Another record set straight at Portman Road!

Many people would have been nervous going into this one. Cambridge are one of those teams that despite their mid-table position do take points off the top sides in the division. They did it last year and we all know how Ipswich fared against them over the two games.

That nervousness would normally have been amplified in the 70th minute when the scoreboard still read 0-0 despite Town having 75 per cent possession.

But as we know, this season is a different story. I had every confidence that Town would find a way to break the deadlock. I didn't necessarily expect three goals at that point and if the opener had come earlier the score could have rocketed.

Let's give some credit to Cambridge to begin with. Mark Bonner set his team up to frustrate and to try and take away what would have been a good point from the fortress of Portman Road.

For long periods of the game it worked. They wasted time from early on and rarely ventured into our final third. They closed us down in packs and prevented us from playing the final ball through the middle.

We did create chances but nowhere near as many as we have seen in other games this season. This was more of a reflection on Cambridge than Ipswich though.

The first half saw us creating a lot of space out wide but the ever-lethal Wes Burns wasn't quite at his best last night and we didn't take opportunities of spreading the pitch wide. They wised up to this second half and closed down the wide areas better.

There was always a chance that Cambridge would try and nick a goal on the counter-attack, but they never got close enough to our goal to make this happen. Credit to our back-three for their performances last night. Especially George Edmundson who had his best game this season for me.

Christian Walton had extremely little to do in goal. I thoroughly enjoy watching Walton at his best, but I am more than happy when we don't see much of him in games.

Kieran McKenna made a couple of changes to his starting XI and there were some eyebrows raised at Lee Evans dropping to the bench. I saw this as a perfect tactical switch given the game he knew we were in for.

There is no questioning Evans quality and what he brings to the team, but on stopping counter-attacks and reading interceptions, I think Dom Ball has the edge. I think this is exactly why he got the nod last night. It also meant when we needed to unlock a tiring Cambridge in the last 30 minutes we could bring on Evans whose range of passing started stretching the team. I would expect we will see Evans back alongside Morsy on Saturday at Morecambe.

Again, that is no reflection on Ball, who has looked a class above when he has played, but they offer something slightly different. It is great we have the option to rotate depending on the opponents we are facing.

The substitutions made by McKenna yet again showed what a top quality manager he is. I have only questioned them once this season - every other game they have been spot on. You felt that, despite the quality we had on the pitch in attacking areas, the goal wasn't going to come without a fresh set of legs to put pain to a tiring Cambridge.

It was those subs that scored all of the goals last night. Lee Evans fired a great pass out wide to Marcus Harness, who had switched sides with the removal of Wes Burns. He drove at the defender and delivered the cross.

The deflection was a little bit of luck, but it was forced by the play from Town. Tyreece John-Jules followed in at the far post for his second goal of the season. He worked tirelessly at Portsmouth without reward so it was great to see that balanced out.

We saw similar last night from Freddie Ladapo, who despite not scoring had arguably his best game in a Town shirt. His strength and desire to win the ball back high often kept Town in possession.

Possibly an even more popular goalscorer this season than Ladapo was Town's almost forgotten man. Kyle Edwards could not have deserved his goal any more. He didn't mean it, of course, but it doesn't matter. Sometimes that's what you need to get off the mark.

A cross whipped in from wide outside the box evaded everyone and looped into the top corner. You could see from the celebrations how much it meant to him.

He was a fan favourite when he started last season but saw his career dwindle through changes and injuries. He now looks to be firmly part of McKenna's plans even if it is as an impact sub to help kill games off.

As with most things in life, when you wait ages for one thing, the second follows almost immediately. This one he did mean. A loose clearance from John-Jules's cross rolled to the edge of the box and Edwards charged in between two defenders and drove in with the outside of his right boot.

Town had gone from a frustrating 0-0 to a dominant 3-0 win in 15 minutes. It could have been more if the Cambridge keeper hadn't saved a decent effort from Sam Morsy on the edge of the box at 2-0.

I don't think I have seen a team look as tired after 90 minutes as Cambridge did last night. They put in a valiant effort but ultimately could not hold on against one of the divisions top sides - yes, I believe we can call Ipswich that this year. Even at 2-0 down they were wasting time to try and get to the final whistle, there was no route back into the game for them.

The only bad news of the night, if we can call it that, was Plymouth picked up another three points against Sheffield Wednesday. Nine points from a possible nine against Ipswich, Wycombe and Plymouth is a real statement of intent from Argyle. Maybe I need to adjust my comment from ten days ago that we won't see them at the top come the end of the season. It means Town stay second.

The positive outlook on it is the gap to Sheffield Wednesday in third is now four points, which gives us a game buffer - something which could be pivotal later on. Portsmouth do have two games in hand though so we will be looking for them to drop points so the gap is not closed.

Huge chance to pick up another three points against bottom of the table Morecambe on Saturday. It is a game that Town will surely win given the quality lacking in the opposition. I am going for the biggest league win of the season yet at 5-0.

Uppa Town

Europablue added 11:02 - Oct 5 It's nice that the supporters having that sinking feeling of inevitability is the opposition fans. It's difficult to get out of the mentality of fearing the opposition. Of course, any team can beat anyone, but it always used to seem that we'd drop points where we shouldn't and the other teams would be the ones who found a way to grind out results. Opposition fans must be looking at us and our results with a sense of dread. I'm much more concerned with the gap between us and third than winning the league. Plymouth are on a very good run especially with the luck they got against us when they equalized when instead we should have had a blatant free kick. I just don't think Plymouth have the squad to deal with injuries and fatigue like we do. At some stage of the season Plymouth will drop off a bit, so I expect us to finish above us. I'm happy for Wednesday to drop points rather than Plymouth at this stage.

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N2_Blue added 12:23 - Oct 5 Plymouth looked by far and away the best team we have played. Their record against the top 6 is impressive, so see no reason why they are not in it for the duration. The positive is Plymouth's victories against the top 6 are all at home, so they have some long trips on the road including Portman Road. I think Portsmouth are pretty average and I don't see much else to fear other than Plymouth and maybe Wednesday will get it together but they're not looking anything special currently. This is our season, i cannot see two better teams than us and think Plymouth and Town will battle it out upfront. A team like Barnsley or Bolton could go on a run, but Bolton look short of goals and it was good to see them lose to Cheltenham last night.

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Saxonblue74 added 13:21 - Oct 5 The difference between us and Plymouth is depth of squad. I commented before the Cambridge game that we could pick 2 starting XI's, either capable of winning last night. Plymouth (or any other lge 1 squad) do not have such quality in depth. That in my opinion will be the difference as the long season grinds on.
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Europablue added 13:58 - Oct 5 Saxonblue74 I couldn't agree more with that sentiment. We've lost some pretty important players to injury as well, Plymouth would need to recruit in January to deal with that. I could imagine Derby coming good in the second part of the season. They aren't too far off the pace. I don't think Plymouth will fall off a cliff, but they might slip into the playoff. All signs look good for us to keep going at this pace for the whole season.

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