Jonathan Parr may have looked like the ideal replacement for Aaron Cresswell, who was sold to West Ham in the summer, but things have worked out rather differently.
Cresswell’s former berth on the left of defence is being occupied by the ever-improving Tyrone Mings, leaving Parr to slot in on the opposite side of the back four as he has started his Portman Road career with an unbeaten four-game run that has reaped 10 points from a possible 12.
But Parr explained: "To be honest I have played a bit on both sides. The gaffer knew I could play either side when he got me here and I’m been used to it.
"The left is my strongest side but the gaffer has to try to get a team to work as well as possible together and if that means me playing at right-back that’s fine.
"If we keep on winning games I’ll be quite happy to play right-back for the rest of the season!”
Parr actually played up front early in his career, so perhaps it oughtn’t to have been a surprise that he showed a striker’s predatory instinct when he opened his scoring account for Town, arriving at the far post to stab in the opening goal in the recent 2-0 home defeat of Brighton, rounding off a move launched on the opposite side of the pitch by full-back partner Mings.
He said: "It was quite a while since I had scored so it was very good to get that goal.
"It was in important goal as well because we were just trying to get the first goal in the game and I was in the right place at the right time. It was good to get my first Ipswich goal and the fact that it was at home made it all the better.”
The successive home wins over Millwall and Brighton in the space of four days were witnessed by a 50-strong group of fans from the Norwegian branch of the supporters’ club and they were especially delighted to see Parr become the first Norwegian to score for Town.
He laughed: "Two wins and my goal as well! I think they had a great time. I met them the day before the Brighton game and they were a really enthusiastic group.
"It was a big few days for them and I was pleased to give them something to cheer. Ipswich are quite big back in Norway. English football in general is quite big back home and you have a lot of different fan groups following different teams.”