KEEP the faith.That is the message from Ipswich Town players, as they look to jump-start their promotion push. Defender Jason De Vos, who is stand-in captain when Jim Magilton doesn't start, has urged the Blues followers to be their 12th man as they look to end a run of three defeats at home to Nottingham Forest this afternoon.

By Derek Davis

KEEP the faith.

That is the message from Ipswich Town players, as they look to jump-start their promotion push.

Defender Jason De Vos, who is stand-in captain when Jim Magilton doesn't start, has urged the Blues followers to be their 12th man as they look to end a run of three defeats at home to Nottingham Forest this afternoon.

De Vos said: “The bottom line is we still believe in ourselves and we still believe in each other. We need everyone to keep the faith and keep backing the players.

“What you need more than anything when things are not going as well as you would like them to, is to be lifted.

“Obviously it is up to us on the pitch to do the business but the fantastic support we get from the supporters can play its part in that as well.

“We need to get back to playing the way we are capable of playing and if we do that the rest will take care of itself.”

After home defeats by unfancied Watford and QPR, there is no chance the Blues will take a rejuvenated Gary Megson side lightly.

De Vos said: “Forest's confidence will be on the up after their set of results of late but we know there are no easy game left anyway.

“You just have to look at how Gillingham beat Wigan and Brighton beat Sunderland, so people can't assume just because we are higher in the league that we are automatically going to beat them - football doesn't work like that.”

The Canadian international refused to point blame or look for excuses and insists that everyone be in the fight together.

He said: “It is not as simple as saying 'we have missed Shekfi or whoever' there is no one reason for a team not performing as well as they can do there are a lot of factors involved.

“Every team in any sport over the course of a season is going to have a dip and the test of your character is how you respond to that.

“Our mentality is that we are good enough to be promoted and we are good enough to beat anyone in this league so it is up to us to go out there and do it.

“Goals come from everywhere. We can score from set pieces, we can score from midfield, it can happen anywhere.

“Just because a team isn't scoring then it is not necessarily the strikers' fault. Football is not that simple, there are 11 guys out there and you have to interact as a team in order to create chances and if you don't do that then you won't score.

“We have to take collective responsibility. The great thing about football is when you are winning everyone takes the credit but when you are losing we all have to share the blame.

“We are big enough to know we can bounce back and we can't wait for the Forest game so we can get on with getting back.”

Just as De Vos backs Darren Bent and Shefki Kuqi to get back in among the goals he insists the team are still worthy challengers.

He said: “You don't become a bad player or a bad team overnight. The boys have done fantastic to be in the position we are at the moment, third in the league, three points off first place with 10 games to go. If we had been offered that at the beginning of the season we would have taken it. We have 10 games to go, 30 points to play for and we know we are capable of putting together another winning run.”

Richard Naylor, who has been a slight doubt with a tight hamstring, is expected to be fit to take his place in the Town defence alongside De Vos.