Boss Roy Keane felt his side were comfortable during their 3-1 Carling Cup victory over Northampton Town, but thought that nerves could have been steadied if they had scored their third goal earlier on.

Keane said: “I thought we were comfortable in the second half but when you don’t get that goal you never know what might happen and they had one or two half-chances.

“We’ve seen enough times since I’ve been at the club us paying the price for having only a one-goal lead, so it would have been ideal to get the third goal a touch earlier.

“Credit to the players, they stuck at it and we definitely deserved to win the game of football tonight.”

The Blues manager was pleased with his strikers, particularly Tamás Priskin: “I thought Tamás and Jason put in good shifts for us. The onus was on the two strikers to give us a platform, particularly with their workrate, not to give Northampton too much time at the back because some of their players hadn’t had too many minutes under their belts.”

Keane says he’s not overly concerned about who his side might draw in the quarter-finals: “We’re hopeful of a home tie, but our priority is of course the league game on Saturday.

“The big boys will start flexing their muscles, as you’d expect a lot of them to get through over the next 24 hours, but the finals, semi-finals and the quarter-final are a long way off yet. Our mindset has to be on Saturday.”

Keane says Connor Wickham is likely to be out for around two weeks after twisting his ankle in training on Sunday, while Grant Leadbitter is a doubt for Saturday's home match against Millwall with a knee injury. David Norris has a dead leg after colliding with the Northampton keeper in the first half just before Damien Delaney’s goal.

Northampton manager Ian Sampson thought that his side scored too soon: “I think it was a well-worked goal, a good shot, we got a bit lucky with the deflection, but you do start dreaming a little bit.

“Perhaps it was a little bit early for the goal to go in and I think Ipswich’s quality showed through in the end.”

Photo: Action Images

brian_a_mul added 10:40 - Oct 27 Cmon Burnley, we'll have them at PR in next round!
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runaround added 10:44 - Oct 27 I thought Priskin and Edwards were our stand out players. Smith and Eastman did OK defensively but looked uncomfortable going forward and obviously aren't going to be overlapping full-backs in the Wilnis style. I'm still disappointed about how we sat back at times during second half, this will lead to problems against better sides. As for next round, I just want a home tie, dont care who against but I have horrible feeling it will be Wigan away

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blueblue87 added 10:53 - Oct 27 runaround - Totally agree with your comment!! :-)
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stiffshorts added 11:04 - Oct 27 I must have been at a different game?? Priskin? Good? He's rubbish! Slow, shambles around, does nothing unless ball delivered right at his feet, clueless for 99% of game. Overall? There are too many frailities throughout our team. Can't complete passes, can't cross a ball, can't do free kicks and corners, not enough quality in midfield. Sorry to burst your bubbles boys but overall this ITFC team are average!

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tractorboynathan added 11:36 - Oct 27 Good game tonight- and good win considering it was a league two opposition. How much better do we play when we have two upfront? Prisken and Scotland play so much better when they have someone up there with them! For me leadbitter has to be dropped, he has been poor all season and our other midfielders are all better than him, colback or Livermore for me! Why did we put four cbs at the back I will never know! Yes, our two centre halts were good, espically delaney but smith and Eastman arnt left and right backs? Better teams would of punished us! Edwards and townsend were good, so was Norris! But hey ho, were through to the quaters for the first time in 10 years so let's all say postive comments? COYB!

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bluelady added 11:46 - Oct 27 blueblue87 agree but as a centre back never as a right back, to me looks like Delany did at left back last year and we know what a differance playing in position has made to his game.
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SammyT added 11:49 - Oct 27 Think its important to remember that Priskin and Scotland can work together and now we know how. At Watford they were given a chance and were very poor. I now think that was because we lacked width by playing for centre midfielders (no Andros or Edwards). If we do go 4-4-2 with them we have to make sure we have Natural wingers.
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blueblue87 added 12:00 - Oct 27 Very well said bluelady!!!
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alfromcol added 12:33 - Oct 27 ""I must have been at a different game?? Priskin? Good? He's rubbish! Slow, shambles around, does nothing unless ball delivered right at his feet, clueless for 99% of game. "" STIFFSHORTS you certainly were at a different game, were you actually at the game? It was against Northampton!! Even the worst of the Priskin haters can't justify those sort of comments regarding Priskins performance last night. I accept that he has had some lacklustre games but this wasn't one of them.

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stiffshorts added 16:00 - Oct 27 alfromcol; your response just proves to me how low this fine club has sunk since Joe Royles departure. The sort of mediocrity we put up with last night is touted as being a "good solid performance". 5 seasons ago that would have been damned. As I've said consistently this season, we'll be lucky to be in top half at seasons end. Where will all the fans who reckon that's ok be then? Eh?

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alfromcol added 17:18 - Oct 27 Stiffshorts You need a bit of luck and with this we will be in the top half, perhaps in the top 6, who knows. This isn't 5 seasons ago, it is now! Joe Royle didn't get us out of the Championship and that is the only target. Despite nearly get IT promoted via the playoffs he failed and in his FOURTH season as manager finished 15th (IT's worst finish since 1966) and he resigned! So all was not marvellous under Joe!! I must agree anything short of the play offs is not good enough and I think RK will walk or be pushed. However, there is no easy answer to getting in the Premiership a change of manager to a more popular choice will not necessarily get us there. We do need to improve and as a first off RK should try to keep a settled side, if he know what his best XI is! He made two subs last night at the same time and this completely disrupted the flow of the play. Why he can't make one sub at a time I don't know, or no subs at all if ITFC are strolling through the game as we were at the time.

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kiwomyashuffle added 17:33 - Oct 27 We have decent players but do not play the right way (in my opinion), the Ipswich way. Not sure what to make of Roy, love his press conferences and the coverage/exposure we get as a club but dont think the standard of football is that great. Good to be in the next round though and dont want to have too much negative energy. We can still have a good season and are a great club!

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bluelady added 21:07 - Oct 27 Stiffshorts you really are rather despressing! why do some people hold onto the past and not simply make the best of what we have. I have followed town through thick and thin,good times and bad, but my memory is good enough to know that in all those years the glory days have been few and far between, sadly a few hold on to those odd years and think we deserve to replicate year in year out. We are a decent championship team, with no given right to a play off place, and its about time some people accepted that and got behind their team rather than moaning and every given opportunity.

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Acen added 08:40 - Oct 28 Innit
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