Ipswich Town column: Automatic promotion back in sight and why Wes Burns abuse is 'crazy'

Get the engine started Kieran as the push for top two is well and truly back on.

After what seemed weeks of disappointing results and Ipswich Town continually dropping points, Kieran McKenna’s men have won two on the bounce whilst those around have slipped up, meaning all-of-a-sudden the idea of automatic promotion no longer seems a million miles away.

Now as we all know, anything can happen in football and there’s bound to be even more twists and turns along the way, but with Town having some more-than-winnable games on the horizon, they have a big chance to keep the pressure on.

That said, for me the only team we should be concentrating on is ourselves.

I think we’ve all been guilty this season of looking over our shoulder at what others have been doing with the frantic checks at half-time to see what the other scores read. But the only team who is going to give us a chance of reaching the automatics is those in blue and white.

It’s all well and good looking ahead and closing the gap but only if you capitalise on it, and there’s no doubt about it that Ipswich Town have a huge opportunity to do just that and simply must take six points out of their next two games. Its the only way we’re going to claw ourselves back into that race.

Relegation-threatened sides at Portman Road, with Burton Albion on Saturday and Accrington Stanley on Tuesday, are followed by a pretty tough run of fixtures for the Blues, with six out of the top 10 left to play.

But as the old saying goes, if you want to be the best, you have to beat the best and I think it’s time we stood up to these fixtures and start believing we’re more than good enough to win them.

If we win our next two like we should then that would be four consecutive victories for The Tractor Boys who would be going into the business end of the season very much in-form and at a great time to be so.

But drop any more unnecessary points, then I think we all know our season could extend past May, meaning it’s up to us and we get to chose our own destiny.

I wanted to finish this column by shouting out Mr Wesley Burns, who has been subject to some online abuse this week which seems completely absurd.

Now, I think we can all agree and probably Wes himself, that the flying Welshman has not been as prolific as he was last year.

But make no mistake of this man's impact and influence on the team.

If you watch us week-in-week-out, then you’ll see our number 7 is still very much involved in what we do.

I can’t think of many games where Wes has ‘gone missing’ or ‘been quiet’ and if you look at his work rate off-the-ball, he’s still up and down that touchline doing his defensive duties as well as linking play and trying to make things happen at the top end of the pitch.

We all know what he’s capable of and know there’s certainly more there in the locker, but to abuse him is just absolutely crazy and if 'having a bad season' still equates to 15 goal involvements in 36 games, then I think we should certainly still believe he has a lot to offer.

A top player and an even better person, who is just having a season yet to fully ignite yet and I for one believe this abuse will only light his fire and make him even more determined to finish the season strongly.

Keep going Wes, we are right behind you.