Boss Mick McCarthy was delighted with his side’s 2-1 victory at Charlton Athletic, particularly given their failure to defeat Bristol City at the weekend.

McCarthy said: “I’m delighted. Having dropped points against Bristol City at home, it was important that we can win away from home and overall I was pleased with our performance.

“It was very much a tale of two halves, we were the dominant side and should have scored more in the first half.”

Despite DJ Campbell missing the target with his first-half spotkick, McCarthy felt the penalty still benefited his team: “The two penalties kind of opened the game up.

"We missed ours but having got it, we were on top and we were playing well and I think it unsettled them.

“Sometimes it gives the team who haven’t conceded a surge of energy, but that didn’t seem to happen, we carried on.

“I thought our goals were good quality goals. DJ persisted having missed [the penalty], it was a great finish, and it was great for Murph, the two centre forwards scoring.

“And they were better in the second half, they’ve put us under pressure, they’ve got two centre forwards, who backed in, flicked it on, held it up and caused us a few problems, but I felt we resisted most of it.”

While Campbell — who has now scored nine goals in 15 games — has grabbed most of the headlines, McCarthy says he has also been pleased with Murphy: “He’s excellent when he plays like that and he’s fired up and when he’s a handful for defenders. They’ve got a nice little partnership going on, so I’m pleased with him.”

The Town boss was also pleased with central defensive pairing Tommy Smith and Luke Chambers: “They’ve been a good partnership, they’re doing really well the pair of them. I’m delighted with them. They were playing against two good players, they had to play well.”

McCarthy had no complaints regarding Charlton’s penalty from Danny Haynes netted for the home side: “Not at all. It looked a penalty from the sidelines and I’ve just seen it on the DVD and I think it was a stonewall penalty.”

Overall, the Blues boss felt that the last two games have been similar from the perspective of the away sides getting something from matches the home teams were expected to win: “They’re 20th in the form league at home, Charlton, and they’re seventh away from home, they were the stats I was given.

“You play more expansively at home, we did on Saturday. We were fairly wide open at times and Bristol City had chances.

“Away from home you’re going to be a bit tighter and you’re going to catch them on the break. It’s not always easy and this was the reverse of our game at home to Bristol City.

“They’ve got us coming here and all the fans are probably thinking ‘Boxing Day, happy days, Ipswich are coming, should be a good win, have a beer and enjoy it’, but it doesn’t happen that way, as we found out against Bristol City and Peterborough.”

Charlton manager Chris Powell felt the match was lost before the break: “We were just beaten by a better team, I’m not going to sit here and make any excuses.

“We were beaten by a team that, in the first 45 anyway, was on the front foot and we were very loose in our responsibilities, in our marking. We were very sluggish.

“There was a response in the second half, as I knew there would be, and Ipswich didn’t have a chance in the second period, but the damage was done.”

Photo: Action Images

DurhamTownFan added 16:52 - Dec 26 After Saturday was a bit disappointing, this has improved things no end! 4 points from two games, can't complain!
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kuyski added 16:57 - Dec 26 well done MM ，great X'mas present for us.
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afrodids added 17:05 - Dec 26 gr8 win 4 points so far for the xmas period that's 4 more than those budgies down the road!!! bring on wolves. COYB
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TractorBoy666 added 17:24 - Dec 26 Big win this one with Peterboro winning again and Sheffield Wednesday winning, I think? Wolves will be a bit low on confidence now after that, so hopefully we take something there. Very pleased though, and a great start to the festive period. COYB!
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Sindre94 added 18:14 - Dec 26 SO AM I! HARK NOW HEAR <3
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IpswichLewis added 18:23 - Dec 26 Peterborough are on a bit of a role at the moment and with Sheffield Wednesday also winning it will definitely keep the lads on their toes. After DJ missed the penalty I thought it was going to be one of those days, but I was more than happy with today's performance. They vastly improved in the second half but I'm glad we got the win. Looking forward to molineux in a few days. Wolves will be worried now seen as the teams below them are winning vital games. Overall 4 points out of 2 games will do me nicely. Best Christmas present by far!

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Duncan added 18:28 - Dec 26 Great result hanging on in the end - thought it was great when Hyam came on to sure it up - was a great away trip - especially compared to our last 2 - Blackpool and Leicester
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wkj added 18:52 - Dec 26 I think the thing that most (pleasantly) surprises me about MM is he somehow has Murphy scoring on a regularlish basis! Great result; coyb!
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RetroBlue added 19:05 - Dec 26 Murphy is now playing in his favoured (more effective - central striking role. Its such a shame Jewell (who could identify the right type of players) hadn't a clue how to get the best out of them. The big question is who will Murphy's strike partner be over the rest of the season, because Im not convinced we will get DJ back here and Chopra looks a spent force.
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Lightningboy added 19:07 - Dec 26 Fantastic win again..much closer to the group of teams above us now..bit annoying that the teams below seem to be picking up points though.
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Telford_Blue added 19:27 - Dec 26 Whilst I still appreciate that we are in a relegation scrap, can I please offer some reverse logic? Why are we so concerned about teams beneath us picking up points, if they do they are more than likely beating teams above us. Us winning simply brings those mid table teams nearer and if we continue to win the bottom teams will never catch us! To me the more teams that feel threatened the better. I don't want to talk up disaster as I think jan is a particularly tough month on the fixture list.... But at present we seem to be coping with the pressure of the fight, I am not sure all clubs will, a win on Saturday and I think wolves will hit the panic button.... Their supporters get edgy and the players must feel it... The more clubs we can make feel like that the better... I think we should focus on the gap to teams above us and I still believe that a top half finish is a realistic target... Any more than that as burley once said would be fairyland. Come on you blues and huge thanks to mick and terry. I genuinely thought league one was on the cards, I know we are not safe but if we collect points like we have then I think we will be...

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town93 added 00:20 - Dec 27 Great win! Thanks lads, and nice to see us hold out for 20 mins to win once they scored!
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Keaneish added 08:35 - Dec 27 Excellent Result. Really important we got off to a decent start and didn't concede. Shame Campbell couldn't convert the pen to make it more comfortable. No doubt in my mind he'll be staying at QPR in Jan so we need to start introducing Cjopra earlier from the bench over the next handful of games. Will take a point at Wolves but would be delighted with a win!
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PunchNoHopers added 09:42 - Dec 27 Great win, and if Peterboro can win at Wolves we can on Saturday. The lads can get a win at Wolves for Mick at his old club, and that may also get the current Wolves boss the sack!
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jas0999 added 11:24 - Dec 27 Excellent result. MM is doing a good job for us - will be interesting to see what January brings!
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Langdon_Blue added 11:26 - Dec 27 I had hoped that we would come out and play more attractive football in the second half, as there was quite a lot of head tennis between the two teams in the first half. That said, we were bettter than them in the first half and battled when up against it in the second. So all in all a professional away performance. If Charlton represent a mid table side then we have no worries at all...

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IvorFeeling added 17:16 - Dec 27 1st Boxing day win since Cov in 2006! Mick is the man, bring on the Wolves and Brighton. The Wolves fans must be fearing the worst for Saturday, bring it on.
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