Ipswich Town column: Joey Sadler says Kieran McKenna has given him back belief as wins over Doncaster Rovers and Gillingham close play-off gap to six points

What a difference a week makes.

My last column was a depressing one after Ipswich Town had just fallen to a 1-0 defeat away to Sheffield Wednesday and sold one of their prized signings from the summer in Scott Fraser.

But fast-forward to now and we have a six points in our back pocket and two clean sheets in the bag as well.

Now don’t get me wrong. Like many other Town fans, I expected us to beat both Doncaster and Gillingham if we were to have any serious chance of making the play-offs. But as we all know, these games against teams fighting for their lives are not always as easy as they appear.

The Blues were made to work hard for their victory against The Gills, in a game I don’t think will live long in the memory.

But they got the 1-0 victory and it was the same result against rock-bottom Doncaster last night, although this time we played a lot better and on another day, could have easily scored three or four.

I think the biggest difference Kieran McKenna has made is game management.

I don’t want to bemoan Paul Cook too much, but during his tenure games against the likes of Gillingham and Doncaster would have likely seen Town cost themselves valuable points.

Under McKenna the Blues look so much more assured, dominate the ball, see games out and six wins out of his first eight games suggests we are really reaping the benefits of having him at the helm.

I saw a tweet from the Renegade Statman which said Town on 47 points, currently have two more points than what they did when they made the play-offs in 1997 and 1998 which really would suggest there is a chance we could do it.

Saturday’s trip to MK Dons is absolutely massive and I would go as far saying the biggest of Town’s season.

Lose and we could find ourselves nine points adrift and surely out of the race.

But win and it could be just three points off going into a very favourable run of fixtures.

Thank you Mckenna, for making us all believe again.