MARTON Fulop has called for Ipswich Town to improve their contract offer to skipper David Norris. The giant keeper sees the mighty midfielder as someone who can take Town forward.

Norris turned down the offer made by Ipswich in December and the situation has been allowed to drag on since although Town confirmed the worth they put on the 29-year-old by refusing to cash in on him during the January transfer window.

The former Plymouth player can now leave on a free transfer as his current contract is up on June 30. He cost Town �2million on January 31 2008.

Norris is understood to want to stay despite Portsmouth saying otherwise while making unsuccessful moves to sign him last month.

He gave one of his best displays in a Town shirt in Tuesday’s 2-1 Championship victory at Derby County with Fulop saying:

“It’s a big plus that we still have David Norris in our squad.

“My hope is that Ipswich can tie David down to a new contract so that he will stay with the club.

“If you don’t keep your best players you don’t stand much of a chance.

“David can lead a big push forward next season.”

Victories over Doncaster and Derby have seen Ipswich win back-to-back league matches for only the fourth time since the start of the 2009/10 campaign.

And Fulop is looking for a further move forward with success over struggling Sheffield United at Portman Road on Saturday.

“The new manager has made good signings already and not let anyone go,” added Fulop.

“Jimmy Bullard is a good character and it can only be good to have good players here.

“With two games a week coming up it will require a lot of mental as well as physical strength and you need a big squad.

“To get nine points out of nine will be just what we want as we are still near the bottom of the table.

“Beating Doncaster and Derby was good, but not enough to cement our place away from the relegation positions.”

Fulop, who says that he is feeling okay but there is still more to come from him, feels the experienced gained from being ahead of Arsenal after two and a half hours of football in the Carling Cup semi-final has given the squad a lift.

“We have 19 games in the league to go and we will win a high percentage of them I’m sure if we play like we did against Arsenal.”

Fulop will be joined by Town team mate Tamas Priskin in Dubai next week when both will be looking for a place in the Hungarian team for the friendly against Azerbaijan.

“It should be nice, and maybe we’ll play a little football,” quipped the 6’6” keeper.