Sam Morsy believes Town are well quipped to take promotion to the Championship in their stride and would like nothing better than to go up as champions if results work in their favour this weekend.

The Blues’ skipper said: “We’re ready and it’s what we’re all here for. It will be a new challenge playing against better teams, better set-ups and everything just that bit better than League One. We’re up for the challenge but we’re going to have to be better.

“Pre-season will have to be better, individual players will have to be better and concentration will have to be better. It’s all the small things together that we will have to improve.

“The manager will be searching long and hard for new solutions. How can we all improve as individual players and as a team? It’s a challenge that we’re all looking forward to.”

With only Sunday’s visit to Fleetwood to come, Town could complete the campaign with just four defeats in 46 league games and yet still finish as runners-up to current leaders Plymouth, who are one point ahead and travel to face Morsy's former club Port Vale in their final fixture.

The Blues must fare better than the Pilgrims on the day to become champions. If they draw at Fleetwood it would need Plymouth to lose for Kieran McKenna’s men to claim the title thanks to their superior goal difference. Should Town win and Plymouth draw, it will see Morsy & Co crowned champions by a one-point margin, while they could do it with two points to spare if they win and Plymouth lose.

The captain added: “I look around at our squad and I see a lot of quality there. I think we have a lot of the key ingredients and the staff as well are well equipped for it.

“I was looking the other day and there are teams in the Championship play-offs who have lost 15 games, so it tells you a lot of it is going to be about resilience and mental strength, because you can still be successful even after losing that number of games.

“But it’s still going to be tougher than it was for us this season and it certainly wasn’t easy this season. As long as we stick together as a group and as a club, we can hopefully give our fans some great days and memories. We’re all excited by the challenge.

“The way we pushed the champions, Burnley, to a replay in the FA Cup gives us hope. Their coaching staff were very complimentary about us, which was nice, and you look at Sunderland, who went up via the play-offs last season. They have added some quality and could be in the play-offs and be promoted to the Premier League.

“All of that encourages me but at the same time it’s going to be a long, long process. We’ve been with the manager for a year and a half now and we’ve made great strides.

“Pre-season is going to be another learning curve as we look to be better still and start next season as a better side than what finishes this one.

“It would be brilliant if we can finish top. It would be the icing on the cake. It wasn’t so long ago that the play-offs looked a formality but we always believed we could go on a good run, which is what we’ve done, although I don’t think anyone expected us to win 13 out of our last 14 games. I wouldn’t thank many of us have even done that in our entire careers.”

Non-drinker Morsy celebrated with his teammates after last Saturday’s 6-0 hammering of Exeter at Portman Road secured promotion, both on the pitch and afterwards. He said: “I went out with the lads for a bit on Saturday night and it was nice to celebrate, although I did it without any alcohol, which I’ve done for many years now. It was great to do it with the guys and to enjoy a special moment and it was a brilliant weekend.”

Looking back on the campaign so far, Morsy reflected: “In a 46-game season you’re going to go on all sorts of different runs. I reminded the players that last season one of the automatic promotion-winning teams [Rotherham] lost 10 games, while the champions, Wigan, lost eight, yet both were very successful.

“I wanted them to realise how it was possible to lose that many games and yet still have plenty to celebrate at the end.

“It’s about the moments and managing them, whether it’s more intensity that is required or some calmness and just reviewing the situation to see what the group needs and trying to lead the guys in front of you.

“This is probably the youngest group I’ve been involved with and there are different challenges, as well as positives and negatives, along the way. The big thing was sticking together and always working and fighting for each other, which is something we’ve always done.

“To be fair, the culture that the manager and his staff have instilled in the club is about remaining calm and analytical in the difficult moments and looking at how we can improve.

“We made mistakes and dropped points earlier in the season but if we hadn’t done that, we might never have gone on the fantastic run we are still on now, because everything has been a lesson and we’ve learned. We didn’t cover over anything, no matter how painful it might have been, and we definitely improved.

“It’s not easy getting out of League One and you actually need the lessons to grow. You don’t learn much about yourself if you’re winning every week.

“It’s the times you come off not knowing how you haven’t won, or you made mistakes, or things just didn’t go according to plan, and learning from them. They are the times when you look at yourself, you look at the team and you improve and come together. They are the moments that make you.

“People will look back on this as being a really top season and there’s an awful lot of hard work by a lot of people that has gone into it. It would be great to get the win at Fleetwood and learn we are the champions.

“We just have to do the business ourselves and see what happens to Plymouth at Port Vale. You never know what is going to happen in football and we’ll just have to give it our best and see who finishes top and who will have to settle for second.

“Plymouth have had an incredible season, the players, the manager, everyone. They’ve been written off countless times and they’ve stayed with it. I congratulate them on winning promotion, a tremendous achievement.”

The Town players will attend a supporters’ event at Christchurch Park on Monday between 12 and 2pm, which has been arranged in conjunction with Ipswich Borough Council. Admission will be free and limited to 24,000 people and Morsy said: “The fans are absolutely buzzing and they want to show their appreciation to the players.

“Living in Ipswich and seeing fans every day, I know how much this means to them and it’s important that we celebrate with them.

“They have had the ups and downs, the great moments and the dark days, and it feels like the good days are coming back, so we’ll enjoy it on Monday.”

Photo: Matchday Images

DifferentGravy added 12:11 - May 6 The form of the last 20 or so games and some of the quality of football, particularly the last 8 or 9 games, has just been fantastic to watch. Morsey has been at the heart of that and its a genuine pleasure to watch him play. Great to hear the lads will be going all guns out for the league title. For me, the icing on the cake was the 6-0 win last Saturday that got us over the line. League 1 has to be the most difficult league to get promoted from and, until we brought in Luongo, Clarke, Broadhead and Hirst, I really had my doubt we would even stay in the playoffs. So pleased for all concerned. COYB!

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