SO far, so good, this is the verdict of Ipswich Town manager Paul Jewell on his first eight Championship games in charge.

He leads his team into action against Portsmouth at Portman Road tomorrow (kick-off 3pm) having achieved four wins and two draws and suffered two defeats.

“If I had been offered that before my first match at Millwall I would have taken that,” said Jewell.

“And I’m sure our owner everybody at the club and our supporters would think the same.”

And Jewell insisted that there is still a great deal to play for this season despite a mid-table position with both promotion and relegation looking out of the question.

“There is still a lot to play for and still a lot we could lose,” added Jewell.

“We still need points to stay up, and on the other hand it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that if we win our next few games we could back in the play-off mix.”

Connor Wickham’s agent Jonathan Barnett was deep in conversation with the 17-year-old hot property after Tuesday’s 2-0 defeat at Queens Park Rangers and the striker’s excellent recent form has added to the already high levels of speculation about the talented player.

Wickham, who mainly deals with ex-Town player Paul Goddard who works for Barnett, received more praise from Jewell.

“Connor will spend most of his career playing up beside AN Other,” said Jewell.

“But at the moment he suits us best to have him playing wide and like the rest of the staff he’s done every we’ve asked of him.

“He’s currently learning another facet to his game and although he’s still got a lot to learn he’s got a lot of time in which to do that.”

“He was running at people like a Rolls Royce on Tuesday and we want to see more of that against central defenders. He’s got that in his locker.”

Town fans have the opportunity to spend time in Kenya next autumn. They will have a chance to show their interest at tomorrow’s game.

The ITFC Charitable Trust has teamed up with KenyanAdventure to seek fans for volunteering work in the great Rift Valley of Kenya for 10 days in October.

There will be a game drive in Lake Nakuru national safari park and stop off at the equator before seeing Thomson Falls, one of the deepest waterfalls in east Africa.

The trip aims to raise �25,000 for the ITFC Charitable Trust, which will go directly to new and existing community projects in the Ipswich area.

There will be a presentation at Portman Road tomorrow at 1.30pm and interested participants are invited to go along and find out more about this once in a lifetime opportunity.

The www.kenyanadventure.com/ipswich.html has full details of how to get involved or call 0845 862 1381.