Managers Roy Keane and Gordon Strachan were agreed that Town deserved their 3-1 opening day victory at Middlesbrough. Tommy Smith, Tamas Priskin and Jon Stead netted the goals for the Blues in the second half after Scott McDonald had put the home side in front before the break. Keane also said he hopes to make two signings this week.
Keane was delighted to get off to a winning start, particularly after last season’s 14-game winless run, and was pleased with the performance: "I thought we played well, I had a good feeling before the game. There was good energy amongst the players, a good spirit and pre-season went OK.
"We’ve lost a lot of players and sometimes that creates its own little bit of spirit. I thought we deserved to win the game, we got stronger as it went on.”
The Blues boss wasn’t particularly concerned when Boro went in front: "We were quite relaxed even at half-time, although disappointed with the goal, but I felt we came back into it.
"We started the second half very, very well and should have had a penalty, David Norris was a yard inside the box, but there was good energy and we looked a threat.
"Having said that, Middlesbrough had a few chances, but what we didn’t do last year was take the chances we had, but today we did, with Tamas and Steady scoring two very good goals.
"That will be the difference as to whether we’re going to be competing near the top half of the table. You get these chances and you have to take them and we did that today, but it’s just one game.”
Keane was happy with the performances of his young players but was concerned about new additions to the injury list with Carlos Edwards limping off with a groin injury and likely to be out for a few weeks, Mark Kennedy suffering a hamstring problem and Gareth McAuley and Grant Leadbitter both complaining of back injuries.
The Blues boss says he will consider withdrawing McAuley from the Northern Ireland squad: "We will have to look at pulling Gareth out of the international game this week. Hopefully Tamás and Márton come back from their game without any problems because we are a week into the season and we are already down to the bare bones.
"I haven't even thought about my team for Tuesday, other than to say that the youngsters will be involved."
Keane said he is hoping to make two signings before the Carling Cup tie at Exeter, but played down links with Wigan striker Jason Scotland, although reports elsewhere claim the Trinidad and Tobago international will join Town on Monday.
Boro boss Strachan similarly felt that the Blues were the better side on the day: "I thought the best team won.
"First half we were all right but then I thought the deflection was a bit unfair, it was going well wide, but after that we really needed to settle down for five minutes and we didn’t do that.”
Strachan thought his team ought to have made more of their second half opportunities: "At 2-1 we had two massive chances one-for-one but we didn’t take them, so we’ll have to blame ourselves for getting beat and say well done to Ipswich for doing well and taking their chances.”