Ipswich Town midfielder Jon Nolan knows the Blues are in the middle of a “little blip” – but insists the team will be in the thick of the automatic promotion shake-up.
In fact, the 27-year-old believes that anything other than a top two spot would be a failure for Paul Lambert's men.
Town sit in second spot heading into the hectic festive schedule, with a game in hand on many of the sides around them. Howevever, a recent dip in form, which culminated in Saturday's 2-1 home defeat to fellow promotion chasers Bristol Rovers, has seen Wycombe start to pull away at the top, and the gap to seventh spot shrink to five points.
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But Nolan said that the festive fixtures - Portsmouth away, Gillingham at home, Lincoln and Wycombe away - will go a long way towards proving that Town are a force to be reckoned with.
"We're second in the league, in an unbelievable position really," he explained. "It seems a bit doom and gloom at the moment, but I don't understand why.
"It just takes one run and we can go on that run.
"It could all look very different (after the festive period). The games come thick and fast over Christmas, we know that, but I'm sure with the gaffer's rotation policy we'll all be fresh.
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"We've got to go into every game trying to win. We're still in an unbelievable position - I know Wycombe are starting to pull ahead - but fully confident that we'll be up there at the end of the season.
"These four games are a big chance for us to cement our place up there. We definitely can't be losing any more ground on Wycombe."
Nolan, who's netted twice so far this campaign, added: "Anything else than top two is a failure in my eyes. That's my opinion. Of course if we end up in the play-offs we'll give it our all.
"People aren't going to go out there and say 'we're going to win the league', but what's wrong with saying that we want it? To me, the size of the club, we should be. We haven't got a God-given right to be doing that, but that's what I believe."
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Nolan continued: "I don't think we ever thought we were going to run away with the league. We knew it was going to be tough, you can't come and steam roll the league, even though we probably are the biggest club in the league.
"It's just a little blip at the moment. We've got a big game to put it right on Saturday against Portsmouth. We'll go there full of confidence and looking to get the three points."
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