Chairman David Sheepshanks has issued a rallying call to his Ipswich Town side as they look to overhaul Bradford City in the fight for automatic promotion.

The Suffolk town was plunged into depression by last week's shock 2-1 home defeat against bottom club Crewe and City's 3-1 triumph at QPR.

That has left Paul Jewell's men safe in the knowledge that two victories in their final games will end their 77-year wait for a return to the top flight and condemn Ipswich to a place in the play-offs.

However Sheepshanks, who is chairman of both the Football League and Ipswich, has stressed that the race for promotion still has a long way to go.

After steadfastly refusing to talk in terms of the play-offs, the Town chief said: "We go forward with dogged determination. The advantage may have passed to Bradford but we are level on points and have played the same number of games.

"We must make sure we keep the pressure on them. We know we are as good or even better than the opposition. We have to ease the pressure on ourselves by totally believing in what we can do.

"We must believe we can achieve our goal of automatic promotion. Throughout this season, the players have shown immense spirit as a unit. We have been at the top or near the top from the beginning.

"Now we have to take it on from that. I have the utmost faith in what we can achieve. The team can take heart from what they have done already this season.

"We will have to be on our steel and our spirit has to come to the fore. The disappointment of the Crewe game is now behind us and now all that matters is the match at Birmingham on Sunday."

George Burley's side looked clear favourites for promotion following their 1-0 victory over Stockport ten days ago which left them three points clear of City with just three games remaining.

They were expected to easily account for Crewe last weekend while QPR looked set to give the Bantams a difficult game at Loftus Road.

However on a memorable afternoon, not only did City win 3-1 but Crewe also managed to pull off the shock result of the season by winning at Portman Road. Ipswich now face a tricky visit to Birmingham before finishing their campaign with a home clash with Sheffield United.

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