Ipswich Town: Lewis Travis on his loan spell from Blackburn Rovers

The combative midfielder arrived at Portman Road in a loan deal from fellow Championship club Blackburn Rovers on January 5.

However, due to the form of Sam Morsy and Massimo Luongo, he has been restricted to three starts and two sub appearances so far as Kieran McKenna's men push for promotion to the Premier League. Two of those starts came when Morsy was suspended.

"To be honest, I'm a bit gutted not to have been here all season because I feel like if I'd had a pre-season here, I'd have had a real chance to go and become a proper mainstay in the team," said the 26-year-old, who has played more than 200 games in the second-tier and was named club captain at Rovers.

Lewis Travis makes a challenge on Jobe Bellingham during Ipswich Town's 2-1 home win against Sunderland. (Image: Ross Halls)

"Coming halfway through the season, there's already a really settled team here that's doing brilliantly well. It isn't an easy team to get into!

"I feel like, for now, it's just about me helping the team pick up as many points as possible, doing everything I can to push the lads in the team, working really hard in training and just being ready as and when I get a chance to play games.

"I'll always do all I can to make sure that I'm ready to play. Whenever the manager wants to put me in, whenever I get my chance, I'll be ready to help him and the team."

With 12 games to go, the Blues find themselves six points behind Championship leaders Leicester and only behind second-place Leeds on goal difference.

Lewis Travis has spent all of his senior career at Blackburn Rovers. (Image: Ross Halls)

"Obviously you start off with the fact that we've got a really, really good manager," said Travis, when asked what the key ingredients were to Town's success in an interview with the matchday programme.

"He's got good coaches around him and he's very intense in the way he does things. From there, all of the lads have bought into it.

"We have quality players up the top end of the pitch who are on fire. There are good players right through the squad from front to back. It's a nice mix of everything and a great dressing room to come into. Everything seems to have clicked together.

"I think everybody is pointing in the same direction, whether it's players who come into first team or players coming off the bench. Everyone knows what they are doing. There are lots of details to take from the manager. Everyone's bought into the game plan."

Lewis Travis, pictured in action during Ipswich Town's 1-1 draw at Leicester City. (Image: Pagepix Ltd)

Travis revealed there is one fixture - on April 6 - that he has got his eyes on.

"The first goal I scored for Blackburn was at Carrow Road," he said. "From all the things I've heard, it sounds like a big derby game and if I could play in that one and score in front of the Ipswich fans, it would be fantastic."

Having found his opportunities limited in the first half of the season, Travis was allowed to leave Ewood Park under the management of Jon Dahl Tomasson. The latter has since been replaced in the hot seat by John Eustace though.

"I haven't spoken to him yet, we can't bring him back at the moment," Eustace recently told the Lancashire Telegraph.

"He's a player that I have admired over the years, he's been a very good player at the level. It's something we'll have a chat about over the summer."

Lewis Travis has more than 200 Championship appearances to his name. (Image: Ross Halls)

Travis, whose contract at Rovers runs until 2026, started out at Liverpool. Reflecting on that, he said: "As a Liverpool fan, to be involved with their academy when I was really young, seven or eight or whatever it was, right through to the Under-18s, that was amazing, it was class.

"I learnt a lot from those years there because obviously they had some great coaches at the academy. I enjoyed working with Mick Beale, while Steve Cooper was another one I really liked. When you see what they've gone on to do, we were obviously learning from the best.

"To stay at the club for 10 or 11 years, I was proud of that, and I think it says something about me as a player and a character that I was able to do that. I think that's an achievement in itself.

"I've seen some get to 18, be released and then they find it really hard to find a club after that. Youth football can be very brutal like that. 

"I'd never had to find another club before, so it was a bit scary. Blackburn were interested in me right away, though, so to be able to go there straight away was good. I've never looked back from there really."