George Burley praised the battling qualities of his side during yesterday's potential banana-skin cup-tie at Dagenham and Redbridge. Goalscorer Marcus Stewart added that Town won the right to play football in the second half after a tricky first period.

The Town boss said: "Sometimes you've got to battle and match people and then eventually you get on top and that was the case. Dagenham were tremendous for the first 20 minutes, they never allowed us out of our half. They kept putting balls in the box, won corners and got their goal. But once we got over the 20 minutes I felt we started playing. Today could easily have been one of those games which ended with a giant-killing. We showed we had the character to stand the pressure Dagenham gave us and we'll look forward to the next game."

Daggers' boss Garry Hill felt that his side did well in the early period but the key to the game was Town getting a goal back soon after his side had gone ahead. The ex-Heybridge Swifts man had nothing but praise for the Premiership side: "All credit to Ipswich they got back in the game very quickly."

He paid tribute to his lads and said they had by no means disgraced themselves in going out to a Premiership side for the second year in succession.

Returning Town striker Marcus Stewart said he felt the first half was not easy for the Blues: "The first half was very difficult it was like a battle. I think you have to earn the right to try and play football. I think in the first half we were trying to earn the right but it didn't happen. In the second half we came out having got a couple of goals which settled us down and we started to play our game and obviously went on to win the game 4-1. But I must admit that first half was very hectic."

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