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Joe Pleased With Defence - Ipswich Town News

Boss Joe Royle praised the way his defenders repelled the aerial threat from Sheffield Wednesday after the Blues' last gasp 1-0 victory at Hillsborough. Royle added that he could bring in two strikers during the January transfer window.

The Town manager said: "There was a lot of aerial stuff to defend and I thought we defended magnificently. I thought Jason De Vos and Richard Naylor were magnificent. When we defend properly, as we did, it gives us a great chance.

"It's been a long time since we kept a clean sheet and that and the three points are the important factors for us from the game.

"If we can defend like that every week then it's gives us a great chance to get something out of the game.

"I thought we shaded it. We tried to play passing football, but it was hard because the pitch at Hillsborough isn't the greatest these days.

"These tight games have gone against us in the past, so it's nice to get the all-important goal."

Royle says that with Sam Parkin and Billy Clarke out of action, he is considering bringing in two strikers during the transfer window: "We are struggling for options up front. Danny is not quite ready yet and Dean is a little out of sorts and we are short on numbers in the striking department at the moment.

"Fozzie is our only experienced frontman and we will be looking at bringing in at least one new striker in the January transfer window, maybe even two, probably on loan or on a Bosman."

Royle is also after a left-back in January to replace Jay McEveley who has returned to Blackburn after tearing a medial knee ligament.

Sheffield Wednesday manager Paul Sturrock is resigned to a season of battling at the bottom of the table: "We hoped it wasn't going to be this kind of tussle, but it's going to be biting and scratching until the end of the season. We're in a dogfight.

"I tried to warn everybody at the start of the season and I think everyone knows now that it's going to be muck and mire right to the end. If we let this fester and we're not all together, it will get worse instead of better."

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