Manager Mick McCarthy admitted that his side’s performance wasn’t pretty or sexy — aside from DJ Campbell’s winning goal - but was delighted with what was a gritty win over Burnley in his first home game in charge of the Blues.
McCarthy said: "It wasn’t pretty or silky or sexy, but it was dogged and determined and all those horrible words that people don’t like, but are vital to winning games.
"The goal was silky and sexy, that was a good finish. What was nice was that having conceded a goal, I didn’t think we looked like conceding another one, whereas the other night we got a bit flaky.
"It looked like there were chances coming and then the guys who have gone on have made the chance. It’s a great finish, it was a great break.”
He was delighted to see his team hit back after Burnley’s equaliser, having lost from a similar position all too often this season: "I’m pleased with it. I’ve been stressing the importance of being hard to beat.
"It’s a league of teams that are hard to beat or try and make themselves hard to beat, try and be organised.
"I said to them beforehand, there will be times when we make mistakes and we lose goals and we lose games, but what we don’t do is we don’t give up and we don’t give in, and the performance today epitomised that.”
Before the Clarets equalised, Carlos Edwards passed to Campbell from inside the area when he might have shot, but his manager wasn’t too critical of his skipper’s decision: "I hadn’t got a great view of that. I thought that what he did was right, but he just didn’t do it properly.
"I thought Nigel Reo-Coker immediately afterwards, we had a good break there where we’d won it back and he didn’t execute the final pass, maybe that’s indicative as well.
"I’ll have a look at it Monday, maybe he could have shot. I don’t know. If you’ve got DJ Campbell on your right-hand side in a good position, I’d maybe roll it to him myself because I’d fancy him to score.”
McCarthy thought there was little to complain about in Murphy’s goal: "I didn’t think there was anything wrong with it, I thought he just stood his ground. He stood there and the keeper came and bumped into him, that’s all he did.
"I actually thought the one in the first half when he dropped it and the referee gave a freekick [wasn’t a foul], I was whinging like a drain because I thought he was giving a freekick unnecessarily.
"I can understand why Burnley are moaning about it. I haven’t seen it again, but I thought he stood his ground, and if he stands still and doesn’t back into him then I think it’s a goal, it’s legit.”
While delighted with the victory, the Blues boss did have one complaint, the way Look East portrayed his pre-match press conference.
"My press conference yesterday was full of fun,” he said. "And the bit I saw was just before it started and I was sat [slumped] like that, and they asked me the question ‘Is it a must-win game’ and I said 'Not really, but it would be nice to start like that'.
"I thought ‘What a negative perspective to put on the club’. On me, on the club. They didn’t show any of that when I was laughing and joking.
"I thought it would have been nice if they could have put a positive spin on it, we’d had three points out of six and we were coming into a home game.
"I thought they did me a disservice, I thought they did the club a disservice and made me look like I was dour and not looking forward to the game.”
Burnley manager Sean Dyche, who said Sam Vokes was claiming his side’s goal, felt his team deserved a point from the match.
Regarding Murphy’s goal, the former Watford boss was aggrieved if not angry: "I would say that I’m mildly disappointed. I’m not going to go over the top about it because I think referees have a really tough job.
"When there’s a coming together of that nature, then I think it’s fair to say in modern football that it gets given as a foul. We see them every week, even in the Premier League. I’d question the decision and I think it’s a soft one, which has gone against us."
He thought it was inconsistent given the first half decision in similar circumstances: "That was the disappointing thing.
"There has to be parity of decisions, especially key decisions. I thought the one in the first half, I was surprised, although Jason Shackell did great to react and clear it off the line. I thought that was a soft decision, but it didn’t matter because it was cleared and the game went on.
"The one the other end mattered because it went in, and they’re the big decisions which can change the feel of the game, and it changed the feel of the game, it wasn’t just the score. They suddenly believed.”