Town defender Cameron Burgess says he does not see Saturday’s trip to Wolverhampton Wanderers as any more significant than any other match despite the two sides sitting inside the Premier League’s relegation zone.

As with Town, this weekend’s hosts Wolves have also lost their last three matches and head into the contest on nine points with only goal difference separating Kieran McKenna’s men from their West Midlands opposition.

But Burgess acknowledged that the three points on offer is the same as any other fixture, believing that Town can get a result against anybody in the division regardless of league position or form.

“All games are massive and points can come from anywhere in this league,” he said. “Just because it’s two teams that have lost the last three or are at the bottom of the league it doesn’t change anything.

“We go into this game the same that we’ve gone into every other game and give absolutely everything to try and get three points.

“You don’t know where the points are going to come from this season. Every game is just as important as each other. We don’t approach it like that as a group, we try and win every game the same.

“We’re going to give it absolutely everything in this game, hopefully we can get the performance right first and foremost and then hopefully take the points.

“We know individually they’ve got some top talent. They can score goals out of nothing and we’ve seen some wonder goals in the last few weeks. We have to be on top of our game to stop what their threats are and hopefully we can do that as a team.

“From our point of view at the back half of the pitch we have to nullify their threats and impose ourselves on the game like we’ve tried to do in every game so far. We’ve got to put our best foot forward and be as aggressive as we can and try and take all three points.

“It’s a hell of an atmosphere. I’m looking forward to it the same as every stadium this season that we get to come across. I’ll take five minutes to take it in before the game starts and then we’ll get to business.”

No side in the Premier League has dropped more points from winning positions than the Blues, with last weekend’s defeat to Bournemouth taking them to 15 points in that statistic, six more than they have earned in the entirety of the campaign so far.

Highlighting that Town have had more issues with staying in front than taking the lead, Burgess was keen to assess the positives when asked why holding onto a winning position has proven to be so difficult.

“That’s the fine margins of the Premier League,” he said. “There’s been a few moments where we could have done better as a team and then a few moments we feel have gone harshly against us.

“We’ve dealt with that before – in our League One season there was a period where we conceded late goals and we corrected that through hard work on the training ground, watching things back and improving as a group and putting that into practice.

“The belief is there to know what we have to do. The other thing to look at is the fact that we’ve gone in front in those games as well which is obviously a really big positive and a hard thing to do in itself. There’s a lot of things we can work on but we take confidence from other things as well.”

The weekend’s trip to Molineux is filled with narrative for the home side, with Wolves boss Gary O’Neil given a stay of execution following their defeat to West Ham United on Monday night.

With a potentially volatile home crowd, Burgess admitted taking the lead this weekend could prove to be even more significant.

He said: “I guess so, we’ve seen that in a few away games recently. We saw at Forest when they went a goal ahead how hard it was to get back in the game.

“It can certainly happen in the away games playing against tough teams. It could be a massive one to get the first goal and we’re going to look to try and do that ourselves.”

One man that could be important in finding the net for the Blues is top scorer Liam Delap, who is without a goal in his last four appearances since netting his sixth of the season against Tottenham Hotspur last month.

On facing the striker in training, Burgess said: “He stands on your toes a lot! He’s top quality and he works really hard like all the boys in the building. It’s been great having him in, he’s been doing really well and hopefully he continues to do that.”

With Christmas approaching, the Town squad will be doing their annual hospital visits in the coming weeks as a show of support for their unfortunate sacrifices, particularly during the festive season.

Burgess is a big advocate for the visits and says it is the least he can do to give back to the community who provide so much support for the football club throughout the season.

The 29-year-old said: “The first thing to say is that we value the support from the community that we get. To be able to give a little bit back and help the community from our side of things is massive. It’s a small thanks on our part for the support we get from those guys.”

Internationally, Burgess now has 13 caps to his name for Australia since making his international debut only last year.

The Socceroos are currently in the midst of a World Cup qualifying campaign where they have faced some difficult results but remain in a strong position to qualify for the tournament in North America.

Asked about Australia’s chances of qualification, he said: “I certainly hope so, that’s the goal is to be in those top two positions come the end of June and be going to the World Cup.

“It’s a bit of a medium to long-term goal, but if I can get myself to that World Cup it would be a special moment for me personally. To be able to represent the club and everyone who has helped me get to that moment would be a special feeling.

“I just love going away with the team. To be able to represent your country is a special thing for me. I love helping my country in the same way I do here, I try my best to help the team and represent the team well.

“It’s one thing to experience but another thing to explain it. These teams you go to, especially away from home, it’s so difficult. The conditions are difficult, the travel is difficult and there’s a lot of elements to it.

“I’d definitely say it’s underestimated how hard it is to get the job done against some of these teams that play vastly different styles to what we’re used to at club level, at least a lot of our national team boys.

“Football over there is very well participated. There’s a lot of competition for different sports but in terms of grassroots there’s loads of teams, loads of opportunities and a hell of a lot of kids that play football over there.

“It’s definitely a big sport over there and it’s growing as well, but there is a lot of competition and a lot of kids playing different things.

“Football is not always the most talked about sport over there, but we’re doing some great things and it’s always nice to have a bit of support from back home.”

There has been a managerial change in the Australian set-up recently with Tony Popovic taking over from Graham Arnold in September, which Burgess says has brought a more similar style to McKenna at club level.

“Things have changed in that department,” he said. “I’d probably say that it’s gone a lot closer to the environment we have here at Ipswich in terms of how training is and how he wants us to be.

“There’s some changes, hopefully that can continue to improve us as a group and we can achieve our goals for the national team as well.”

Town teammate Massimo Luongo recently came out of international retirement and Burgess is happy to take some of the credit for the midfielder’s decision to make himself available for selection again.

He said: “He’s my roomie when we went on the trips when we were both in there together. He’s a great friend of mine and any squad with Mass in it is a better squad in my opinion. It’s great to have him back out of retirement and be available for selection.”

Travelling back from international duty has been challenging, with one instance seeing Burgess return from the opposite side of the world on a Thursday evening ahead of a club match on a Saturday afternoon.

Despite the logistical problems, Burgess praised both club and national team for ensuring the travel is as efficient as possible to be as fit and ready to play when called upon.

He said: “Both sides do. The national team is very good for it, I’ve been doing it for years and the treatment we get is top. It’s the same here, we’ve got all the treatments and advice we could possibly need. I’m definitely well-equipped in that department.”

On his Town contract, which is currently set to expire at the end of the season, Burgess added: “I’m just trying my best to keep playing and helping the team. I haven’t given it too much thought, I’m not one for that. I’m just trying to work as hard as I possibly can and let everything work itself out.”

TWTD

Dissboyitfc added 12:03 - Dec 13 Next 2 are massive,if we get nothing from them it will put us in a position that I feel will make survival extremely difficult!
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ChestnutSe added 20:21 - Dec 14 Can’t believe we have let Cam get into the last year of his contract. He’s been massive for us and needs signing up for the next few seasons asap
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