IT’S been a good 2010 for the Blues and their manager Roy Keane with a near-50 per cent success rate.

And looking at statistics announced today he deserves to stay in his job with his record showing he’s capable of taking Town forward.

With just two games left of the calendar year Town have won their highest percentage of matches since 2004.

Although their current Championship position is rather precarious and there was only briefly a hint that Ipswich could make a serious challenge for a Premier League place, an under fire Keane has enjoyed a 42.31% win ratio over the last 12 months.

This is better than previous manager Jim Magilton managed in his three-year reign and an improvement on three years under the leaderships of George Burley and Joe Royle going back to the final year of the previous century.

Blues owner Marcus Evans will in due course make public his decision on whether to persevere with Keane, remove him before his contract expires on June 30 or not to offer him a new deal.

And the billionaire businessman will be wise to take into account that despite all the doom and gloom currently surrounding the club statistics favour giving Keane more time.

Of the 52 games played so far this year, Ipswich have won 22, drawn 11 and lost 19, and this compares favourably with every year since 2004.

In the four calendar years that Magilton’s reign covered the win ratio was 32.61%, 42.00%, 37.25% and 27.66%.

In 2000 during which Town gained promotion to the Premier League under Burley they won 58.00% of their matches, and the previous year – also under Burley – it 53.70%.

Royle reached figures of 51.92% in 2004 and 47.06% in 2005, but the rest of the last 12 years saw results worse than for the current 12 month period.

When it comes to percentage defeats, four years since 1999 were worse than this year.