Joe Royle was unsurprisingly pleased with his side's 3-1 win against Premiership Middlesbrough in the Worthington Cup. He felt there were a lot of positive performances in his reshuffled team.

The Town boss said: "Tonight was excellent and there were a lot of look-at-me performances.

"All round we didn't have a problem and my only complaint was that we didn't hang onto our clean sheet.

"Recently we haven't been taking our chances but we scored some good goals.

"I couldn't be happier with the players, it was a good chance to put people in and find out about them."

Boro manager Steve McClaren rued fixture congestion and said he would have fielded a stronger side had the game not occurred so soon after Monday's Newcastle match: "I don't like to lose football matches and this was a competition we wanted to do well in.

"We fielded a side of youth and experience which we believed was good enough to win the game.

"But we gave away three silly goals and it was all over at half-time.

"The first 20 minutes are vital in any football match, you can get a foothold and conceding after two minutes is not the game-plan.

"We played the second half for pride and I told the players to go out and win that half."

The draw for round four is live during Sky Sports' Soccer Saturday this weekend from 2-2.30pm. Round four matches will be played during week beginning December 2nd.

Photo: Action Images

Ipswich Town Polls