Town boss Kieran McKenna felt the Blues came through “a big, big challenge” and believes winning games such as this evening’s 1-0 victory at Burton is very important.
Marcus Harness’s 60th-minute goal saw table-topping Town to the three points and their third league win in a row.
"Really good three points, probably the challenge was exactly what we thought we’d face, it couldn’t have been more different [from Saturday’s 3-0 home win against MK Dons],” McKenna said.
"A very difficult match, I think they’re going to take a lot of points off teams here on a Tuesday night. I know they haven’t started well but with the aggression and the directness that they played tonight, they’re going to take points off teams, especially on a Tuesday night.
"It was a big, big challenge. The first half was chaotic really. We didn’t manage to impose ourselves on the game at all, but we showed spirit and dug in and managed to keep it out of our net and we still had chances to go and score.
"And in the second half I thought the performance went up a gear and we managed to break the pressure, adjusted a few details, we spoke about that at half-time, and were good value for the goal.
"We still needed a big save from Christian [Walton] at the end but it was a really hard won and deserved three points.”
Are hard-fought wins like that important? "Very important. It’s three points. We spoke about it a lot before the game, we’re going to face this at different times this year, this is the first time we’ve had a game like this, certainly this season.
"You can’t replicate that in pre-season. Bolton, Forest Green, MK are different types of teams, so this was the first time we’ve had this challenge in a while and I thought that took us a little bit of time to adjust to in the first half, some fundamentals that we didn’t quite get right, but we came through that and improved as the game went on.
"It’s three points but it’s also a good learning curve and a good one to get through because this isn’t going to be the last time that we face a team that come with that sort of a game plan and we have to stand up to it again and again.”
Town picked up their second successive clean sheet following Saturday’s victory over the MK Dons.
"Happy with the clean sheet,” McKenna said. "It’s a very difficult clean sheet. They scored four on Saturday, they could have scored six on Saturday. Tonight, to be fair, they could have had one or two but we could have had three or four as well.
"A good clean sheet, some real resilience, a little bit of a luck and Christian producing one big save that I can remember. Back to back clean sheets and we need to keep that going. If we do that we give ourselves a good chance to win.”
Regarding Harness’s third goal in three leagues: "Really pleased for him. It was a difficult game in the first half for him, it was very hard for him and Sone [Aluko] to get into the game, they had a lot of pressure from behind whenever it was going into them, so it was hard to get his flow but he kept going.
"Second half, he managed to find his way into the game a little bit more and then he’s done what we know he’s capable of doing and he’s shown it now in the first few games that he’s capable of scoring different types of goals and producing big moments for the team, and he’s produced one tonight and I’m delighted for him.”
McKenna made three changes, Aluko, Kayden Jackson and Greg Leigh coming into the side for Conor Chaplin and Leif Davis, who dropped to the bench, and Wes Burns, who missed out due to a minor groin problem. He says in part the changes were as a result of the weekend exertions in the heat against MK.
"Yes, definitely partly that,” he said. "One was a little bit more enforced with Wes, a little niggle and other than that it’s a really long season and we’re going to have to keep the boys fresh.
"As you could see tonight, there aren’t going to be many easy games, there are going to be a lot of different types of game but big challenges and we’re going to need everybody and we’re going to need the squad and we’ve managed to use a few different players tonight and that will help us going into Saturday and we’re going to have to do that throughout the season.”
Asked whether Burns will be OK for the weekend, McKenna said: "We’ll have to see over the next couple of days. Nothing very major, a little injury he actually picked up in the warm-up on Saturday, so credit to him for being able to play the game, he felt OK in the game but was a bit sore afterwards. It was too soon for tonight but we’ll see how he is in the next couple of days.”
McKenna was impressed with Jackson’s performance: "I thought he did really well, very difficult in the first half, we didn’t manage to get any structure or order to the game, it was chaos really, but within that he showed his attributes and he showed why we trust him and showed what he can bring to the game.
"And I thought in the second half he was a massive threat, showed his versatility in a role we’ve been working with him on in the training sometimes and I thought it was a good performance.
"Sone came in and managed to grow into the game as it went on as well and helped us get that control in the second half and Greg will be pleased coming in and being part of the clean sheet as well.”
Town hadn’t won three league games in a row since February 2021, which was something which he says had been talked about over the summer and going into the match with building momentum and confidence significant.
"It’s important, we spoke about it,” he said. "We were aware that in my short time here that we hadn’t managed to do it yet, I didn’t know how long it was for the club.
"It was something we spoke about in the off-season and something we spoke about in the build-up to this game was that to get consecutive wins we’d have to show a higher level of humility and a higher level of commitment and concentration than we managed to show last year.
"The games in this league are very difficult, certainly for Ipswich Town there aren’t going to be any easy games and if you come off it at all, you’re not going to get consecutive wins, you’re going to drop points.
"Pleasing to get a couple wins in a row, I think Saturday-Tuesday is always nice to win because you can accumulate points very quickly, but it’s onto the next game now. Beyond that, it’s a couple of wins, but we have to go and do everything we can to win Saturday.”
Did tonight’s battling win in a game which wasn’t of Town’s ideal type please him more than Saturday’s more fluid victory over MK?
"It’s so different,” he reflected. "I enjoyed them both, to be honest. I think it’s just a highlight for everyone of how difficult the league is and why you can’t take anything for granted. We have no divine right to win football matches, we’re going to have to battle every week.
"Saturday was a footballing game against a team at home who came to play us in a football match and tonight was completely different away from home against a team who wanted to make it aggressive chaos and they did it very, very well, and credit to them for that, [Burton manager] Jimmy [Floyd Hasselbaink ] got a fantastic performance out of his players, they’re going to be absolutely fine and pick up lots of points if they do that again.
"It’s a great one to experience so early in the season, to feel the challenge of that type of game because we’re going to have it again and it’s the first time we’ve had it in quite a while, so to come through it 1-0, in many ways is as pleasing as a controlled and smooth performance on Saturday and a 3-0 win.”
The Blues boss felt the Town support played a big part in the win in the second half in particular.
"Brilliant, one of the best in my time here,” he enthused. "The away support is always fantastic, but tonight both in number and in voice, it was a step up and I don’t think we would have won the game without it.
"It was a massive help in the first half whenever we were having to defend our penalty box a lot and in the second half, I always felt at half-time going towards our supporters that we’d get the goal and they would give us the encouragement we needed to go and win the game.”
Albion manager Hasselbaink felt his side's performance warranted a point at least.
"Our game plan was really good,” he told his club's official website. "We deserved more out of the game and that’s where we need to improve as we need to take the chances we had, and we had some really good chances.
"Gassan [Ahadme] was absolutely magnificent again today after Saturday, but he needs to score and reward himself for that kind of performance.
"I have told him that he has done ever so well and that his work rate was magnificent but now when you get a chance when you play against a good team like Ipswich and you might only get one chance, you need to take it. If he does that, he will be a top, top striker because he has everything you need.
"But I’m really happy with the performance. The boys are gutted that they haven’t got anything out of the game but the performance is really encouraging.”