DARYL Murphy admits that Ipswich Town’s terrible set of results, over the last three months, has seriously dented the confidence of the whole squad.

However, the Celtic loanee does not believe that Town are yet embroiled in a relegation dogfight.

Paul Jewell’s men have lost 10 of their last 13 fixtures, to sit just three points above the relegation zone, and they were knocked out of the FA Cup by Hull City on Saturday.

Tonight they travel to Birmingham City for a crucial league fixture.

Such a desperate spell, which has seen a mere seven points collected from a possible 36, has heaped the pressure on manager Jewell and his players.

“When you’ve been on the run that we’ve been on, it’s going to damage confidence and belief in the team,” confessed Murphy.

“But we have to believe we are good enough.

“We need to build a platform for the second half of the season. Last year (2011) is gone. We have to look forward.

“Of course it’s hard for us to pick ourselves up, after such a bad run.

“We did have a little bit of a spell where we won some games, when we started playing some decent football and our confidence started coming back.

“But we’ve lost three now on the spin, so we need to get a win as soon as possible.”

Town are back in action tonight, at St Andrews. It is their game in hand, so offers a chance to create some more daylight between themselves and the bottom three.

There are still a further 22 fixtures to come between now and the end of the season and Murphy has rejected talk of relegation.

“I wouldn’t say we were in a relegation battle just yet, because there is still a long way to go,” insisted Murphy, who is on loan from Celtic for the season.

“We have still got half a season left, and we still have that game in hand, although we know we need to be picking up points.

“I think we’re definitely in a false position in the table because, with some of the players we have, we should definitely be higher up the table.

“I can’t put my finger on why we are down there.

“We were playing some fantastic football when we won a run of games, beating some of the top teams in the league.

“Against the teams down around us, we have been losing to them.”