Colchester head coach and former Town defender Wayne Brown admitted that his side needed a little bit of luck as they beat the Blues 1-0 in the Carabao Cup at Portman Road last night but felt his players showed good discipline and grew in belief the longer the game progressed.
Luke Hannant’s first Colchester goal in the 29th minute following an error from Town midfielder Rekeem Harper gave the U’s a lead which they resolutely hung onto until the final whistle.
"It's important when you have nights like this that you enjoy them and the fans enjoy them,” Brown said.
"They've probably waited a long, long time for it - it's 1951 since we last won here. Nights like this come along rarely so it's important that we enjoy them, we learn from them and we take the performance forward.
"The chances Ipswich had were from second phases and from crosses and mostly outside the box, in the first half.
"That was the plan really, to nullify them space in front of our back four which they thrive on and try and make them go around us.
"Then you have to defend crosses and I thought the two full-backs [Al-Amin Kazeem and Junior Tchamadeu] were exceptional - one [Kazeem] making his debut.
"We had seven academy products, six involved, with Ted [Collins] on the bench. It's a massive, massive plus for the football club and the way that we want to go about our business.
"We want to produce our own and give our own opportunity when earned and they've definitely come through with flying colours.”
Regarding the goal, he added: "You need a little bit of luck when you come to places like this, against real good teams on their home patch.
"In cup competitions, when you have the opportunity to play big teams, you do need a little bit of luck. I'm not dressing that up at all.
"They'll be disappointed with the goal that they conceded. We knew that our opportunities would be limited but it was important that if one or two came along, we put them away.
"Thankfully, we put one in the back of the net and we showed some really good discipline in our performance and nullified them for large spells of the game.
"We knew that people were going to tire, especially the younger lads making their debut and the occasion. The 90 minutes and the players that you're playing against will take a toll.
"I wanted the players to embrace it, to enjoy it and bring it on and that's what they did. The more the game went on, you could see the belief in every one of them to see the process through.
"There was a few hearts in mouth moments when they've had a few half chances in the second half but they didn't have any clearcut chances - they were mainly for second phase or crosses.”