IPSWICH TOWN: This week will show how serious the Blues are in their promotion ambitions.

Derby County are at Portman Road tomorrow night when Town will be seeking a fourth consecutive victory.

Four days later Barnsley will be in town and Ipswich can cement a top six Championship place with two good results.

Saturday’s 2-1 success at Bramall Lane against Sheffield United saw the Blues move into the play-off places having zoomed up from the bottom half of the table on the back of consecutive wins.

“The two games this week will show how serious our promotion chances are,” confirmed midfielder Jack Colback.

“To be contenders for promotion or the play-offs we need to win them.

“Last season we followed a good result with a poor performance.

“Now we must push on, and two wins would put us into a great position.

“If you lose a couple of matches in the Championship you drop down significantly, and we must forget about Sheffield United now and move on.”

Grant Leadbitter suffered a hamstring problem and Tom Eastman went off after being on the wrong end of a heavy clash, and they are doubts for the visit of the Rams along with skipper David Norris whose ankle injury ruled him out against the Blades.

“It was a terrific win on Saturday,“ added Colback, who is on loan from Sunderland until January although it is no secret he would be happy to stay longer.

“It is never easy to win at Bramall Lane and we took our goals well and also defended well to deserve the three points.

“I was on the bench when Sheffield came back with two late goals last season to draw and this made us a bit nervous this time, but we coped well.

“We are stronger this season and the defence is on fire”

And talking about his own performance, the left-sided midfielder said: “I’m over the moon to be back and I’m getting sharper as I get match fit.

“But I should be adding goals to my game having had three good chances already since I’ve been back.”