MIKE BACON takes a look at the goings-on at Ipswich Town and admits it’s tough going right now!
It's not easy being an Ipswich Town fan right now.
Don't get me wrong, we love our club, the history of halcyon days gone by, our hopes for the future.
We look for the positives when it's easier to find negatives.
Look how we enjoyed seeing Teddy Bishop back on the pitch on Saturday, even if it was in defeat to a League Two side. We're happy grasping any crumb right now, while on this poor run.
We want Paul Lambert to do well. Many of us like him. But couldn't long-term contracts have waited? Why the rush?
We want to be positive. We want to be as positive as a man who has travelled into the future and seen this Saturday's Lotto numbers... Returned to the present - and bought a ticket accordingly.
Yes, we would love to embrace the 'bigger picture' - but on the back of being relegated to League One for the first time in a million decades, and currently on a run of one win in 12, it's tough. Do you know what I mean?
Come on. Even my auntie Diana, over at Sibton, knows one win in 12 isn't very good - and she's no football manager/coach/pundit/player/expert.
Positivity and bigger pictures also require a degree of realism and honesty. Fluffy clouds and easy words won't always wash. Most of us do live in the real world.
So, no, it's not easy right now, being an Ipswich Town fan.
Lambo doesn't have a pot of gold to spend. He has an honest squad. After years of achieving nothing in the Championship apart from surviving, then dropping down, perhaps Ipswich Town FC have found their level... NO! I can't believe I'm even thinking it. We're better than this.
It just doesn't seem to feel that way right now...
... Accrington Stanley at home on Saturday, Oxford away next Tuesday and Tranmere away on the 18th.
Make or break?
Well, hardly, but there could well be a serious promotion 'swing' one way or the other at the end of those possible nine points for the Blues.
Right, be honest, how many points do you think we will get from that little lot?
Four months ago I would have been disappointed with seven. Now I must admit I would consider six a decent haul.
It's proving a strange league. It's proving a strange season.
I mean, from nowhere teams like Rotherham, Oxford and Coventry are in the League One play-offs, Wycombe are still top despite having picked up one point from their last possible 12.
All Town's 'games in hand' are disappearing quicker than footballs in the England cricket dressing room!
Then again, so much is still possible for Town, including automatic promotion.
The time for talking is getting very close to the end. It's results we want.
MORE: Will it be a busy January transfer window for Town?
Talking of positivity, one man who has set himself a host of New Year's resolutions is Milky.
Down at the Bristol on Friday night he was rabbiting on about how he had become a vegan and was going to give up drinking - in February!
He reckons his girlfriend Roxanne makes a mean vegetable curry and he was converted.
It was all going well as the drinks flowed, until JoJo ordered a taxi for the boys to go into town.
"Who's coming?... Let's get a kebab first," JoJo said.
Milky was the first to fall into the cab when it arrived 15 minutes later.
We're not expecting good news on the vegan front any time soon.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here