Dave Jones is backing Roy Keane to keep Ipswich in the Championship - and lead the Suffolk club on to greater things.
Watch Dave's full pre match press conference on Player
Dave's Cardiff City team play at Portman Road on Tuesday night, and the Bluebirds gaffer said: "Roy is a doing a good job and will turn Ipswich around just as he did at Sunderland.
"Ipswich are good enough to stay up. They are a fantastic football club with a good manager. They have some good players. Sometimes you go through a season where you think everything is in place and all of a sudden it doesn't work out as you'd like. That happens in every division.
"Ipswich aren't doing as well as they expected, but in their case they brought in a new manager, new players came in and had to bed in. There were high expectation levels, but things don't happen overnight. When Roy went in, everybody assumed that was it, crash bang wallop, here we go, we're going to be fantastic.
"You've still got to earn the right, and get the right players, and that takes time. He's basically on the first rung of that ladder.
"His playing career has nothing to do with his managerial career. His playing career stands him in good stead because of what he's done, and the dressing rooms he's been involved with. But it doesn't mean that because you've been a fantastic player that it's all going to fall right. You've still got to earn it and Roy certainly did that at Sunderland. He earned the right as a manager. His team didn't do well at Sunderland because he was a good player, it was because he was a good manager. And that's what he will do at Ipswich - he will prove he's a good manager."
Dave, who hopes to field an unchanged team at Ipswich, is confident that his men are ready for the challenge of eight games in March, which started with Saturday's 1-0 home win over Middlesbrough.
He said: "We have been going through difficult times, but morale has been good. Losing a game dents it, but doesn't take it away. We have a good bunch of players and they are a good bunch of lads.
"There's a good cameraderie about the place and they knew they had to pull something out of the bag on Saturday.
"This month will be very challenging for the players here. We may get one or two back from injury, but that still won't be enough. It's going to be a tall order for everybody. But we're up for the fight and the players are giving everything they've got. If they continue to do that, there'll be no complaints from me.
"It's one of the most difficult periods of the season. We've got to do a lot of travelling for the next three games and we've got to make sure the players get their rest and get their food intake right.
"That's where the mental side comes in - what you do off the pitch and how you look after yourself. We'll do hardly any training - all clubs now will be ticking over.
"It will be a big boost if the tax bill can be sorted out on Wednesday and then everybody can relax and concentrate on the football. I know the chairman and the board are working really hard on it. We can't really influence it apart from winning matches and influencing people who might want to come in and buy the club.
"We picked up no injuries on Saturday and hopefully the boys on the bench who were struggling are over their little problems.We hope to have the same 18, and that will include young Jonathan Meades on the bench. We'll have a run-out tomorrow to stretch the players' legs before the game. The tempo of training isn't as high as we'd like because we're frightened of anyone picking up an injury.
"Mark Kennedy, Peter Whittingham and Steve McPhail are the players closest to a return, but we're still at a week or two weeks away before they can come back. Long-term, with Joe Ledley and Mark Hudson, we're maybe looking at some time in April.
"Look at the division, take out Newcastle and maybe Peterborough, and everybody is fighting for something. It's so tight and with the games coming thick and fast the table will chop and change drastically over the next three or four weeks. Teams at the bottom will be clamouring for points."
Dave also repeated his words of praise for Darcy Blake's contribution to Saturday's victory. The manager said: "I asked him to play out of position and he did well. Darcy has been away and has matured a little bit more.
"People will ask why he's doing well now and it's because of what we've done with him. We've sent him out on loan and given him a reality check because it's not all easy and nice here. He's got to go out and earn his corn and when he comes back, he's got to produce the form that's expected of him. One game doesn't put everything right - he's got to prove it over a period of time.
"Hopefully he'll get a good run of games and continues doing the right things. But as I've said before in Darcy's case it's not just a matter of what he's doing on the field, but how he lives off the field. He's a young boy, hopefully with a big career ahead of him in the game, but he's got to keep working at it.
"He's got to work at his fitness and he's got to work at living properly like anybody else at this club. If they take all that on board, young players will have a very good career. Darcy is one of those people - he must make sure he looks after himself off the field as well as on the field and then we'll get more and more performances like his display on Saturday."
