BACK in August, few Town fans anticipated their side going into the busy Christmas period of fixtures in eighth, just two points away from the Championship play-offs.

Another season of struggle was widely predicted, particularly after the 6-1 hammering at League One Charlton in the final pre-season friendly.

But Saturday’s 2-0 defeat of last season’s losing play-off finalists, Reading, saw the Blues return to winning ways after the loss at Middlesbrough by the same scoreline and move closer to the top six.

Having made a scintillating start in the first month, in which they won their first four Championship matches, Town stuttered for a spell in September and October but have subsequently maintained a position on the shoulders of the play-offs, gaining more positive results than negative.

Saturday’s performance against Reading was more like Town’s recent away displays than their more rampaging home victories over Nottingham Forest and Preston, albeit with rather better defending than at Boro and Aston Villa.

This was probably no surprise given Reading’s penchant for playing keep-ball in the traditional Dutch manner under Jaap Stam’s management.

The Blues were never going to take the Royals on at their own game. It would probably have been footballing suicide to try to do so.

Callum Connolly’s latest early goal - his three in the last four games for Town have come in the third, fifth and seventh minutes - was perfect for the frustrate-and-counter-attack approach.

The Blues’ backline remained resolute and avoided making the individual errors which cost them so dearly on Teesside and at Villa Park and keeper Bartosz Bialkowski was relatively untroubled throughout.

Joe Garner’s second goal on 27 minutes gave the Blues a cushion and the result was never in question in the second half and Town could and probably should have added to their goals.

The Portman Road faithful are becoming increasingly familiar with leaving their seats celebrating a victory, the Blues having won three of their last four - Sheffield Wednesday grabbing an undeserved draw in the final moments of the other - and seven of their overall 11 home games so far this season.

That there were so few of them was the afternoon’s big disappointment, the attendance of 13,832 the smallest for a home league game since 13,212 watched the 1-0 victory over Swindon in October 1998.

Why the low crowd? Plenty of factors. The drop in season ticket sales in the summer by around 1,500, the continued enmity towards manager Mick McCarthy among some sections of the support, ticket promotions at Portman Road’s two previous matches with Town hosting two more games over the Christmas period and then an FA Cup tie also with cut-price tickets, while the last home match before Christmas usually has a lower gate than usual anyway.

That lack of August expectation also comes into it and despite the decent recent home form and position on the cusp of the play-offs, I’m not sure there’s yet enough of a belief that this season could be one in which the Blues finish in the top six for only the second time since Marcus Evans’ takeover a decade ago and after 16 long years in the Championship.

A decent Christmas and positive home results in front of bigger than usual gates against QPR on Boxing Day and Derby four days later could well prove to be a turning point in persuading at least some of those stay-away fans back to Portman Road.

Parallels have previously been drawn with the 1991/92 old Second Division championship season when similarly little was expected of Town and the opening home match against Port Vale, which was won 2-1, was watched by only 8,937 (which, incidentally, illustrates that current crowds are still relatively high by historical standards).

By the 2-0 Boxing Day win against Charlton they had reached 13,826 and the final match of the campaign, the 3-1 win against Brighton with the title already secured, was watched by what was then a sell-out 26,803.

Prior to the two festive fixtures at Portman Road the Blues travel to face leaders Wolves at Molineux tomorrow as the season reaches its halfway point.

McCarthy’s old club have emerged as the team to beat, having spent considerable sums over the summer and go into the match four points ahead of second-placed Bristol City in second and eight above Cardiff in third.

It goes without saying it’s going to be tough to take anything from the game but if the Blues defend with the resolve they showed against Reading rather than at Boro or Villa then they have a chance of claiming what would be a Christmas bonus point or perhaps even three.