Blues boss Paul Lambert says he’d take 1-0 wins for the rest of the season if offered following his side's second away win by that scoreline this week against Gillingham at the Priestfield Stadium. Kane Vincent-Young's first goal for Town took the Blues to victory and back to the top of the League One table.
"A tough game, but listen I’d love to know when this place has had an atmosphere like that before because Ipswich fans are making atmospheres like that everywhere they go,” Lambert said.
"I thought we deserved to win, I thought we were outstanding. I thought it could have been two or three, Judgey’s hit the post and Nolo [Jon Nolan] went close, and we had chances in the first half.
"They never really caused us too much of a problem. They surprised me the way they played, really direct. I thought they’d play a bit more football than they did.
"I was surprised the way they played regarding the physicality because they’re good footballers. Ben Pringle, for example, has been around, he’s a really good footballer, the lad [Mark] Byrne’s a good player.
"So there’s good footballers, but they went a bit direct, maybe they thought they could outmuscle us but I thought we stood up to it really well and some of the football we played was very, very good.”
Does he feel it might take a second goal to really open sides up? "You’re never going to get games where you’re going to do that. Why do you think that, because we’re Ipswich Town and we’ve dropped down a division?
"It’s not going to happen. If it was that easy, every other team would have done it. Sunderland would have done it, Leeds United years ago.
"It’s a difficult league, but we’re winning games. Anybody would tell you, one of the best results in the game is 1-0. If you tell me I could take the rest of the games 1-0, I’d bite your hand off.”
The Blues kept their fifth successive clean sheet, matching a club record last achieved in March and April 2013 and also at the same period in the 1996/97 campaign.
"It’s brilliant,” Lambert enthused. "As I said, the club is absolutely vibrant. What a place to play at the minute. With that support behind us again, it’s fabulous.
"As I said before, we’ve got a lot of pressure on our shoulders and, as I said at the start of the season, we’ll have bumps and bruises along the way but we’re making it exciting, that’s for sure.”
The Blues boss had praise for his skipper, who made one important saving challenge in particular in the second half.
"I thought the tackle was brilliant,” Lambert said. "I thought the three of them were very, very good.
"I thought we dominated the game. We had a lot of the ball. It’s a tough place, the grass is long, there must have been a spit of water on the pitch, which made it difficult, so I’m delighted with the team.”
Of goalscorer Vincent-Young, Lambert had further praise: "I thought the move was outstanding, the number of passes [25] we had. I think Andre [Dozzell] ignited it with a ball round the corner, and then Kayden’s cross and Kane, if there’s a better right-back out there at the minute, I’d like to see them.
"He’s been brilliant, he really has. He gives us another dimension, as I said, offensively as well, and the goal was just reward for how well he’s played.
"I’m really happy with him, he’s a young guy who has come up through at Colchester. Marcus did great getting him and he’s playing ever so well.”
Lambert fielded Alan Judge in a free role off lone striker Kayden Jackson and he felt it worked well.
"We analysed Gillingham the other day and I just thought that Judgey coming into little pockets would be hard to pick up, and so it proved, I thought he had a really good game,” he added.
"The chance was unbelievable, he did everything right and it’s the width of the post that’s not given him his goal.”
Regarding the post-match exchange of views with Gills boss Steve Evans, who had refused to shake his hand at the whistle, he joked: "I just wished him a happy birthday or something! Glasgow talk! There you go.”
He added: "Put this way, if I was a Gillingham supporter I would probably watch what happens in the technical area, it’s maybe exciting you know? [It is] when you’re the opposition manager. But fair play Gillingham, their lads played a good game.”
Evans and his number two Paul Raynor spent much of the match berating the fourth official with Lambert and assistant Stuart Taylor largely reacting by laughing and shaking their heads.
Asked whether that sort of behaviour is distracting for an opposition boss, the Blues manager said: "I don’t really get involved. I’ve been in the Premier League so I know how etiquette works in a technical area.
"I’ve had my own argy-bargies, but I know how etiquette works. If Steve wants to do that, then no problem, it’s something that he wants to do.”
Did he plan to have a word with him before departing? "No, I’ve got other things going on, there’s other people I’ve got to see after the game.”
Regarding his comments on etiquette was he referring to the refusal to shake hands? "You don’t do that, regardless of what’s happened. Maybe that’s a Glasgow thing, have I been away from Glasgow for too long? No, because I’m a real Glasgow man, I’m from Parkhead, so I know how it works.”
The win took Town back to the top of the table by two points with previous leaders Coventry not in action as they were due to play expelled Bury.
"It’s great viewing for everybody but you don’t win a title in September, you win it in May,” Lambert continued.
"What we’ve done is we’ve got off to a brilliant start, we had a hard season last year and all credit to the team for turning it around with the mentality.
"The new lads have come in, but again, whether I make changes or change system, everybody’s thriving on it and everybody’s getting game time, which I said would have to happen because of the number of games we have. We’re looking forward to a free week this week.”
Asked about the atmosphere created by the 2,500-plus-strong travelling Blue army, Lambert added: "Every team we play is like that. MK Dons was the same, Peterborough was the same., Burton was the same, that’s what’s happened.
"As I said before, we’ve got a big target on our backs, everyone wants to beat us, but so far so good.
"There’s been a lot of hard work with the support and ourselves. We just had to engage with them and find out a little bit about what had happened before and I have to say the support is absolutely brilliant.
"It’s fabulous to see it, we’re taking our allocation everywhere we go. The support, I cannot thank them enough.”
After the final whistle the players and some of the staff joined hands in front of their supporters, an idea which Lambert said came from his time in Germany with Borussia Dortmund.
"I’d seen it before, I usually do it in front of one of the greatest ends in the world, so I knew it works and I knew if you get wins it can get everybody involved in it, players, staff, the supporters, everybody,” he explained.
"It’s a German way and I know the club has got a connection with Fortuna Düsseldorf, so it’s something I suggested last night and it was brilliant.”