Ipswich Town: Wes Burns on pressure, Wales and Sheffield Wednesday

The Blues currently sit third in the table with 78 points, four behind leaders Leicester City and one behind Leeds United in second. With just nine games left, a single slip-up can be decisive, although Burns enjoys the chance to play in high-pressure games at the top end of the division.

“They’re what you work towards, to be honest,” he said. “Being involved in such high-pressure games, and every game that comes now feels like a life-or-death situation.

“Three points is at stake, and I know every game is three points, but it seems like so much more when you’re out there.”

On a personal level, the winger has had a strong season so far, registering five goals and two assists.

It’s his first Championship campaign since 2015/16 and he’s played a big part in Town’s success, featuring in 31 of their 37 games so far.

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“I think it’s been a fairly strong season for everyone, to be honest,” he argued. “Myself, stepping up to the Championship, everyone was wondering how we’d do this year. I had a little taster of the Championship when I was a lot younger but it was very cloudy from my experience back then.

“To have a full season and a run of games this year, physically, it’s been tough, and the teams are obviously a lot better. They can punish you if you’re not on your game, and I think we found that out in a couple of games.

“The Championship has been a good learning curve for me and I’m looking forward to finishing off the season strong.”

Burns may have enjoyed the prospect of returning to Cardiff City last weekend, travelling to South Wales with a point to prove against the team that released him as a 15-year-old. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out, and Ipswich ended up falling to a damaging defeat in stoppage time.

Burns bagged two goals and an assist when Town beat Rotherham United last month (Image: Stephen Waller)

The 29-year-old is adamant that his side haven’t brushed it under the carpet and that they’ll learn from the experience, especially given that they haven’t faced too many similar setbacks.

“We all knew it was a tough one to take, and we haven’t been on the receiving end of one of those in the last 12 to 18 months,” he explained. “We’ve been on the other side of them, which is great.

“You always know with this group that, no matter the result, no matter how big or bad it was, the principles will always be the same going into the next game, and we’ll look to take three points on the weekend.”

That game will be against Sheffield Wednesday, who are in red-hot form despite sitting second-bottom in the Championship. The Owls failed to win a single game at the start of the season under Xisco Munoz, but they’ve shown an incredible improvement under Danny Rohl, with survival now a feasible target.

Conor Chaplin’s goal handed Town a 1-0 win in the reverse fixture at Hillsborough – a game where the hosts failed to manage a single shot on target across 90 minutes. That being said, Burns was keen to stress that they still gave the Blues a tough game in South Yorkshire, and he’s expecting the same at Portman Road.

“They were a big challenge at the start of the year, just off the back of their form from last year,” he admitted. "They got promoted with us and we knew what they’d be like going into that game, they knew what we’d be like, so the game was a tough one at their place.

“I’m expecting the game here. They’ve had a change in manager and they’re one of the better, in-form teams in the Championship at the moment based on form.

The winger has five goals and two assists to his name so far this season (Image: Ross Halls)

“It’s going to be a tough one. They’re a big team, they’re a physical team, and we’re going to expect that. They’re going to come and impose their style and physicality on us, so we need to be ready for that.”

The turnaround after the game will be short for Town’s Welsh trio, which consists of Burns, Kieffer Moore and Nathan Broadhead. All three have been included in Rob Page’s squad for the Dragons’ Euro 2024 play-off games, and they’ll head off for their training camp in Cardiff at the start of next week.

They’ll hope to be involved against Finland next Thursday, and should they win that match, they’ll face either Poland or Estonia for a place in Group D, where the Netherlands, Austria and France await.

“I’m massively pleased,” he said. “I think I speak on behalf of myself, Broadie and Kieffer. Getting called up for your country is a massive honour, so hopefully we can go away and at least add something to the squad, and do something in the games that will ultimately get us qualified for the Euros.

“Since the World Cup, they tried to do a restructure within a few departments and try something new. It’s worked, we’ve gone on an unbeaten run and the results have been good. You look back to the Croatia games, those types of results.

“As a nation, Wales is always compared to being quite a small nation in football, but I think we’re rewriting that.

“We’re going from one high-pressure bubble here to another! If you don’t win the next two games, you don’t go to the Euros. That’s something that, especially myself, I’d like to get to a major tournament.

“If that’s something I can help along the way, that’s huge, and those are the environments that we’re stepping into. It’s different though – league football is totally different to international football.

Burns is set to feature for Wales in their EURO 2024 play-off matches (Image: PA)

“The prizes are massive at the end of it, from both ends.”

The next few weeks are absolutely massive for Burns, who could head to Germany for the Euros as a Premier League footballer is everything goes to plan for club and country. Given that he was into his fifth season in League One with Fleetwood Town as recently as 2021, it shows how far he’s come in such a short space of time. At that point, he had no idea that his future could lead him to the top of the game.

“If you’d had told me then and there, I would’ve probably laughed at you, to be honest,” he chuckled. “The journey is never an easy one, it’s never a straight, uphill battle. It’s always got twists and turns.

“I think the way that I landed at Ipswich was a strange one, but I’ve loved every second of it. The battle and the journey has been incredible for me, and I’ve got memories that I’ll hold forever.

“I’ve loved every second of it.”