Christophe Berra has insisted Ipswich Town still have plenty of time on their hands as they bid to stop a worrying run of form which has seen them slide down the Championship table.
A run of just one win and six points from eight games has seen the Blues drop from top of the pile at the end of August to their current mid-table position, following Tuesday’s 3-0 loss at Hull, leaving Berra and his team-mates perplexed, frustrated and keen to put things right.
However, with a little over a quarter of the season played and the Blues just five points off the play-off places, the Scottish international has insisted there is still plenty of time to recover and ensure Town are in the promotion picture come May.
“It’s very disappointing to have got beaten again and the manner in which we’ve been beaten, because we were in the game the first half,” he said.
“We’re down just now but we’re professionals and we’ll bounce back because there’s always the next game to put things right.
“We’re still only a quarter of a way through the season so there’s plenty of time to fix anything that’s wrong.
“It’s been a tough run, as tough as there’s been since I’ve been here. Last season our away form wasn’t great but we were winning a lot of home games, now we’ve drawn our last three (at home) and lost once at home to Brighton.
“We’re used to winning at home so, now we’re not getting that at home, we need to pick up a few more points away.
“If we’d have won against Huddersfield then, although we’d still have been disappointed, we could have taken it with a bit more grace.
“We need to fix things.”
Next up for the Blues is Saturday’s trip to Nottingham Forest and, despite Dougie Freedman’s side being on a similarly tough run of five games without a win, Berra is expecting a difficult encounter.
“No matter who you play away from home is hard, we started the season not bad away from home and beat Leeds and did well at Brentford before Blackburn and Reading which were very difficult games away from home,” he said.
“We need to cut out the mistakes and rediscover the form away from home and keep on going. There’s no better way of bouncing back than with a win at Nottingham Forest.
“They have a good, big squad with a big wage bill and it’s always a tricky place to go, so we know it’s going to be a tough game where we will have to cut out the mistakes, ride our luck sometimes and put in a good team performance.”
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