Christian Walton insists the entire Ipswich Town team must take the credit after the Blues broke a club record at Bolton.
The clean sheet in the 2-0 victory at their promotion rivals saw Town notch a sixth-successive shut-out, with the Blues now going 596 minutes of action without conceding a goal.
“It’s brilliant to break the record but it’s not just myself, of course,” the goalkeeper said.
“It starts at the top end of the pitch, especially the way the manager wants to play with a high press and getting the ball back really quickly. That all helps keep the clean sheets.
“We’re on a good run of clean sheets and a good run of wins but we’re in a crucial period now where we need to keep that consistency going to the end of this month and then into April.
“It’s nice to break a club record but let’s keep it going.”
Goals from George Hirst and Cameron Burgess secured Town’s win at Bolton, but just as important was Walton’s penalty save to deny Dion Charles after half-time.
“It gives the whole team a lift and was a dampener on them,” Walton said, having saved his second penalty of the season, following a stop at Cambridge in February.
“It can be tough when you miss a penalty. We saw that against Sheffield Wednesday when we missed one and then went 2-0 down within the space of 10 minutes.
“Saving penalties is a big thing and I want to produce big moments for the team. I’d watched a lot of his penalties, as I do with every team, and I was there to save it. I don’t know what I was booked for before the penalty was taken – just standing on the penalty spot, really – but it all helps build pressure.”
He continued: "It was a tough away fixture and probably wasn’t the most easy on the eye at times, but both teams wanted to win and both left everything on the pitch.
“To get the first goal when we did was crucial and in the second half we had to defend our box well, which we did. We came up against it but, compared to at the start of the season when we had challenges like that, you can see the growth we’ve made in terms of managing games.”
Town’s victory closes the gap on Plymouth in second to only two points with 10 games remaining, heading into next weekend’s home clash with Shrewsbury.
“It changes the narrative on the way people see it,” Walton said of the promotion race.
“It’s a long season with a long way to go and a lot still to play for.
“Teams have games in hand and lots still to play. It’s a mad league, so we need to be ready for that and attack another home fixture next weekend.”
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