'Never say never' - Ipswich Town man pinpoints key to late winners amid Leeds United and Leicester City race

Ipswich Town defender Cameron Burgess insists a ‘never say never’ attitude has been key to his side’s flurry of late goals to keep pace in the Championship promotion race.

Fans of Leeds United and Leicester City are often left watching from behind the sofa as Ipswich push for late winners, with Kieran McKenna’s statistically the strongest finishers. The Tractor Boys have scored 25 goals beyond the 76th minute, more than anyone else in the league.

Those goals appear to be arriving later and later, with the 3-2 win against 10-man Southampton earlier this month coming via substitute Jeremy Sarmiento’s 97th-minute effort. There was no such drama during Wednesday’s 0-0 draw against Watford but Burgess believes his side’s mentality has been key to securing late points.

“We focus on the performances and on another night, one of those chances [against Watford] drops for us,” Burgess told TWTD of his side’s draw. “We did everything right up until that point, one just needed to fall for us. If the ball’s hitting the post and rolling across the line, what can you do? But we keep battling away, we take the positives from it. It’s a point at the end of the day and it’s still in our hands so we keep going.

“If you’ve been at the last handful of home games, you will have seen us score with seconds to go. There was always that chance we were going to go and do it and we have that type of group. We have that character about us, we never say never and we keep going to the final whistle. Sometimes it’s not always going to go your way and, at the end of the day, a clean sheet and a point, we move on and we keep going.”

Ipswich had the chance to go top on Wednesday evening after seeing both Leeds and Leicester drop points 24 hours earlier. Daniel Farke’s side were unable to break down a resolute Sunderland side in a tense goalless draw, while the Foxes lost 1-0 at Millwall.

Managers of all three sides have maintained that focus is only on themselves but Burgess admits that some of the players had an eye on matters elsewhere in the Championship. However, he insists the form of Leeds and Leicester will have no bearing on how they finish the campaign.

“Some were [watching Leeds or Leicester], some weren’t,” Burgess admitted. “Personally, I was watching the Champions League. What other teams do, we can’t control.

“If we keep doing the right things, things will happen for us. We keep doing what we’re doing, keep focusing on performances. You’ve seen all different types of results for us this season and we keep trying to do the same things every game, that’s how football works.

“Sometimes you’re going to score late winners and win 3-2, sometimes you’re going to get a clean sheet, it’s going to be 0-0 and you’re going to hit the post, it’s just the way football works. We’re just focused on what we do and keep going for games, keep trying to win games and hopefully it falls for us in the end.”