Daryl Murphy and Luke Chambers netted second-half headers as the Blues came from a goal down at half-time to defeat Sheffield Wednesday 2-1 at Portman Road. A defensive mix-up between Bartosz Bialkowski and Christophe Berra led to Kieran Lee putting the Owls in front on 20 but the Blues were always on top and Murphy flicked home a Freddie Sears cross on 52, his 19th goal of the season, and Chambers powered in the winner 15 minutes later from Kevin Bru’s ball in from the left.

Boss Mick McCarthy made five changes to his starting line-up with Sears handed his full debut up front alongside Murphy with David McGoldrick missing out due to the thigh injury he suffered at Rotherham.

Jonny Parr came in at left-back for Tyrone Mings, who dropped to the bench, while Teddy Bishop, Stephen Hunt and Darren Ambrose replaced Bru, Paul Anderson and Jay Tabb, who were also amongst the subs. Keeper Dean Gerken returned to the bench having been out with a hip problem.

The Blues started in a 4-4-2 formation with Ambrose, who was making his third full league debut for the Blues, on the right and Hunt on the left.

Neither keeper was tested in the first 14 minutes but with Town having had most of the ball. On 12 Sam Hutchinson was lucky to avoid a yellow card for a foul on Bishop.

Seconds later, the Blues were similarly fortunate that referee Stuart Attwell pulled play back for a foul when Lewis McGugan had dispossessed Cole Skuse and had sent Stevie May away towards goal.

Championship top scorer Murphy came close to his 19th of the season right on the quarter hour when he brushed off Owls’ skipper Tom Lees before hitting a shot across goal from the left of the box but just wide.

But despite the Blues having had the better of the early stages, Wednesday went in front in the 20th minute via their first serious chance of the game and it was a goal - the third Town had conceded from a set piece in two games - which Bialkowski and Berra will want to forget.

Lees sent in a freekick from halfway on the right and Will Keane knocked the ball down towards May. Berra sought to shield the ball back to Bialkowski but the two of them seemed unsure of the other’s intentions and, as they collided, the Polish keeper could only push the ball away to the edge of the box from where Kieran Lee gratefully smashed into the roof of the net.

The Blues looked to get straight back on terms, Murphy making a strong run down the middle before hitting a shot which Wednesday keeper Keiren Westwood batted away.

As the half hour the Blues were almost handed an opportunity when Claude Dielna missed Parr’s cross from the left but the ball wouldn’t fall for Sears.

Moments later, Hutchinson dispossessed Bishop on halfway before bringing the ball forward and finding May, who shot across the face of Bialkowski’s goal from the right when he ought to have done better. At the other end, Smith headed an Ambrose corner from the right powerfully wide.

The Blues were beginning to put the pressure on but Wednesday were looking dangerous on the counter-attack. On 33 May broke and fed Keane to his left but Berra dispossessed the on-loan Manchester United man

Town went close to getting back on terms in the 33rd minute when Bishop fed Ambrose on the right and the midfielder sent over a low first time ball which Sears just couldn’t keep down. Soon after, Hutchinson was booked for a foul on the ex-Colchester man.

The Blues continued to press, keeping the ball far better than they have in recent weeks. On 37 Ambrose headed Parr’s left-wing cross to Westwood, then two minutes later Skuse hit a well-struck shot through to the Irish keeper.

Close to the end of the scheduled 45 minutes Hunt felt he had been shoved over by Marnick Vermijl as he shielded a bouncing ball from the ex-Manchester United full-back inside the area but referee Attwell wasn’t interested.

In injury time the Blues went agonisingly close to getting back on terms when Hunt crossed from the left and Murphy’s header beat Westwood but stuck the post before being cleared by a Wednesday defender.

Referee Attwell was booed off by the Sir Alf Ramsey Stand at the break, although in truth it would have been a harsh penalty had the decision close to the whistle gone Hunt’s way.

On the overall balance of the half the Blues hadn’t deserved to be behind, despite having conceded another poor goal.

Once behind, Town had played as well as they had in a while with Sears close to netting his first goal at Portman Road and then Murphy coming even nearer to adding to his total for the season. Wednesday, however, had remained a danger when breaking.

Mings replaced Hunt ahead of the restart with Parr moving to the left of midfield. The Blues began the second half where they had left off the first with Parr winning an early corner from which Berra’s header was bundled wide off a Town player.

But the equaliser the Blues’ performance had deserved wasn’t too much longer in coming. In the 53rd minute Sears sent over an inswinging right-foot cross from the left and Murphy deftly flicked a header past his international team-mate Westwood to claim his 19th goal of the campaign.

After a brief spell of Wednesday pressure, Mings played a 58th minute ball in from the left to Parr, who turned and shot over. While Westwood prepared to take the goalkick Kevin Bru replaced Bishop.

A minute later Town should have been ahead. Mings and Sears did well down the left and the full-back crossed to the far post from where Ambrose headed against the outside of the post when he should have scored.

As the hour mark approached, Mings again brought the ball in from the left and struck a low right-foot shot which flew just beyond the post.

The Blues were by now well on top and were creating chances almost at will and in the 67th minute - shortly after Wednesday had switched Atdhe Nuhiu and Lewis Buxton for Vermijl and McGugan - they finally got their noses in front.

Bru whipped over a cross from the left and skipper Luke Chambers powered a superb header across Westwood and into the corner of the net to claim his first goal of the campaign.

The Blues went looking for more goals, Smith heading straight at Westwood from Mings’s corner. At the other end, Bialkowski came and failed to reach a cross but fortunately the ball looped well away from goal off an Owls head.

With 12 minutes remaining Westwood blocked from Parr but with the Norwegian - who had put in an impressive display on his return to the side - had strayed offside.

With four minutes remaining, Noel Hunt replaced Sears, who was warmly applauded off the field by his new fans.

The Blues saw out the remaining minutes with few dramas to claim their first win in four matches.

Town thoroughly deserved the three points having put in their most accomplished performance for some while.

Of the players who came into the team, Parr, Sears and Ambrose were amongst the Blues’ best performers, while Murphy put in another fine all-round display as he closes in on 20 league goals for the season. Mings and Bru both impressed having come off the bench.

The result moves Town back to fourth, five points off the top with Middlesbrough going top having beaten Blackpool 2-1 at Bloomfield Road, while previous top two Bournemouth and Derby drew 2-2 at Dean Court.

Town: Bialkowski, Chambers (c), Parr, Berra, Smith, Skuse, Bishop (Bru 58), S Hunt (Mings 46), Ambrose, Sears (N Hunt 86), Murphy. Unused: Gerken, Anderson, Tabb, Clarke.

Sheffield Wednesday: Westwood, Vermijl (Buxton 66), Mattock, Lees (c), Dielna, Hutchinson (Melo 59), Lee, McGugan (Nuhiu 66), Helan, May, Keane. Unused: Kirkland, Palmer, Maghoma, Bus. Referee: Stuart Attwell (Warwickshire). Att: 17,306 (Owls: 652)

Photo: Action Images

Surco72 added 15:52 - Feb 11 Not enough blueandtrue and I am busy on Saturdays anyway , as for Taarabat impact sub at best especially due to his weight but great option if you are chasing a goal or bit of magic !!
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blueboy1981 added 15:56 - Feb 11 Irishtim ....... genuinely sorry you are not able to get to games thro' illness - having said that, if you were, you would probably understand why I left early. But I still paid my money - just as I have every week, yes every week, for all the years I mentioned. Therefore I think I have a right to take my choice, as to if I watch rubbish, non productive 'hoofball' - or not. Success will never prevail with that kind of play, McCarthy should know that. We have players (within our thin squad) who can play the game properly - we saw that to some degree in the second half last night. And it will produce the goods. We MUST use them. Have noticed that you and warktheline habitually down mark my posts whatever - that tells it's own story. I DO NOT do that, just for the sake of it - but I guess that would be beyond both of you. I repeat, I genuinely hope your illness will not continue to keep you from Portman Road.

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jas0999 added 17:04 - Feb 11 Jimmy86 - although Hunt may work well n a front three, we are a striker light. He wouldn't really fit in a 4-4-2. With McGoldrick out it would be nice to have another option. At one point we had Hunt, Sammon and Bajner. The latter two were rubbish, but we had the options.
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NoelTheDub added 17:26 - Feb 11 Just seen the goals and general play a joy to see a bit of passing around the pitch a few good crosses into the box and great to see players arriving in to receive them.Full backs pushing forward a bit of width and if you have that out on the pitch it takes their threat away not something we normally do.Yes its only 1 game the way I wanted us to play for a while now but at least if your going to drop points and we will over the season do it by playing good football and keep bums on the seats for 90min.blueboy1981...Hope we get our monies worth from now on..

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Cloddyseedbed added 17:39 - Feb 11 If we can get the same attacking impetus on the right hand side of attack as the left hand side we would become seriously dangerous. Better balance to the team last night and it was good to see the confidence and smiles coming back amongst the players - and the crowd!
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bohslegend added 17:57 - Feb 11 BlueMachines I have to ask, coz you keep saying things like "we've been asking it on here for 3 or 4 games", do you really think MM made changes to the team because you were asking for them, and therefore you think that he actually reads this forum? The fact is that MM makes calls on players before every game. Sometimes they're right sometimes not. Before you go saying he got it right last night, you and others have been calling for Chambers out of Right Back (perhaps he wouldn't have been up the park to get the winner if MM "had listened to you" and many realists on here have been looking for Skuses head on a pike for ages too, he was arguably MOTM last night. So to give MM credit rather than trying to say he only changed because you told him to, he put a team out last night to win, and they won. Well done MM on continuing to be our greatest manager in a long long time.

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PJH added 18:43 - Feb 11 bohslegend-I can just imagine MM chuckling and saying to himself "what a pillock" whilst reading some of the input on here. I know that everyone on here professes to be an ITFC supporter but with the team 4th in the table it is strange that some still seem to think that it is despite of MM rather than because of him. If this season ends without promotion either automatically or via the playoffs, there will be an air of disappointment and a lot of "what ifs" but to be on 54 points at this stage must surely suggest that the Management are doing something right. Hopefully we will keep up our 100% record in London on saturday. COYB

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warktheline added 18:57 - Feb 11 Well said PJH. Many just can't see the light, poor lost souls.
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BlueMachines added 19:17 - Feb 11 Something you've said before. I'll repeat my response. No I don't believe that MM listens to what the supporters want. In fact, to his detriment, he has admitted he would not bring on someone if the crowd called for it. The term cutting your nose off to spite your face springs to mind. But none the less we are entitled to our opinions. If you bothered to read my post, you would see it is about the 'level headed' failing to recognise the players efforts, and instead they would rather just say how much they love MM. It gets a bit boring to be honest. Also, no that isn't the team I would've picked, but it worked. But who knows, if I had picked the team we may have won 3-0, or lost 3-0!! But I didn't so we'll never know. And that's why we debate on here what we think is best. Because that's as much as we can do. I enjoy looking at the pros and cons of a game and enjoy exchanging opinions on it. But coming on here just to mouth off at other posters is ridiculous and not at all 'level headed'.

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warktheline added 19:57 - Feb 11 @bluemachines, valid point about players, and agree McCarthy takes centre stage on forum, more often than not, but this issue has evolved from initially morons taking low swipes at our manager, and unjustly so. I've spoken to many a fan, about McCarthy, and all have been mystified by our so called fans lack of appreciation for the job he's doing. Yes, we all are truly divided on style of play, but expectations on results on the field are crazy. We are not for whatever reason, competing financially with top clubs in Championship, so what do they expect McCarthy to do? Play tip tappy football with Derby, and get tanked, or play to a system that gives us a chance to compete? I don't see Ince, bamford etc in our line up ,or us, like Bournemouth going out and buying all the form strikers in and around the Championship . Therefore to many of us, McCarthy has and continues to over achieve, and for all his faults, such as stubbornness, we are more than willing to accept.

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callmeted added 20:12 - Feb 11 3 points earnt and we rise up the league. What else do you want? And does MM read this column ? I know for a fact the answer is NO. Everyone entitled to their own opinion and that's freedom of speech but some of you , seriously ?? The free fall predicted Saturday hasn't happened and long may that continue . It's not always pretty but it works. Nice work fellas
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blueboy1981 added 22:20 - Feb 11 warktheline ............. you make it so obvious, you'll soon be asking Mick for his recycled socks. Then I guess you'll be in conflict with Irishtim and bohslegend - as to who owns them.
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tractorgrl added 22:30 - Feb 11 What was in the tea at half-time? Where can i get some? Well done players mm, tc and the fans for roaring them on!
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Langdon_Blue added 22:36 - Feb 11 As McCarthy would say "this forum is bonkers". Why all the bickering gentlemen? We all support Ipswich, that's a minority in itself. Yes we are fans but we are also customers. People pay there money and are. Entitled to comment on how they see fit. It's okay to say it how you see it.
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thebeat added 22:53 - Feb 11 Well well well look what happens when you pick an attacking team. I thought the performance was a lot better last night, we look a much better team when we keep the ball on the ground and try to play football instead of trying to outwork teams with dogs of war type players. Lets clear a few things up tho, i dont get how some on here think there is an Anti MM brigade. The only time i criticise him is when he reverts into his cautious negative team selections and tactics simply because that is when we produce our worst performances and results. If he sent the team out like he did last night in every game i wouldnt have a problem when we lose cus atleast we'd be trying to win the game and entertaining the fans. Im not anti MM and i dont think others are, we are anti Negative MM. It makes me laugh when some on here congratulate him for the changes last night like nobody had suggested them beforehand. Some of us have been crying out for an attacking line up for weeks simply because when we played that way earlier in the season we went on unbeaten runs. Mick only changed last night cus his favourites and boring tactics werent working not because he wanted to. All this punching above our weight stuff is rubbish, when we go at teams we can beat anybody in this division. Lets keep it going in last nights style for the rest of the season and see what happens. Get Didz in behind Murph and Sears, give Bishop more freedom by putting Bru in there with Skuse, get Parr at right back and let him and Mings provide the width. The players actually looked happier last night playing attacking football, long may it continue, please Mick, please dont go back to the dogs of war on Saturday...

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oldegold added 23:24 - Feb 11 I agree with the posts which suggest that there is no anti-MM brigade and I am quite sure that we all want what is best for our beloved team and we are perfectly entitled to voice our opinions and not be branded " morons " ..step forward walktheline...but speak from the heart.I most vertsinlybam not a moron but I subscribe to the theory that our best results under MM are achieved playing attacking soccer and not when he resorts to safety first hoofball. There is no campaign to bring him down but just frustration at how predictable and sterile our play can be at times.I wholly agree with blueboy1981's comments on how we should play the game and I still have nightmares thinking about the worst Town performance I have seen in many a year against those world beaters Wigan a few weeks ago...abject and woeful hoofball. At least the other evening we saw what we can achieve by playing open attacking stuff.

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Bigalhunter added 09:02 - Feb 12 Oldegold, did you really think the 0-0 at home to Wigan was our worst performance 'in many a year'? I could easily give you a hatful of worse performances in the last 6/7 years under Magilton,Jewell & Keane when we were spinless capitulators shipping 7 to Peterborough, 6 to Blackpool, 5 at home to Norwich, 3 at home to Doncaster & Sheff Weds. Typical of the complete overreaction and short-term memories we get on here. Yes Wigan was an ugly performance but let's have some perspective here. I much prefer knowing the odd poor performance doesn't have us looking over our shoulder at league 1 football (not soccer!)

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warktheline added 10:21 - Feb 12 Blueboy and oldefool, bitterness gets you nowhere, embrace all for what they are....warts and all!!!
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oldegold added 11:44 - Feb 12 I see warktheline has to offend a fellow Town supporter yet again whose ideas don't coincide with his..yesterday we were morons and today we are bitter and fools.....methinks you need to get a grip on yourself and moderate your perspective on life.I bet you must be a bundle of laughs at Christmas time lol !At least Bigalhunter doesn't insult and yet we disagree. My point was that this season we have raised the bar and our woeful performance against Wigan was unacceptable and Town supporters expect much more this season than hoofball.Tuesday's performance showed the way with an attacking 2nd half performance.

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warktheline added 12:31 - Feb 12 Oldefool, you called me an idiot a couple of days ago...remember? Dish it out!!!!
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warktheline added 12:40 - Feb 12 ....if you are one of the so called supporters calling McCarthy a dinosaur etc, then yes you are a moron.
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warktheline added 12:53 - Feb 12 ....as for Xmas, I get an invite every year from the McCarthy household, they appear to enjoy my company.
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oldegold added 13:24 - Feb 12 The name is oldegold so remember that..I didn't say you were an idiot..please re-read ..it was an inference.I've been a supporter through thick and thin since 1975 so that hardly makes me so-called...you don't know McCarthy but I do and quite well as we are neighbours in Bromley. I imagine that I don't qualify as being a moron but I would suggest that you adopt a more humane attitude with fellow Town supporters as you hardly exude much warmth towards people who effectively suuport the same team.You know it makes sense.

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warktheline added 13:57 - Feb 12 Dream on zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
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blueboy1981 added 17:53 - Feb 12 ....... warktheline - seriously you shouldn't be getting away with what you do on this forum. I hope that AT SOME POINT the editors of this forum see fit to do something about it.
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