Jim: Penalty Save the Decisive Moment - Ipswich Town News

Town boss Jim Magilton cited Neil Alexander's penalty save as the crucial moment in the Blues' 3-1 victory over Colchester United at Portman Road. The Scottish keeper's stop from Mark Yeates prevented his side from going two goals down.

Magilton said he felt justice was done: "It was a very dubious penalty but the goalkeeper made a fantastic save which inspired the crowd and inspired my players.

"The crowd became very noisy and vociferous because they don't like injustices here and they thought the penalty was an injustice.

"We showed great resilience. We got a bit anxious and found it difficult in the first half, so I spent the interval reassuring the players.

"I wanted them to do the simple things, but with more tempo. I cannot fault their application and in the end we made some substitutions that worked for us. Perhaps the result though was a bit flattering."

Magilton was pleased to see Liam Trotter net his first senior goal: "He has deserved his opportunity and he has a nice habit of scoring goals. I'm delighted for him.

"Now the challenge is there for him to move on and stake a claim for a place in the side."

Former Blue Geraint Williams, now manager of Colchester, also felt the penalty incident changed the game: "You could call it bad luck but you could say we didn't kill the game off. We had plenty of chances to do so apart from the penalty.

"For 68 minutes, we were excellent but it was the penalty save that was the turning point because Ipswich went down the other end and scored.

"I was disappointed for my players, but we had a mad 15 minutes after the penalty and that just about sums up the game.

"The irony was that Ipswich started to play the long ball and got more joy out of it."

What to read next: