Town boss Paul Jewell felt the result was more important than his side’s performance in Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Barnsley, which ended a run of three successive defeats.
Jewell said: "I think the result was more important than the performance. Two of the last three games, Middlesbrough and Wolves, we should have won, without a shadow of a doubt, but we didn’t. [On Saturday], we might have ridden our luck a little bit and we got a point.”
The Blues boss switched his team’s system to match the Tykes’ diamond, a formation he says worked well for Town early on during 2011/12: "We did it last season with decent success. We have to respect the opposition.
"In this league, every team in it is very good. Names don’t mean anything. How big the club is doesn’t mean anything.
"You’ve got to come here to a place like this - and when we’re at home - and you’ve got to work hard and forget about past reputations. You’ve got to do it on the pitch.
"Barnsley at the moment, they’re playing really good football and I thought we had to try and match them up to try and stop them, and to a large extent, certainly in the first half, I felt we did that.”
Jewell says referee Trevor Kettle had a word with him about Guirane N’Daw at the break, the Senegalese international having been involved in a heated discussion with Barnsley striker Craig Davies as the players came off at half-time, although the Blues manager missed the incident.
"I don’t know, I didn’t see anything,” Jewell said. "I was just walking off and the referee said to me to just tell him to be careful. Then he got booked and I thought the best thing I could do was get him off.”
N’Daw was replaced in the holding role by Jack Ainsley with the Blues boss admitting that his squad was stretched with another midfielder, Luke Hyam, having picked up an injury: "We were a little bit lop-sided there in the second half.
"You always know what you’re going to get with Jack, he’s always going to give an honest performance.
"We didn’t pass the ball well enough in the second half. I have to say, it looked a good pitch, but it was really sticky. The grass was long and you couldn’t run with the ball.
"We had chances to break even in the first half but we didn’t make their goalkeeper work hard enough.”
Overall, Jewell was content, if not happy, with the result, even if it’s unlikely to placate his detractors: "You’re better off getting a point. Half a loaf is better than none, as they say.
"The pressure’s there all the time, whether you win a game or lose a game, the pressure’s there. That’s part of the job.
"I live with the pressure. I don’t read newspapers or whatever they have these days. I know you’re not going to be popular when you’re losing matches, but I appreciate the support of the supporters, who kept the team going throughout the second half.”
Barnsley assistant boss David Flitcroft said Town's switch to a diamond showed the progress they are making: "When you look at Paul Jewell’s Ipswich team and some of the weapons they’re carrying, for them to come and set up the way they did shows a massive respect to Barnsley Football Club, and that includes the players.
"They’ve not gone with their usual formation to try and attack us, they’ve set up and sat deep to counter-attack.
"For me that’s another positive day for Barnsley as we move forward on this journey that we’re on.”
While he felt they were under par in the first half, he couldn't have been happier with their display after the break: "In the first half I was frustrated with the way we played too slow and too laboured and didn’t really get an angle on the game. We didn’t pass the ball as quickly with the tempo that we know we can.
"In the second half I wasn’t frustrated at all. We regrouped at half-time and the lads did everything that was asked of them.”