Striker Tamás Priskin felt his performance against Bristol City on Saturday was probably his best for the Blues since moving to Portman Road a year ago. The Hungarian, who ended a disappointing first campaign on loan at QPR, netted his first home goal for the club and his second of the season as the Blues beat the Robins 2-0.
Priskin, who joins Márton Fülöp on international duty with Hungary this week, was particularly impressed with Town’s second half display: "Maybe it was my best game for Ipswich. I scored my first home goal, so I’m very pleased today, but I think the team did really well as well, especially in the second half.
"I started the first half on the left and in the second went to the middle. It was a bit better, I scored a goal, Jason scored a great goal as well and we won the game, so I’m really happy.”
The former Watford man says he has benefited from being at the club through the summer having signed from the Hornets for £1.7 million two days before the start of last season: "I was here from the start of pre-season, I played a few games with the team in pre-season as well, so it was a bit easier this season. I’ve scored a few chances, I’ve started in the team and hopefully I’m going to stay in the team.
"I think we have had a good start and after four games we’ve got 10 points which is very good, so hopefully we’re going to continue like this.”
Priskin says the key factor in the good start was the opening day win at Middlesbrough: "The most important thing was getting three points after the first game. Last season it was a bit harder because I think we got the first win after 15 games, this year we got it after the first and I think the team got confidence. The spirit is very good around the team and I hope it’s going to stay like this.”
Jon Stead, who made his debut against the Blues having joined Bristol City for £225,000 earlier in the week, thought he made a reasonable start to his Robins career: "I felt I did OK and it was a shame I didn’t score with the one or two half-chances I had in the first half. I felt quite lively and I’ll have to work on getting a better understanding with Brett [Pitman].
"It is massively disappointing the way the game turned out in the end. Mistakes have cost us and after competing for so long it’s very, very disappointing. We came out for the second half looking to push on and try to win the game. We felt good about the way we dealt with them in the first half.
"We competed for about 60 minutes and then we self-destructed. Now we have two weeks to work on things and we need to pick ourselves up. It’s still very early in the season and we don’t want today’s result or the way we lost to affect us in any more games this season.”
Stead says Bristol City keeper David James will more aware of the errors that led to the goals than anyone else: "Obviously he’s been around and he knows when he should have done things a little bit differently and a little bit better.
"For the first goal we should have dealt with it earlier, before it got to him. There’s a slight blame with Jamo coming out and shouting for it. These are little mistakes that we need to tighten up on.
"He’s been around the block a bit and he knows when he should be doing things right. The backpass shouldn’t have got to him and we should have cut it out at source. We caused our own problems so there’s no massive blame on Jamo.”
Stead was impressed with his old side: "It’s only a week since I was playing for them and I thought I was playing well. I think they are going to have a very good season. They looked strong and solid and I think they’ll do very well. I wish them all the best.
"I still think there’s a lot more to come from us as a side. I think we will get the little things right that have gone wrong today and we’ll be pushing.”
Meanwhile, former Town target Ross McCormack, who joined Leeds from Cardiff last week, has confirmed that he held talks with the Blues regarding a proposed exchange deal involving Stead: "I'd heard people saying I'd spoken to this club and that club, but apart from Ipswich I haven't spoken to anyone else. That was a swap deal and once Leeds came in for me that was it."
Elsewhere, Honduran international defender Emilio Izaguirre, who has signed for Celtic, says work permit issues were behind his move to the Blues breaking down two years ago: "It's true that when I was younger I went to Ipswich, but I couldn't get the work permit at that time."
Izaguirre was at Portman Road in the summer of 2008 when then-manager Jim Magilton said he had decided not to offer the left-back a contract, despite reports to the contrary in Honduras.