The pre-match scenes outside Portman Road tomorrow – fan group Blue Action are organising another huge welcome for the Town squad when their coach approaches the stadium ahead of the clash with Norwich – will inevitably trigger memories of the amazing scenes at the final home fixture in last season’s League One promotion-winning campaign when Exeter were walloped 6-0.

A similar outcome might be too much to expect but one thing’s for sure, manager Kieran McKenna and his players will be on the receiving end of a great reception as they arrive around 11am ahead of the scheduled 12.30pm start.

Town skipper Sam Morsy said: “I think it’s just amazing and, like I’ve said, you have to enjoy those moments. They don’t come around that often. It’s going to come round tomorrow, it came round at the Exeter game, and you tell me – when was the last time there was a parade like that before a game?

“It’s not normal, is it, so when these times come around you have to enjoy it. There’s no added pressure, there’s no whatever, it’s just great. If the fans want to and feel like supporting us that much then we embrace that. It’s what the fans live for and you seen in the covid pandemic how tough life was without football.

“So, we respect that. It doesn’t mean we are going to win but of course we are going to give our best and I’d just say to the fans, just enjoy it because there are many, many lows in football. When you’re doing well you have to enjoy it so let’s see what we’ve got.”

Town sit second in the Championship, just one point behind leaders Leicester, with 51 points from their 21 games thus far. Asked if any of that had surprised Morsy, he replied: “I think at the start of the season you have an idea but I think with us it would probably be more difficult to project the idea.

“I think at the start of the season there was an expectation that we was going to spend so much money because our owners, which obviously we didn’t.

“But what I did know was we’ve got a really tight-knit squad. The lads are brilliant, the manager’s amazing and the coaching staff really good.

“The fans are behind it and I think when you’ve got a club who’s together like that you’ve got a chance. Did I think we’d have that points tally? I think that probably would have been optimistic at the start of the season if I’m honest, for any club really.

“But like I said, you could see the signs last season, you could see the signs in pre-season where we’re just trying to be a good team really and that’s a goal, because if you get the points, league position, can we be a good team.

“What’s a good team? A team who fights for each other, who fights for each other, who plays in a brave way and that’s all we’ve tried to do and that’s what we’ll continue to do.”

Town are back home after two wins on the road, 2-0 at Middlesbrough last Saturday, and a 2-1 win at Watford on Tuesday night. Did the long trip north, followed by another away fixture, perhaps make the build-up to the Norwich game more hectic than usual?

Morsy said: “It’s probably better in all honesty. I think at times you can overly build something up, whereas the mindset we need to have tomorrow is just to be calm, composed, everybody knows their job, play at our normal game. Like I said, there’s not too many teams been better than us this season. Maybe West Brom away is probably the only one.

“Leeds at home was a very close game but other than that we’ve been really, really competitive in every single game, especially at home.

“So for us it’s just about being ourselves really, enjoying it, embracing it, but nothing changes for us, no one’s going to play differently, the structure’s going to be the same and we’ve practiced it day in, day out, for a couple of years now.

“In the heat of the battle we believe our habits are really strong and it’s going to be important to hold our habits really strong.”

Apart from Morsy as captain, Town also have a strong leadership group and he added: “It’s really important and it’s a responsibility really when you’re captain of a football club like this. You do have a certain responsibility to represent the group as much as you can and to help the group as much as you can.

“So the likes of myself and the other lads in the leadership group will be doing this and trying to set the right example going into the game really. You know, obviously we really want to win, but just really focus and doing the things that would give us the best chance.

“Not overly emotional, not overly erratic, just playing our normal game being calm and having the self-belief that if we play at our maximum we are a very hard team to beat.”

Morsy was asked if the Norwich game, and the way it is being preceded, as well as the fact that Town have failed to defeat their fierce rivals in 12 games dating back 14 years, result in a similar sort of pressure going into it than the end-of-season fixture against Exeter.

He responded: “I think you hit the nail on the head there – in recent derbies there was an expectation of success and I’m sure every team would have wanted to win so bad.

“But football doesn’t work like that. In many ways it’s very important but at the same time we prepare diligently for every single game. The process is the same, studying them, you know, tactical battle, how are we going to win the game? But essentially you can only give 100 per cent and some days that will be good enough and some days it won’t.

“So the preparation has been the same, while obviously understanding it is a derby, but we’re just going to try and be as close to ourselves as we can and I think that’s the key thing.”

Finally, Morsy was asked about his chances of being included in the Egypt squad for the forthcoming African Cup of Nations that will get under way in January. He failed to earn a call-up to the Pharaohs’ most recent get-together and answered: “You never know. Obviously, I didn’t get called up to the last one, which showed where I’m at at the minute.

“But you never know, we’ll see what happens. But at the moment that’s not in my focus really. It’s just one game at a time and I think that’s how I prepare best and sort of keep my energy and keep my mental energy high.”

Photo: TWTD

RobsonWark added 21:07 - Dec 15 For our benefit let's hope Sammy does not get called up by Egypt for the African Cup of Nations. We need our best player for the rest of the season.
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ArnieM added 21:26 - Dec 15 Running towards adversity!
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Linkboy13 added 21:35 - Dec 15 Norwich will know that Morsy is our best player and he will be targeted so he must stay cool we cannot afford to lose him.
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