Ipswich played well in the last 20 mins of the ipswich v derby game that stunning goal by williams made the players enthusiastic to win and we got the 3 points 2 points off the play off COYB

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Well well well, nights like these make supporting Ipswich Town so magic. Yes we were technically inferior for large passages of the game, yes we were totally reliant on a young loan player for much that was entertaining and effective, and yes we carried 3 players contributing far less than their colleagues or than the 3 that replaced them. But this was a great Town performance full of fight and energy and commitment.

I went with a group of season ticket holders who are all planning to cancel their season tickets next season, "because we just don't enjoy it anymore" - as they went completely mental at the winning goal, perhaps they'll reconsider. Perhaps even Town will be in the Premiership to make them change their minds. A BBC Radio Suffolk caller bemoaned the size of the crowd given Town's position in the league. Well go figure, games like tonight have been few and far between this term, the prices are high, and ticket promotions are obscure - is it any surprise. But tonight we had ENTERTAINMENT, and the Suffolk jungle drums might start to inform the 'stay aways' that excitement has returned to the temple.

Yes tonight wasn't vintage Town, but there was energy and fight, there was some passages of good passing. But really the team were just up for it, there were no lulls or dull periods. It was a hard fought game, and Derby had the ability to pass and challenge Town.

Ipswich started the game quite brightly and were in fact in the Derby penalty area early on, when with 5 or 6 Derby passes the ball was in the Town net. I'm not sure that was a bad thing as Town had to press forward for the remainder of the game.

For the first half everything of note seemed to go through Williams. I thought the Hyam, Wordsworth pairing with Williams free in front go them worked well. And again Cresswell showed his rehabilitation into form, by joining the moves forward and passing shapes. Derby continued to threaten with intricate passing and movement, and their forward line was menacing. Albeit Smith and Berra managed to remain relatively in control (Berra made a last ditch and world class interception (again?!) in the second half).

Hyam was frustrating as for all his excellent hassling and tackling against a rugged Derby team, not afraid to get stuck in as well as to pass and move, Luke's forward distribution continued to disappoint. Wordsworth was doing simple stuff well. In the second half Wordsworth grew into the game tremendously, and as space opened around him he started to look composed, like Skuse, but Wordsworth seems to offer a more positive forward pass than our injured deep sitting midfielder.

Williams was everywhere, deep, high up the pitch, central, wide. Possibly one of the best performances at PR for some time. Capped with a brilliant second half goal. Cresswell stood over it on the left attacking the North Stand goal. By now Nouble and SEB were on, and the Derby back line were completely focussed on those 2 plus Murphy, Berra and Smith. This allowed Cresswell to pass short to Williams who advanced in acres of space and place a beautiful long range effort into the top right hand corner. Goal of the season. Its a shame Pulis was there tonight, surely he will call back this talent. Which would be a major blow.

Pulis may want Williams back to protect him from the kind of heavy duty treatment he received especially in the first half. Mick indeed approach the ref on the pitch at half time to argue for more protection. In some ways Williams low centre of gravity trickery was causing many a foul in error. But he'll certainly awake bruised in the morning.

Mick and TC got so much right tonight. And certainly they took off the right 3 players in the second half. Chambers was injured and looked groggy. But I thought this was another game were his lack of right back characteristics was exposed. At one point he fluffed a number of forward balls, and also failed to advance into space before him. Richardson seemed to do well when introduced, one particular forward run and cross was compelling.

The other 2 withdrawals, Hunt and Anderson, to be replaced by SEB and Nouble were desperately needed. Hunt and Anderson were just so outclassed by their team mate Williams it was dramatic. Hunt was marginally better, but he just lost the ball in good positions too many times. Anderson was just plain frustrating, he made wrong choices, he lost the ball, he was lacklustre, and I can tell you he also did not track back - exposing the myth of his defensive capabilities. We'd be in the play-offs had we procured better wingers this season.

Now please pass me a plate with a selection of my own words on it, because I must eat my own words. I had stated that Nouble will not make it as an effective player, I have also stated we won't make the play-offs. Certainly the Nouble position was hugely embarrassing tonight - he actually controlled the ball and BEAT his man on 3 or 4 occasions. Yes he switched off massively once which could have been costly. But he put in a game changing performance. SEB also looked much sharper and match fit.

What we had was an attacking intent for much of the second half - 6 deep players; and 4 attacking. Williams in the hole causing havoc, SEB and Murphy ahead, and Nouble free to go wide. Adventurous and exciting play at Portman Road - now thats more like it Mick - hats off to you.

And whisper it - keep that shape, perhaps even keep the same team that ended the game at the expense of Skuse for the improved Wordsworth - and maybe just maybe we'll be that 6th finisher that tends to prosper in the play-off madness.

Cracking night. And we're all returning for Saturday and the now very interesting Forest clash. (Reading losing at home to Barnsley - me like a lot)

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The atmosphere last night was excellent, at least it was in the north stand lower near section 6. The referee in contrast was terrible! I thought it would be us fouling Derby all evening to contain them but it was vice versa! Chris Martin should have been sent off and Williams was afforded little protection. Perhaps the Town fans sense of inustice helped fuel the atmosphere (alongisde reduced ticket prices: more of this please Mr Evans). 4 yellow cards does not accurately reflect the number of fouls Derby committed.

Smith and Berra again looked excellent at the back and provide a solid foundation for the rest of the team. There were times last night when we kept the ball really well. Jonny Williams must have an influence on this. Others see how he retains possession and try to replicate it. Hyam was much improved if not perfect in this department and Wordsworth used the ball wisely. I cannot find enough superlatives to describe Williams. Great first touch, confidence to beat a man and pick a through ball, pace, work rate and a goal to cap it all off!

Williams desire to the do the above is infectious, with Anderson and Hunt attempting to do something similar. Unfortunately, for all their endeavour they lack Jonny's quality and this is an area I feel we need to improve if we are to improve. Taylor for me should start every game cutting in from one of the flanks. Murphy would benefit from having two great options out wide when he's holding the ball up, not just the immense Williams behind him as teams will work us out and continually foul him like last night.
Bring on Forest!

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Great game and result despite a poor ref and endless fouls by Derby, mostly on Jonny. Lets hope we can keep the lad for the rest of the season as he really makes the difference and with him we are in with a chance of making the play-offs. After a poor away performance against Boro and at home to Wigan, the wins against Brighton and Derby were desperately needed and I hope we can keep the momentum and confidence going against out of form and managerlesss Forrest. Btw, I am not Noubles biggest fan but I have to give the lad credit for a super sub performance last night!

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Difficult for me to add much more to Unstable but to anyone who missed the game, this was a cracker! Yes Derby are big and strong which gave them the advantage so often and I can see why they are 3rd BUT they couldn't contain Jonny. Best performance from anyone at PR for long time, just hope we can keep him until May. As for the rest:-
Gerken was fine and used to ball better, preferring to roll out rather than boot it to opposition
Chambers did ok and put some good balls to Hunt who wasted them and neither winger helped him
Berra/Smith both played great as they had their hands full
Cresswell was up for it, put in good shift and had 2 goal-bound efforts blocked in first half
Hyam did what he does best and competed well BUT his forward passing was poor (need a better player in that position)
Wordsworth did well and settled in so hope that he keeps improving
Hunt was very poor, lost possession too often and no delivery
Anderson ditto and would prefer Taylor any day
Williams its been said just need him until May so just hope Pulis has better options at Palace for now!!
Murphy was class and made his presence known against big defenders, shame he didn't score.
Frank was just what we wanted (despite my wee jock friend's view!) big strong and went forward. He headed, ran and passed, reminds me of the early Kuqi
SEB put in good shift and could so easily have scored.
More of that please MM and the crowds could return esp if £10 is available for more matches

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I think that few of us slept well last night, turning the events of the game over and over. This time of the year is as much about character as it is about football, and the character we forged in last year’s epic relegation scrap is turning into incredibly useful armour this time round.

Derby’s opening goal was like some kind of weird training ground exercise, full of clever runs and unexpected passes. This fluidity and movement tore Nottingham Forest to shreds, and was coupled with a strong pressing game in the first half, prohibiting us from getting a foothold. In contrast, our response was to focus on shape out of possession, allowing the Rams time and space to develop a tempo.

When Sam Allardyce plays loathsome negative football, the destruction forms a coherent part of an overall game plan. Derby’s negativity was their undoing. The first half became quite stop-start, and the interruptions for the many injury breaks prevented them establishing a rhythm and enabled us to get to half-time very much in the game.

It was manifestly obvious that Bryson, Hendrick and company were systematically trying to cripple Jonny Williams, and that Chris Martin was performing some form of Grant Holt tribute act in doing the same to Christoph Berra. “Martin’s certainly got the crowd going” was MrsH’s comment after he hacked into Berra on the half-hour mark.

Mick was accompanied by 16,000+ of us in his half-time conversation with the referee as they left the pitch. Derby fans on their forum thought that he had performed some weird Yorkshire-Irish alchemy on him, tuning him into a ‘homer’ for the second half, but he was completely correct to point out what was happening.

I felt that the referee had a quixotic game. He ducked two red card decisions, but was happy to dole out fussy yellow cards, like a magistrate giving the same community service orders to different people for burning a house down and putting the bins out on the wrong day. Yet he allowed play to flow, and was not kidded by the Rams proclivity to collapse in a heap every three minutes.

Derby fans were right in saying that their crossing was poor and set piece play was not their strong suit. As the game wore on, it became clear that they had one tactic, albeit an effective one, breaking with movement from midfield. We were at our obdurate best when the game opened out in the second half.

I thought that Hyam was in the vanguard in breaking up their play, but I don’t think that he is a playmaker. When he wins the ball, as he often does, we need to give him a simple option and work to his strengths, as there was a chance that the opposition could receive his hard earned possession straight back.

Wordsworth was no angel. Just as Derby were setting about our danger-men, he gave George Thorne, the Rams holding midfielder, a rare old evening, and was lucky to get away with ‘a few words’ late in the game when a yellow was an viable option for one challenge. Thorne is a decent player, but faded from the game in the manner than Jonny Williams didn’t.

It is pointless adding to the superlatives elsewhere about Jonny on the website. However, there was one facet worth highlighting, and that is to watch his positioning. He has an instinct to read where play is going to break, and was available so, so frequently to link play in the centre or pop up on the by-line.

He was being flung around like a rag-doll at times, but five minutes from the end pinched a ball just inside our half that he had no right winning, and you could see the belief radiate around his team mates.

Mick must have spotted on the Derby match videos that they switch off at free kicks. The set piece which delivered our equaliser was the third time we tried that in the game, one from an equally dangerous position in the first half. The Rams defence has been really solid, and it was a tiny detail which enabled us to breach their castle wall.

Palace fans are funny. On their forum last night, some of them were saying that he couldn’t do that in the Premiership. Well, keep believing that boys. It was telling at the end that he and Terry had a massive bear-hug. I think that our assistant manager has been instrumental in transforming his fortunes.

I know and accept that Stephen Hunt can be ragged, but he does give us spark and invention. He is also very good at getting inside the heads of full-backs, and he played an important role last night in keeping Craig Forsyth, who is a real danger at marauding forward, at bay.

I was delighted to see Noublinho using his strength, pace and trickery to cause Derby problems on both flanks when he came on. There was one moment in injury time when, with a break on, he simply stopped with the ball rather than risking a loss of possession, showing great calmness and maturity.

It was so fitting that both our goals were scored by the players who were given the most ‘treatment’ by the opposition. I had said to Mrs H that we were struggling to get anything in the air in attack, whereupon two minutes later a wonderful Cresswell looping corner saw Christoph send the place into pandemonium.

Leaving the ground, I excitedly called my Italian mate Vince, a Napoli supporter who is no stranger to exuberance at football matches. He had been following the game on the radio. “Great result, mate” he said, “but it’s time for Ipswich to stop hiding. You have been stalking the play-off places for a while. Now is the time to strike.”

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Williams was different grade. Murphy won a decent proportion of aerial balls lofted his way during his lone striker stint under 4-5-1. I enjoyed the double forward substitution of Nouble & Ebanks-Blake.

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