‘Keep calm and carry on’ – that’s Mick McCarthy’s message to his Ipswich Town players ahead of this afternoon’s Championship clash at lowly Burton Albion.

The Blues started the season with five straight wins in all competitions, but last Sunday’s 1-0 home defeat to rivals Norwich City made it seven losses in nine.

“I’m not panicking,” said McCarthy, whose 11th-placed team have racked up six wins against the Championship’s strugglers, but come up just short against several of the division’s high-fliers in fine margins affairs.

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“What would it achieve anyway? What could I do if I panicked? How is that going to make anything better? I’ve always believed in trying to keep that calm demeanour, inside and out.

“Keeping doing what we’re doing might be seen as a sign of madness because we’ve not been winning games, but I believe we’ve been playing well and if we can replicate the performance we produced against Norwich then we’ll do better against some of the other teams.

“I’m not sitting at home worrying myself sick. Last season I didn’t think we played particularly well and we didn’t look like we were going to score at times.

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“It’s been different in the performances that we’ve had recently. Leeds away (3-2 defeat), Sheffield United away (1-0 defeat), Bristol City at home (3-1 defeat) and certainly against Norwich we had our chances.

“It’s not like we’re playing lousy by any stretch of the imagination, whereas I admitted last year sometimes we were.”

He continued: “I spoke to the lads and they were quite happy with the shape and the way we played last Sunday. I think the players thought it had worked.

“In the first six games we were top scorers and things were flying in. Have we had fewer chances in the last six games? I don’t think so. We’ve just not put them away recently.”

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McCarthy added: “I don’t want to lose goodwill with the fans, they’re the ones who are always going to be coming and watching and supporting the club.

“It was great early on, I’m not saying it’s turned now, but I think these next three games (Burton away today, Cardiff away on Tuesday and Preston at home next Saturday) are going to have a big bearing on it.”