Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna is worried about his team as they head south to take on Saints at St Mary's, they have played 6 games in the month of April and arrive on the South Coast with a run of poor form.

Ipswich Town looked nailed on for automatic promotion at the start of April and two wins at the start of the month reiterated that view, but since then there is a feeling amongst the Ipswich supporter base that they have suffered from complacency.

After beating Norwich at Carrow Road on April 11th the 2nd of those two wins, the team and fans celebrated on the ground of their local rivals as if they had already won promotion and since then they have won just one of their last 4 outings and that at Charlton with the help of a rather dubious penalty.

A defeat at Portsmouth, then in the bottom 3 and draws at home to Middlesbrough and away to West Brom have rung the alarm bells in the past two weeks.

Manager Kieran McKenna has put the run of poor form down to fatigue, having had this to say speaking to the East Anglian Daily Times:

Asked if we would rotate his team, following on from Saturday's 0-0 draw at West Brom, McKenna replied: "We'll make those assessments today after training and through speaking to players this evening.

"There's no doubt that there was fatigue out there on Saturday. No doubt about that.

"I've spoken to the schedule enough. Three away games and six days at this stage of the season is really, really tough.

"We want to be relatively consistent with the selection and give players a chance to build up some good momentum. I think we've done that over the last few weeks. But we also have other players ready to go and a squad of people ready to contribute.

"I think, in reality, we're going to need to freshen up some positions going into tomorrow tonight. We'll make a decision on what those positions are."

But it might not just be fatigue, having been on the cusp of promotion for a couple of weeks now the jitters might well be setting in to his squad, after the win at Norwich they thought they were just about on the finishing line, but a poor result or two aligned with the likes of Saints coming up behind them has left them looking over their shoulders and they know a defeat at St Mary's could leave the final day a tough one.

However if they win at Saints promotion is virtually sealed due to a far superior goal difference to Millwall, but that is a big pressure to play under, especially with the fact that they know that Southampton are the form side in the division.

A Southampton win would mean that Millwall, Saints & Middlesbrough would all be in with a chance of overtaking them on the final day of the season if they were to lose or draw at home to Queens Park Rangers.

Although you would still have them down as favourites if that was to be the case, the pressure would be on them to get the job done and that pressure might prove a heavy weight for a fatigued side .

From a Southampton & Middlesbrough perspective, automatic promotion is an outside chance and so we will both play without too much pressure on us aside from hitting a top 4 finish for a home advantage in the 2nd leg of the semi finals, whereas both Ipswich & Millwall will have the nerves jangling.

If the Tractor Boys lose at St Mary's suddenly the confidence may drain and that could let one of the other 3 contenders in.

All Photos Via Reuters