for the 90 minutes, you’ve got to make sure you are there to deliver in the big moment, which I was.”

Burns was as gutted as anyone of an Ipswich persuasion by Mumba’s late sucker punch, the ball taking an unfortunate deflection off Cameron Burgess to help it on its way past goalkeeper Christian Walton and high into the net.

But he admitted: “Plymouth are a fantastic team, which is shown by their points tally and the fact that they are top of the league, but I wouldn’t say it was down to that. Sometimes it’s just one of those days at the office for players; you can’t be 10 out of 10 every week.

“Like I said, as long as you are there in the big moments, whether it’s attack or defence, I think that’s all you can do for your teammates, and as long as you’re always running around and working hard for your team, I don’t think anyone can really criticise you.

“You may not execute the pass or the cross every single time, but I think if you’re always there in the big moments, your team can never criticise you.”

It was by no means the first time Town had fallen victim to a late opposition goal and the stats show that Kieran McKenna’s men have conceded 15 points from winning positions in the current campaign.

Burns continued: “It does seem that when we’re 1-0 ahead and going into the 90th minute it happens every time but there have been games where we have been ahead by one goal and held on to see the game out for three points.

“Look at the game against Derby County, for instance. That was only 1-0 and for a large proportion of the second half they were banging on the door, so we know we’ve got it in us.

“It was a deflected shot, very similar to the one we conceded late on against Fleetwood, that has flown into the top bins.

“There really isn’t much you can do about it. Obviously, we looked back at it on Monday and we said that leading up to the goal there were things we could have done better.

“We were aware of that but ultimately it was a shot from a player we shouldn’t have allowed to come inside and get his shot off.

“Football’s football, it produces some mad moments and I guess at the moment they are stinging us, but we will learn from it.”

As always, there was a post mortem on the Plymouth game conducted at the training ground on Monday morning by McKenna and his staff, with Burns and his colleagues reliving the moment two points slipped from their grasp less than 48 hours earlier.

Burns added: “The gaffer doesn’t really change too much from how he is immediately after the game. He sees the game very differently to how a lot of people see it and manages to take himself away from it emotionally and see it for what it is.

“We look at it on a Monday and we dissect it, things we could have done better as well as things we did brilliantly.

“Against Plymouth we had the game, the three points, it was all there for us to take, but there were a couple of moments — it’s not always one moment that leads to a goal — that were like a chain reaction that led to their equaliser.

“We look at it again and go back over it to make sure we learn from it and that it doesn’t happen again.

“The gaffer is very much a man of reason who is always open to suggestions. The floor is never closed and it’s not a case of it always being his way.

“He’s someone who, if you’ve got something to say, will always let you voice your opinion. We can go back and forth as a group with him and the coaching staff to make sure we come out of it with the best outcome.”

Photo: Matchday Images

BlueNomad added 20:52 - Jan 19 We have intelligent players as well as a mega-intelligent manager.
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Daniel235 added 21:33 - Jan 19 Burns is right 1 0 against derby and also 2 1 against Peterbrough at home won by a single goal. Fans always look at games where we conceaded in the last minutes.
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Bazza8564 added 21:56 - Jan 19 Defending slender leads is risky, we've dominated some games then lost a late goal or goal and we've lost points. I'm less bothered about Plymouth, I thought they were good value for a point, but Charlton was a horror sow and Fleetwood, Cheltenham, that's 6 points blown. Nothing we can do about them now, big game Saturday and then we push on
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