Warning fired to Coventry City and Middlesbrough from Ipswich Town dressing room | OneFootball

Ipswich Town right-back Darnell Furlong believes the best is yet to come at Ipswich Town

Ipswich Town right-back Darnell Furlong has issued a warning to the rest of the Championship, as he feels that Kieran McKenna's side are yet to fully click together.

The Tractor Boys come into the Boxing Day fixtures hot on the heels of Coventry City and Middlesbrough in the automatic promotion places, sitting third.

The campaign hasn't been as plain sailing as many may have thought, given their dominance in the division a couple of years ago, but a strong home record and an away record which puts them in the middle of the pack have Ipswich there or thereabouts with just over half of the season still to play.

The Tractor Boys have shown on occasion this season that they can be as dominant as many expected, with impressive wins over the likes of Sheffield United, Coventry, Swansea City and QPR by three-plus goal margins.

The focus in the second half of the campaign is replicating that more, and in an interview with the East Anglian Daily Times, Furlong feels that it's only a matter of time before everything falls into place.

Darnell Furlong believes the best is yet to come for Ipswich Town

Furlong began the campaign as West Brom's captain before making the switch to Portman Road for £4 million just days before the summer window slammed shut.

He was one of 11 new arrivals at Ipswich this past summer, and as they were a side that was still undergoing a bit of a transition as stars from last season's Premier League campaign, plus others who had contributed to getting the side to the top flight, departed, there have been some stumbles along the way during the first half of the campaign.

Furlong, who has appeared in 16 of the 19 Championship games since his move, believes that this means that the best is yet to come at Portman Road this season.

"That's the really exciting thing for me," the 30-year-old told the East Anglian Daily Times. "It's been up and down, maybe hasn't gone to plan at every moment of the season, but we're third and still able to produce more as a group.

"I think it will come as the season builds. You get stronger together, and you understand each other a bit more as a new group.

"I do think the quality that we have is just going to eventually shine through, and it will all click into place."

Furlong has experience being promoted out of the Championship, having been a part of the Baggies side that went up under Slavan Bilic in the 2019/20 campaign.

West Brom finished second on 83 points that year, but only won 22 games — less than half of the entire season, and fewer than Brentford and Fulham, the two sides who finished directly below them.

Therefore, the 30-year-old knows that it's never truly easy in the Championship, and it's all about gaining more consistency, which he knows his side can obtain in the second half of the campaign, having won three of their last four.

"Sometimes it can be up and down in a season. [...] There has been a level of consistency there for us to have been at the top end of the table for so long. So I have no worries or doubts," Furlong added.

"It would be nice to go on a winning run — that's what you're always trying to achieve. We were firmly hoping and believing that we were going to get a third in a row against Leicester. It wasn't to be, though, so it's just about starting again.

"We play well. Not all the time, things are up and down, but I think we've got a great squad that's been playing well, and there's a lot more to come as well."

Ipswich Town are starting to build a head of steam as the season goes on

Per Opta's expected table, Ipswich are statistically the best team in the division per the underlying numbers. Now, it's all about turning those performances into positive results.

As the season has gone on, Kieran McKenna's side are starting to do just that, especially at home.

Their away form needs patching up slightly. They've had to scrap for a point at Blackburn Rovers, and fell to defeat at Oxford United in the midst of impressive home wins over the likes of Coventry and Stoke City.

There are a couple of big opportunities to sort that out before the year is up, with Kieran McKenna's side travelling to Millwall and Frank Lampard's table-toppers in the next two games.

If they can pick up results there, then there's no doubt Tractor Boys will cut the current five-point gap between themselves and the top two soon enough, and we'll have a real promotion race on our hands throughout the second half of the campaign.