Ipswich Town beat Accrington Stanley 3-0 at Portman Road last night. STUART WATSON reflects on the action.
THE 'M' WORD
Town had won just four league games in 15 following a Valentine's Day goalless draw at Bristol Rovers.
The top-two has gone! A play-off place isn't guaranteed! This is so Ipswich!
Thankfully, Kieran McKenna and his players kept their heads while all about them everyone was losing theirs.
The 'potential banana skins' of Forest Green Rovers, MK Dons, Burton Albion and Accrington Stanley have all been confidently side-stepped.
MORE: Andy Warren's player ratings after Town's 3-0 win against Accrington.
Team chemistry and confidence is improving by the game.
That's four straight wins by an aggregate scoreline of 12-0. It's five successive clean sheets. I think it's fair to call that momentum.
The Blues have now played all of the current bottom six both home and away. They've claimed 34 out of a possible 36 points from those games.
There are, of course, tougher tests on the horizon. But Town can tackle them feeling rather good about themselves.
HOME HERO
Nathan Broadhead has quickly made himself at home at Portman Road.
The Welsh forward arrived in the right place at the right time to finish the 12th minute opener from six-yards out.
He then played a huge role in the killer second after the break, squaring up defender Baba Fernandes down the left before gliding past him with a trick and coolly picking out a team-mate from the byline.
That's now four goals, two assists and a big hand in two others from just 375 minutes of action on Suffolk soil.
He might not press with the same intensity as others. And there can be spells in games where you don't notice him.
But when he does get on the ball, Broadhead oozes quality and is producing in big moments.
Fellow January additions Massimo Luongo and Harry Clarke, meanwhile, have added drive, desire and dynamism. The former came off to his second standing ovation in four days.
Ipswich's mid-season transfer window was a strong one.
THE DEPENDABLES
After the Burton win, I waxed lyrical about the exciting growing relationship down the right between Harry Clarke and Wes Burns.
Last night, the ever-dependable duo of Janoi Donacien and Kayden Jackson were an equally impressive double act down that side.
Jackson has come on leaps and bounds under McKenna. Lightning pace and an ability to cross on the run makes him almost impossible to defend against at times.
Donacien, meanwhile, was always there in support. There was one crowd-pleasing moment when he won the ball with a firm-but-fair slid tackle and then charged down another player before striding upfield.
"They are both such good professionals," enthused McKenna. "They train and prepare right every day and are always ready to help the team.
"Kayden I've spoken about so many times. He's such a fantastic human, such a team player, such a learner.
"I think he's such an asset to the football club and such a dangerous player. He's probably been unlucky, to be honest, from the form of Wes (Burns) and others.
"Every time he gets his opportunity in a number of different roles he knows how to take them as long as the team is set-up to utilise his strengths."
SEALED WITH A SMILE
Towards the end of the January window, I wondered whether Kyle Edwards might be a player that Ipswich Town would be prepared let go given the plethora of attacking options.
He stayed and, like others in the squad, has taken his game to another level since the arrival of fresh competition.
The 25-year-old stepped off the bench to help Town rescue a point at Cambridge United when playing wide left.
Since then, he's had some positive cameo displays playing in one of the inside forward roles.
It was his positive pass which led to Stanley keeper Lukas Jensen's late red card last night. He then bent the dead ball into the top corner.
"I'm delighted for him, everyone is - he's a popular man in the dressing room," said McKenna.
"He's different to others in the squad. He's our best one-v-one player, he's unique in his skillset and he's got a role to play.
"Of course he wants to start more games, as everybody does, but he knows he can utilise his strengths in different game states to help us. He's really buying into that."
PROMOTION PICTURE
Town move on to 69 points from 35 games. That's just one shy of last season's final tally. The much talked about two-points-per game average has been restored.
I think we can safely say that table-toppers Sheffield Wednesday won't be caught and also that a top-six finish won't be squandered.
The big question, therefore, is whether second-place Plymouth can be leapfrogged.
The Pilgrims came from behind to beat Derby 2-1 last night, the winner coming from the spot after a soft penalty award. That's now 16 wins from 18 at Home Park for Steven Schumacher's men.
Town's next five games are against teams placed between fourth and ninth - Bolton (a), Shrewsbury (h), Barnsley (a), Derby (a) and Wycombe (h).
Plymouth are at Barnsley on Saturday. After that, five of their last 10 games are against bottom-six sides.
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