Town boss Roy Keane felt a draw was a fair result after the 0-0 draw at Portsmouth, despite his team not being in top form. Keane thought his side had the better chances, citing Darren O’Dea’s first half opportunity as the game’s best.
Keane said: "I think a draw was a fair result. Credit to Portsmouth, Márton made some good saves, Gareth got some good blocks in, but in terms of the best chance it fell to Darren O’Dea. We’ve hit the post [through David Norris] as well.
"I don’t think we were at our best today, but we were solid and I think a draw was probably a fair result even though we had the better of the chances.”
Keeper Fülöp made one outstanding save from David Nugent in the second half, but his manager says that’s all in a day’s work for the Hungarian: "He’s on a decent pay packet, that’s why we brought him in - to make saves. I’m sure if you ask Márton he’ll be pleased with the clean sheet.”
The Blues boss says he wasn’t planning on Mark Kennedy, out since the opening day with a hamstring injury, returning to first team action quite so soon: "I didn’t really want to bring Kennedy on but Darren O’Dea was limping before half-time. He got a knock on his knee from the chance that he missed.
"It’s no bad thing when I can bring on players like Connor Wickham, Colin Healy and Mark Kennedy. It was a big plus for us them getting 20 or 25 minutes under their belts because we’ve got a lot of games coming up and we need all those players.”
Keane confirmed that Darren O’Dea is a doubt ahead of Tuesday’s home game with league leaders QPR.
Portsmouth manager Steve Cotterill thought his side ought to have won: "I think we deserved to win it today and I haven’t been able to say that before this season.
"If their goalkeeper’s not 6ft 5in tall he gets nowhere near David Nugent’s shot and we’ve had Dave Kitson just go over the bar, Michael Brown just go over the bar as well.
"I think it’s definitely a game we deserved to win. It would be a close game, a 1-0 or a 4-3 or a 3-2 because they had their chances too.
"Ipswich have gone away and won their two previous games and I think Roy will be quietly happy with a point today.
"That’s what you do, you say it’s a fair result when you go away and get a draw, but I think we just about shaded it today.”
Elsewhere, reports in the Midlands are again linking West Brom pair Luke Moore and Joe Mattock with loan moves to Portman Road. The left-back seems a very unlikely target with Darren O'Dea involved today, although aggravating his previous knock, and Mark Kennedy back after his hamstring injury.