The Blues’ Sky hoodoo was finally vanquished as Paul Lambert’s men opened their League One campaign with a 2-0 behind-closed-doors victory over Wigan Athletic at Portman Road. Town, who hadn’t won when playing live in front of the Sky cameras for 16 matches going back to December 2015, went ahead through Teddy Bishop’s first goal in nearly six years in the 11th minute before sub Gwion Edwards added the second on 80.

Town were forced into one change with Luke Woolfenden missing from the back four with the centre-half having picked up a knock in training. He was replaced by James Wilson, who was making his first competitive appearance of the season.

Corrie Ndaba missed a chance of making his league debut having suffered a dead leg during the 2-1 EFL Trophy defeat to Arsenal's U21s in midweek.

Tomas Holy got the nod ahead of David Cornell in goal, while there was again no place in the squad for Downes, who was given time off ahead of last week’s 3-0 Carabao Cup victory over Bristol Rovers following the interest from Crystal Palace and his subsequent transfer request.

Also absent from the bench was Jack Lankester, who has also picked up a knock, with Janoi Donacien included having recovered from the injury he suffered at Cambridge.

Former Blues striker Joe Garner was named as Wigan’s captain, while ex-Town winger Gary Roberts was also in the XI.

One-time Blues youngster Pat Webber was on the bench for the Latics, who had manager John Sheridan in charge for the first time since taking over on Friday.

Wigan were without forward Gavin Massey due a leg muscle injury, while defensive pair Danny Fox and Josh Clarke, who signed on short-term deals on Friday, were not involved.

Following a summer exodus as a result of their administration, only Kal Naismith remained from the XI which drew 1-1 at home to Fulham on the final day of the Championship season in July.

Town got the game under way at an empty and eerily quiet Portman Road after both sets of players had taken a knee in support of Black Lives Matter.

Wigan were first to threaten in the seventh minute from a corner on the right. The ball was allowed to reach Emeka Obi, who sent his header into the ground and wide. It was a fortunate escape for the Blues.

And four minutes later, Town went in front. Stephen Ward quickly took a free-kick on the left, catching Wigan cold and sending Freddie Sears away in space. The former West Ham man sent over a cross which was half-cleared and Teddy Bishop ran in and nodded into the roof of the net past Jamie Jones to give the Blues the lead.

It was only the 24-year-old’s second career goal, his previous one having come at AFC Bournemouth in November 2014 during his breakthrough campaign as an 18-year-old.

Wigan, who had won a number of corners in the early stages, should have levelled in the 14th minute. After a flag-kick had been half-cleared, the ball was sent back and Obi this time headed over when he ought to have scored.

On 21 Dozzell curled a shot well over with the Blues increasingly in control of the game with Wigan unable to keep hold of the ball.

Three minutes later, Dozzell returned a Judge corner from the right across goal, skipper Luke Chambers nodded it back in and English league debutant Aaron Drinan’s close-range header scuffed the top of the bar.

Town began to create more chances and might well have added to their lead in the 26th minute. Dozzell found Ward on the left with a sublime cross-field ball and the Irishman sent in a cross which reached Chambers breaking into the area but the captain’s header into the ground bounced harmlessly to Jones in the Wigan goal.

In the 28th minute Bishop went very close to his second goal of the game. Jon Nolan brought the ball into the box unchallenged and laid it to Drinan to his left, from where the Irish U21 international, with his back to goal, laid it to Bishop, who struck a low shot which hit the post. The ball rebounded awkwardly for Drinan and he was unable to divert it towards goal.

It had been all Town but in the 34th minute ex-Blue Roberts whipped in a ball from the left, Toto Nsiala’s header went straight up in the air and Garner’s powerfully-struck overhead kick beat Holy but smashed against the bar. It was another fortunate escape for Town, who had been much the better side but also could well have conceded three times.

Five minutes later, Town built patiently from the back, Dozzell eventually finding Sears with another great cross-field ball to the left, the striker moving it on to Judge. The Irish international then back-heeled into the path of Sears who was breaking into the area and the former Colchester man saw his shot stopped by Jones with Drinan calling for the ball to be squared to him on the edge of the six-yard box. The quality of the move deserved a goal.

As the half moved into two minutes of injury time, Sears curled a 25-yard free-kick just over, Nolan having been fouled.

Town deserved their half-time lead on the balance of the period overall with Bishop reacting quickly to nod home his first goal in nearly six years. At times the Blues had played some lovely stuff and might have been further ahead with Sears likely to feel he should have added to last week’s two Carabao Cup goals, Chambers also feeling he ought to have added to his goal against Bristol Rovers and Bishop unlikely with his strike against the post.

But Wigan could easily have scored three times themselves with Obi missing two very good early opportunities, with Town not looking entirely comfortable when defending set pieces, and Garner coming very close with his excellent overhead kick.

However, a second Blues goal after the break ought to be enough to put the game beyond the reach of the visitors.

Town swapped Drinan for James Norwood ahead of the second half, presumably due to an injury with the former Waterford man having had another decent half, while the Latics swapped Dan Gardner for Alex Perry.

The Blues began the half brightly, Judge heading wide at the near post from a Ward cross from the left in the opening minute after the restart.

On 52, Town again looked shaky from a set piece, Roberts sending the ball in from the left and Holy looking hesitant as it reached two Latics at the back of the box. However, they were unable to create an opening and eventually Nolan was fouled as he looked to clear.

The Blues ought to have doubled their lead in the 56th minute when Dozzell played a low ball across the area after it had been played back to him following a corner. Wilson was unable to make a significant contact when he should have scored and it wafted wide, appearing to catch a defender on its way out, although referee Thomas Bramall awarded a goal-kick.

Sears curled another free-kick over three minutes later, then, as the game reached the hour mark, Chambers was booked for a foul as Wigan sought to break following a Town attack.

Garner headed well over for Wigan in the 63rd minute, a warning to Town that the visitors had created chances even if they hadn’t been able to take them and that the scoreline was still only 1-0.

There was another scare two minutes later when a Roberts free-kick was headed out of the area to sub Perry, who hit a controlled effort which only just looped over the bar.

Wigan began to see more of the ball as the game moved towards the 70-minute mark, a well-worked move ending with Tom Pearce crossing low into Holy’s arms at the near post.

Two minutes later, Lee Evans shot over with the Latics on top and taking the game to the Blues. Moments later, Edwards took over from Sears with Judge moving to the left of the front three with the Welshman on the right.

Bishop curled an edge-of-the-area effort through to Jones on 74, before the goalscorer made way for Emyr Huws.

Town’s second goal finally came in the 80th minute. Nolan sent Judge away in space down the left and the Irishman sent in a cross which fell to sub Edwards, who shot low into the net from six yards on the turn.

In the final scheduled minute, Edwards cut in from the left and hit a powerful shot which Jones did well to palm behind for a corner. There was little serious action during three minutes of injury time before referee Bramall confirmed the Blues’ first three points of the season.

A deserved victory for the Blues, who had enough chances to have made their lead more secure prior to Edwards hitting the second late on.

The second half display wasn’t as convincing as the first with Wigan having a strong spell midway through, while manager Lambert will be unhappy with the way his team defended a number of Latics set pieces which on another day could have resulted in goals.

Overall however, he will be delighted that the League One season is off and running with a home win, only the Blues’ 11th in their last 50 in the league at Portman Road.

The victory ends a winless run of 16 games in front of the live Sky cameras, their previous success the 1-0 defeat of the MK Dons at Stadium MK in December 2015.

Town are next in action when Fulham visit for a Carabao Cup tie on Wednesday with the Blues’ first away League One game of the season at Bristol Rovers next Saturday.

Town: Holy, Chambers (c), Wilson, Nsiala, Ward, Dozzell, Nolan, Bishop (Huws 76), Judge, Sears (Edwards 73), Drinan (Norwood 46). Unused: Cornell, Donacien, Kenlock, Hawkins.

Wigan: Jones, Obi, Long, Naismith, Pearce, L Evans, Merrie (Crankshaw 82), Solomon-Otabor, Gardner (Perry 46), Roberts, Garner (c). Unused: O Evans, Joseph, Jolley, Aasgaard, Webber. Referee: Thomas Bramall (Sheffield).

Photo: Matchday Images

Steve_ITFC_Sweden added 17:39 - Sep 13 Happy enough with that. I'd prefer a battling win to some of the stuff we served up last season. We looked to be more direct today, rather than just putting on a passing the ball around show and getting nowhere. Wigan were up for it with so many new players and they will cause teams problems in this league. Plenty of room for improvement, but three points in the bag. Thought the Sky commentary was rather anti-Ipswich. OK, Wigan could have had a couple, then so could we have had a couple more. 8-0 shots on target to us (correct me if I'm wrong) tells me Wigan didn't have it all their own way. Good substitutions at the right time too.

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runaround added 18:11 - Sep 13 7 months after the last time it's great to celebrate a league victory. It was a strange game at times with the game dying at times before springing into life for a while probably down to the lack of atmosphere the lack of fans adding to that almost training match feeling. At times we looked quite good going forward and easily could have scored more goals yet defensively I was concerned that we could concede far too easily. Hopefully when Woolfenden & KVY are fit to return that will help the defence. You could tell the players lacked match sharpness but playing games will help that. Overall more positive than negative & always good to win your opening league match

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Rodrigo91 added 18:32 - Sep 13 TimmyH why you living in the past last season is over. I'm talking about the league in general, you have to win scrappy games where you aren't playing well to be in with a shout at the end of the season. II'm the first person to moan about a player if they're playing bad but it's only been one game. If we play like that in the next 5 games and pick up 2 points then fair enough have a rant but one game didn't play particularly well but oh well we got the 3 points. So your just moaning for the sake of moaning at this point.

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RobsonWark added 19:12 - Sep 13 ArnieM added 14:53 - Sep 13 "Sears played at least THREE crap free kicks . He denied ya getting a second in the first Half by not squaring it to the free Drinan" I agree with you ArnieM. I don't know what what the all the fuss is about Sears. He is not a TEAM player. He is all about personal glory and not team glory. He should have passed to Drinan who had an easy tap in. He doesn't seem to have a football brain! Thank god we didn't lose because of his eyes lighting up for his goal scoring bonus in his pay packet!

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Northstandveteran added 19:41 - Sep 13 What was the attendance?
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TimmyH added 20:14 - Sep 13 About 29 cardboard cut outs...didn't see Ed Sheeran in the crowd nor Bin Laden.
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Linkboy13 added 21:06 - Sep 13 Pleased for Nolan today who rarely gets any credit from the numpties on here who can't give credit when it's due, man of the match today. The back four lacked pace still dont think we've got a dominant centre half last one being McCauley. Holy looked shaky but he waves to the north stand which makes him first choice. Drinian again showed promise and i can see a partnership with Norwood on the cards.

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gosblue added 21:20 - Sep 13 Lonelyblue I thought Nolan was our most improved player last season, I think we need his tough character in midfield. Last season we allowed ourselves to be bullied too often.
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Skip73 added 21:30 - Sep 13 Decent performance and a good 3 points but we can, and will, play better than that this season. 2 goals from midfield shows we don't need the overrated Downes. He should be left to rot in the reserves as he obviously doesn't want to play for the first team. He hardly lit up the midfield last season did he!
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Facefacts added 21:37 - Sep 13 Going well. Good substitutions at the right time. Credit where credit's due. One game at a time, etc.
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KiwiTractor added 22:13 - Sep 13 Well done lads, happy to get the 3 points. My thoughts.... Wilson, Ward, Bishop and Nolan were all good. Dozzell was good in the first half but seemed to drift out of the game in the second. Nsiala made me nervous the whole game. Edwards gave the team a real lift when he came on, thought he played really well. Drinan brought other players into the game in the first half, whereas Norwood looked a little uninterested? Anyway, I'm happy today.

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adeblueboy added 22:44 - Sep 13 Nsiala was great says Lambert, what and when was that game, he is a BIG liability. Dozzell and Bishop were ok first half but where we're they in the second and don't say they were tired!!
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budgieplucker added 23:13 - Sep 13 Good result, and just like last year we needed a good start. Believe playing behind closed doors for a few weeks might work to our advantage. I don't want to be negative but just being careful we don't overhype our performances as PL always spots brilliance where some of us struggle to agree. I don't disagree though that there were some good individual performances. Very pleasing to see Andre again playing a big role as the heartbeat of the team albeit man marked out of the game in the second half to stop us playing and to a large extent this worked for Wigan. On recent performances and in this role Andre reminds me so much of Colin Viljoen who was a fabulous midfielder for us and an England capped international. In modern day terms Andre could be our Andre(a) Pirlo. I am looking forward to this lad getting better and we need to be offering him a new contract now - he can be the star we predicted a few years ago and become a big player for us. From what I have seen in his last two matches last season, pre-season just gone and the last 3 competitive matches then I predict Andre will become the player of the season for us. Again I agree with PL on the performances of Jon Nolan and Teddy Bishop who I both thought were excellent and need to retain the shirts in this form. However, as has been pointed out we could have easily been 2-0 adrift through poor defending and we took a long time to kill the game off. Both these issues were why we failed so badly last year. It doesn't matter how much pretty football you play if you don't kill games off and prove watertight at the back. So we can learn to play all the possession based football in the world but many teams in this league will come to spoil and park the bus, so we have to develop that ruthless streak and cutting edge without our soft underbelly at the back. Formations become meaningless. Freddie has to be less wasteful. What I like about the lad Drinan is his determination to get to balls and not be knocked off plus his absolute unselfishness to lay the ball off to others in better positions to him. Judge goes missing when the full back behind him needs support. The defence gets drawn across and out of position too often. Edwards when on form should be playing in one of the wide positions, and will get more goals than Judge and possibly Freddie put together. So a lot to still work out. Stephen Ward looks a great signing. Nervous that we don't have a goalkeeper who is decisive and good at claiming crosses. What also worries me is our fragile midfield - how many matches will Bishop and Huws muster between them? Nolan and Skuse also became the king of knocks last season. Downes is the only one I can see managing a long string of games should he not go to Palace.

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shakytown added 03:15 - Sep 14 Just like everyone was wrong last season dolphin idiot - Norwich schoolgirl.
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Unhinged_dynamo added 08:16 - Sep 14 If you watch the Nfl show on Iplayer you will see osi and Jason talking to chappers in an articulate way about the differences of opinion and how best to articulate them, and that's on something more pertinent to our world than how Ipswich perform. Some people on here could do with realising that all opinions are valid even if you don't agree with them, insulting players and other fans will acheive nothing except further disharmony in what USED to be a relatively close fan base. As for the game, we weren't bad, we weren't great but il take the three points and move on just like Liverpool will. Nsiala wasn't amazing but I feel lambert is prepping us to get used to seeing him a lot more as woolfie is probably gonna leave. As is downes Sears could and should of scored or set up drinan but if he carries on as he is he will score plenty in league one, will drinan if hes so unselfish? I hope so Hopefully a strong team and good performance against Fulham regardless of result and we move on

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heathen66 added 08:48 - Sep 14 Good result and will take 3 points any day of the week However I am a bit bemused by our tactics and formation For the majority of the game we were playing 4-5-1 or 4-1-4-1 with Drinan and latterly Norwood very islolated. Not the 4-3-3 Lambert will have us believe. This is exactly what went wrong last season with strikers feeding on scraps Good performances from Dozzell, Bishop, Nolan and Nsiala, with Edwards again showing his qualities when he came on. Onwards and Upwards COYB

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Marinersnose added 09:23 - Sep 14 Some real positives from this game. Firstly Ward is a fantastic signing and gives the team so much defensively and going forward. The remaining defenders clearly lacked cohesion and communication with Nsiala and Chambers looking hesitant. We failed to pick up runners on set pieces which needs a lot of work. Chambers looked good against Bristol but today he didn't manage to get near his man first half and didn't manage to stop the crosses his prime roll. Good foul for the booking and the introduction of Edwards improved our stability on the right. Midfield was excellent withNolan Dozzell and Bishop playing some good penetrating football when they received the ball on the deck. Agree Dozzell and Bishop both tired but this was a promising combination. Drinan good first half and his touch and movement together with his ability to bring others into the game was sorely missed second half. Norwood made himself a nuisance but not fit as yet. Edwards and Huws both done well when introduced. Good three points even though we rode our luck first half. Hopefully Woolfenden KVY and Downes can play a part and improve this team.

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Razor added 10:27 - Sep 14 I agree with Swedish Steve----Sky seemed to have a love in with Wigan and did not fail to remind us of their problems every 5 minutes. I dont think they actually had an effort on target and thought we controlled most of game.Nolan is showing us the player he might be but I think we need a little more strenghth in midfield, Downes or Huws would be the answer. Good 3 points and squad does look strong in depth now which is good.

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afcfee added 15:13 - Sep 14 Dreading when we face any sort of team going to get wrecked playing like that 🙈
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KernewekBlue added 16:36 - Sep 14 Firstly, with rose-tinted glasses firmly on, it was an opening day victory and three points to kick off the new campaign. A few of our boys looked good in the game and we just about controlled things in the middle of the park and broke up Wigan's game fairly well. Taking those spectacles off... We looked as ragged at the back as we have done for the last few seasons. We were lucky not to be behind at the break. A few headless chicken moments could and should have cost us dear and it was only by the grace of god that Wigan were as sloppy in front of our goal as we were. One or two of the Wigan lads looked quite handy and might have caught the eye of several League One outfits... might be worth bearing in mind Mr Lambert? Yes, we managed to win the game by two clear goals but it was against a makeshift side in supposed disarray. What might have happened if we were playing more settled opposition, making those kinds of mistakes at the back from set-pieces, is anybody's guess. We rode our luck today but played well enough in enough of the game to eek out the result. Early doors I know but I hope we start the next game a lot sharper and with more cohesion and awareness, especially at the back.

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