Asked about potentially securing promotion at St James’s Park against Preston, Rafa Benitez said: “It will be nice for sure, but still the other teams have to do something.
“We have to do our job. We have to make sure we concentrate and win our games. If things go in our favour, then much better.
“The first thing I said was congratulations to Chris, to the team, because they did really well.
“My target has always been to try to go up. It doesn’t matter the position. We just have to finish our job.
“I am sure that everything is fine if we go up. Nobody will remember in six months’ time how we won or didn’t win, it will just be that we were promoted.
“You look at history. In the last five years, only one team went up who got relegated, so that shows how difficult is it. We are still in the driving seat.”
The Ipswich defeat followed a 1-1 home draw against Leeds United.
Benitez’s side had put in one of their best performances of the season before conceding an injury-time equaliser.
“It’s very clear,” said Benitez.
“My message from the first training session this week was to concentrate on our job, to focus on how we played against Leeds. If we play like that, we can beat anyone.”