'We hold the cards' - Ipswich Town man pinpoints key promotion advantage over Leeds United

Ipswich Town goalkeeper Vaclav Hladky insists his side’s focus remains on their performance levels in the knowledge that promotion is in their own hands.

Ipswich go into the final four games of the season second only to Leicester City on goal difference, with both holding a one-point advantage over Leeds United. All three missed a great opportunity to pull clear during the week with points dropped all round against beatable opposition.

With such little room for error between now and May, supporters from each of the three promotion hopefuls are keeping a keen eye on results and developments elsewhere. But managers and players have often repeated the steady line of focusing on themselves and Hladky is no different, warning that it is only Leeds who need to rely on other teams to help them out.

“You have a look at the table and you see the results, but I’m going to say the same thing that we have to pick up the points and we have to be focused on ourselves and be ready for every game,” Hladky told The East Anglian Daily Times. “We have the advantage to do it ourselves as we are one point ahead of Leeds so we hold the cards. As much as we can, we want to win every game and hold this advantage that’s in our hands.”

The return of domestic football after the March international break signalled the start of a crunch period in the promotion race, with fixtures in single figures and each point proving more and more valuable. All of Leeds, Leicester and Ipswich have faltered under the pressure but Hladky is backing his Ipswich side to turn up for the last four ‘cup finals’, particularly in front of their home supporters.

"Yeah, I think it feels like that," the Ipswich goalkeeper admitted of ‘cup final’ cliché. "It felt two weeks ago like eight cup finals to go, so it is what it is and we always take every game like a cup final. We know what we are capable of at home, we know we are so strong and with 30,000 people behind us it’s even more so. We are always looking forward to the home games and we know we can probably beat anyone.”

Ipswich are back at Portman Road on Saturday when they host play-off chasing Middlesbrough, with their fixture the last of the three automatic promotion contenders. Leicester City are at Plymouth Argyle on Friday evening, with Leeds hosting Blackburn Rovers on Saturday lunchtime.