Town manager Roy Keane says he’s happy enough with his side’s haul of four points from their first two league games. The Blues beat Middlesbrough away last weekend, before drawing 1-1 at home to Burnley on Saturday.

Keane said: “You always take it one game at a time, but if you’d asked me last Saturday morning when I woke up in the hotel room in Durham eating my cereal in bed, I would have said that four points wouldn’t be the end of the world for us because they were two tough games.”

The Blues boss was delighted with his side’s performance against the Clarets, despite conceding Clarke Carlisle’s header from a corner in injury time: “Our team at the end looked unbelievably small but they had massive hearts. If ever we were going to concede it was going to be from a set piece because they’ve got some big, big lads. You find that when teams come out of the Premiership.

“I’m absolutely delighted and I’m looking forward to one or two days off, as probably are the players. David Norris was a brilliant captain, Márton made one of the best saves I’ve seen in a long time in the first half.

“Young Shane O’Connor did very well against some good players, Jaime did well. I thought the two centre-halves were outstanding. Steady did well. Trust me, I couldn’t be happier.

“We could have kept it a bit more,” Keane continued, “but that’s me nit-picking. We were caught out a little bit by our inexperience bombing forward, particularly Jaime and Shane, and Ross Wallace pulled away from us a few times. We calmed down a little bit in the second half and were a bit more solid.

“A lot of our players had played 120 minutes on Tuesday night, we travelled back carrying injuries, were missing important players and we get a performance like that. Give me that all day.

"There’s no guarantee you’re going to win football matches but you ask your players before the game to give 100% for the club and they did that, full stop.”

Keane had especial praise for his goals-aplenty new skipper’s display: “Chuck does that every week. On Tuesday he was supposed to have 45 minutes and ended up having 120 because we had a player pull out. He scored two goals then, scored on Saturday. Not a bad week for Chuck.”

The Town manager would have preferred to have rested a few players but due to the ongoing injury situation — Grant Leadbitter is set to go a scan on a suspected chipped ankle bone today — was unable to do so: “I think even Luke Hyam looked tired, just lacking that bit of sharpness.

“You can’t expect these young players to play 46 games in the Championship. We could do that but these boys will be crippled when they’re 24 or 25 like a lot of other players have been. You’ve got to get the balance right.

“We’ve got to be careful with them, but I didn’t have a choice on Saturday. If I’d have had options, people like Luke wouldn’t have been involved. I need to rest the boy. We had the same situation with Connor Wickham last season, everyone said we’d got to play him. He’s a young boy, he’s still growing.

“I have to look at the bigger picture,” said Keane. “It might cost us results sometimes, but we want these boys to be playing for the next 10 or 15 years, not two or three and having knee operations, hip operations and taking pain killers.”

The Irishman, who celebrated his 39th birthday earlier in the week, has given his squad a well-earned rest: “These boys put their bodies on the line and I’ve given them a few days off to go off and chill out and enjoy themselves. They deserve it. They’ve got Sunday and Monday off, then they’ll be back in on Tuesday for another tough game next weekend. It’s been a decent week but we want to have another decent one next week.”

New loan signing Andros Townsend made his debut and his performance pleased his manager, even though he would have preferred to have used him as a sub: “I thought he did very well, but in an ideal situation I wouldn’t have started him. But we had to do the same last year. Chuck Norris was out for four months, he was only back training for a week or two and he was playing for us.

“The young boy did very, very well. Clearly he’s got qualities, he’ll only get better. We took him off after 75 minutes, but in an ideal world he would probably have been on the bench with young Luke. But we had to start him. He’s had one training session with us really, as Friday was very light. He’ll be better for it.”

The Blues boss says his squad will be in better shape in a few weeks’ time once he has added his three new signings — Jason Scotland, Darren O’Dea and one more — a couple of current players have moved on, Townsend has settled into the squad and the likes of Connor Wickham, Damien Delaney, Carlos Edwards and Mark Kennedy have returned from injury.

Photo: Action Images

Stadiumofdark added 09:01 - Aug 16 Going into the games - I'd have been happy with two points, so I'm happpy too! Need to follow it up with 4 points from Palarse & Brizzle though
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suffolksam added 09:01 - Aug 16 why did they have to play 120 minutes on tuesday night roy ? surely they should have been rested for the serious stuff
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comeonthegoodtimes added 09:04 - Aug 16 I would agree with the points tally so far this season, If anyone would have said to me at 2:59 last saturday that we could have 4 points by the end of next saturday's game than i would have bitten there hand off. Team playing very well at the minute imo. just need that striker to put the cherry on the cake, Norris a very worthwhile captain i think. we need to kick on now and build on our V.good start to the season. I know people are going to come on here and say we should have had 6 out of 6 but just look at who we've played!!! can't help but feel positive for the games ahead... COYB

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comeonthegoodtimes added 09:11 - Aug 16 suffolksam - Your obviously new to the game of football and haven't realised that if you draw a cup game and there is no replay then extra time is bound to happen,lol. we do have a few injuries at the minute plus some were away with there countries so had to play certain players to make a team up. I look at it like this, if your winning games you want to just keep playing and keep that run going... unfortunately we were forced into it a bit through lack of senior players...

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bluelady added 09:33 - Aug 16 comeonthegoodtimes you will realise if you read all of SuffolkSam's posts that he just looks at what the majority says then says the opposite! he will find negative even in the biggest positive and really shows little knowledge of the game itself !
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BlueandwhiteWizard added 09:47 - Aug 16 Good start to the season, let's hope we can continue in the same vein. Really enjoyed Saturday, with the exception of the last minute. On an unrelated issue- how s?!t are the pies this season! My usual Balti was a disgrace in a plastic wrapper. 'Catering manager out'
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Back_The_Boss added 09:52 - Aug 16 Impressed with the first 2 league games, lets keep the unbeaten run going and pick up some points against Palace. COYB!
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suffolkpoker added 09:56 - Aug 16 To get 4 points from the opening 2 games from the favoirties and a team that came down last season... i am over the moon!! all the talk through preaseaon was Ipswich will be in a relegation fight, Keane out by October etc etc It just shows you the differnce what 2-3 games can do to morale, with the players that will come back from injury and the 2-3 players we "might" get in.... This season is sounding better by the minunte COYB!!!

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JayITFC added 10:00 - Aug 16 "I woke up in the hotel room in Durham eating my cereal in bed" I think that's put me off breakfast for life.
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bedsitfc added 10:02 - Aug 16 blueandwhitewizard - i didnt make it on saturday but if you are saying the balti pies are s!!t i will be going less haha. on a more serious note if you look at our opposition last week and this as well as a cup tie in exeter, we all have to be happy with 4 points and through to the next round of the cup.
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dobbie73 added 10:11 - Aug 16 I think overall it has been a very satisfactory first week of the season - 4 points off tough opposition (I think most pundits will make Burnley and Boro top 6 if not top 2 this season, although personally I think QPR will be the surprise package this year), and through to the 2nd round of the League Cup. Very nice indeed! BlueandwhiteWizard - your comment made me grin ... "My usual Balti was a disgrace in a plastic wrapper. 'Catering manager out'" Lol, comment of the day so far!

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colonel added 10:26 - Aug 16 When Keane's quotes are micro analysed there will always be things to pick fault with but at least he always seems to be upfront and down to earth. I think he's good value and talks a lot of sense most of the time but has the occasional moment... like all of us. Reading this he clearly has another side to him in wanting to protect the youngsters which is out of kilter as to how he is portrayed in some quarters as some sort of maniac psycho.

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Bluestu added 12:05 - Aug 16 I too am very pleased with 4 points from those 2 games, ideally another 4 from the next 2 would be excellent progress. We have to win one of the next two to get some momentum going.
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Crock added 12:34 - Aug 16 We're hauling ass!
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BerlinBlue added 12:34 - Aug 16 4 points out of 6 is great... the next game against palace will be tough so we shouldn't be disappointed with a draw... bristol city at home should be 3 points really... very good to see RK concerned about the young players' futures, not wanting them to overdo it... but if they keep playing like they have been can he justify dropping them? will be interesting to see what happens!

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Brad_C_ITFC added 13:04 - Aug 16 I'm very happy with the 4 points (Y)
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blueknights added 14:53 - Aug 16 A great start - especially with the current, unsettled nature of the club. I think Keane learned a lot last year and, hopefully we shall see him put much of that into practice. Once all the comings and goings have been settled, let's look forward to some real fireworks on the pitch. Norris is an excellent choice for captain and let's hope he stays injury-free. It's another tough league this year, no outstanding club but a lot of very useful ones. A top six finish is not beyond us and should make the misery of last season a distant memory.

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Blue92 added 17:00 - Aug 16 I agree with Keano 100% on all of his comments here. COYB.
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SiBo added 18:05 - Aug 16 What a difference a week makes... For the past couple of months, I've been feeling like I'm one a very few who had high hopes of this season... I've been ridiculed for that belief as well, especially when defending RK, now… everyone's on a high and talking up the town after 2 wins and a draw… god football fans are a fickle lot aren't they… Anyway, I am encouraged by our start, feel we still need a couple of extra players (although not sure on this guy from Celtic… why give a Celtic youngster match practice when we can continue with out own youngster (Smith) who has been solid as a rock so far… I don't agree with that one… I think we need a couple more attacking players for our front 3 (To add to Wickham and Townsend) and another decent midfielder to cover Leadbitter/Norris/Hyam… and then I'm confident of a decent season. Well done RK… and I back you fully in your stance on Walters and have my own views on what really went on (Putting pieces together from lots of bits I've read) and I don't think anyone has actually reported anywhere near the full story on that one!

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jas0999 added 18:55 - Aug 16 An excellent return! Well done Roy and the boys. Lets not forget we have several key players out injured. Struggling to see how some are so negative at the moment.
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Suffolk_n_Good added 18:58 - Aug 16 Agree jas0999, excellent return considering the opposition, If someone had said to any Town fan before the season kicked off that we would be given 4 points from them 2 games, we'd have bitten your hand off!! Well done to all.
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alfromcol added 19:21 - Aug 16 All quiet on the 'ChambersM' front, obviously must be happy with the 4 point haul!!
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zippyrainbow added 22:14 - Aug 16 Would have taken 3 points but I am trying hard not to get carried away. Why on earth are Middlesbrough favourites to go up?? Why? And Burnley are still shellshocked from last season. I reckon if we can beat Palace away, that will almost give me a cause for optimism this season.
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