MIKE Whitlow fired the first shots today in what has become an annual Reebok ritual - the "Persuade Gudni to Stay" campaign.

And the Wanderers' club skipper insists he is not whistling in the wind.

"Gudni has been awesome now for two and a half seasons and he's still going strong," Whitlow said of his centre-back partner, Bergsson, who turned in another impressive performance in the 2-1 win at Ipswich. "He played a massive part again yesterday."

Now 36 and in his eigth season with Wanderers, Bergsson has effectively been on borrowed time since being persuaded two summers ago to postpone his plans to retire from football in favour of returning to his native Iceland to start his second career as a lawyer. The same applied this summer when he again signed a one-year contract, suggesting it would be his last.

But he has given a string of vintage displays and, after seeing him open his goalscoring account for the season at Portman Road before leading by example in a successful rearguard action, Whitlow believes helping keep Wanderers in the Premiership could persuade him to make it a hat-trick next summer, despite his wife and two children now living in Iceland.

"He keeps saying he's packing in but you never know ... miracles do happen," Whitlow said of his sidekick. "We might drag him here again. I think his family's massively important to him but you don't want to finish ... you want to go on.

"And he's been fantastic in the Premiership."

Wanderers were in buoyant mood after recording their third away win of the season at Ipswich, which hoisted them back into eighth place in the Premiership - just behind Chelsea on goal difference.

"It has been a dream start," Sam Allardyce acknowledged. "If you had said at the start of the season that we'd be eighth in the table after 13 games and level on points with Chelsea I would have pinched you, never mind myself."

But they made life difficult for themselves after Bergsson and Michael Ricketts put them 2-0 up inside 25 minutes. They conceded a goal just seconds before half time when Matt Holland scored after his Argentine team-mate Sixto Peralta had dragged Kevin Nolan back by his shirt.

"I mentioned it to the ref," Nolan confirmed, "and just before that he (Peralta) knocked the ball down with his hand.

"I would definitely have got to the ball but I don't mind because we won."

Whitlow cursed the loss of a goal. "At 2-0 the game should have been dead and buried," he suggested. "We really wanted a clean sheet and conceding that one was disappointing but it just made it a more exciting game for the people at home to watch (on TV)."