Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna has reiterated that the club's supporters have a huge role to play in helping his team remain competitive at the top end of the Championship table.

Three straight wins against Millwall, Swansea and Rotherham have kept the Blues, remarkably, right in the mix for back-to-back automatic promotions into the Premier League with 13 games to go.

With Portman Road once again to be packed to near capacity for tomorrow afternoon's home clash with Birmingham City, McKenna said: "The supporters have been fantastic, home and away, over the last two years. They’ve stuck with us in games when we’ve gone behind.

"Almost every team who's come to Portman Road has remarked on the atmosphere and the way the crowd and team really feed off each other. That’s been massive for us and it’s going to continue to be massive for us."

The Blues boss continued: “It’s important to acknowledge that the group have done really, really well. On Tuesday night we hit 69 points. I think I’m correct in saying that’s the highest points total of any newly-promoted team in the Championship over the last decade. Sunderland got it last year and that’s what they finished with. 

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“To be at this points total after 33 games with predominantly a group that was with us in League One is a fantastic place to be. I think it’s deserving of the support that the crowd have rightfully given us. The players are so grateful for that support.  

“We just want to try and enjoy the last 13 games, try and perform as well as we can and win as many games as we can. We’re not going to play well every week, individuals are going to make mistakes and not every game is going to go our way because we are operating at a much harder level.

"This time last year we were winning games 3-0, 4-0, 6-0. That’s not going to happen this year. Games are going to be tight, they’re going to ebb and flow in the way they have all season.

"We’ve shown that when we really stick together, when we stick to the plan, when we really impose our atmosphere and our energy on the opposition, that we can be a really formidable force.

"That’s our wish for the end of the season, that we can continue in that manner, attack every game, try our best and all stick together when it’s not going our way. If we do that then I think we’ll finish the season strongly. That’s staff, players, crowd – everyone doing that together."