Town boss Kieran McKenna felt striker Liam Delap could be proud of his performance after his two goals secured a 2-2 draw with Champions League Aston Villa at Portman Road.

Delap took his tally for the Blues to three with his two this afternoon sandwiching goals from Morgan Rogers and Ollie Watkins for the Villans.

“I thought it was a really good game, that’s important to us,” McKenna said. “Since I arrived here, one of the big things on the checklist was making Portman Road a fantastic place to come and watch football, give the supporters an entertaining game and a team to be proud of and represent the club well, and they’ve certainly done that today. That’s a big positive.

“Of course, we want to get as many points as we can, but to compete as we did as we did against a team of the calibre that Aston Villa are and a team now with great familiarity that have been working under a very, very good manager with almost the same group of players for a few seasons now and us, as we know, very much a team building and rebuilding at the moment.

“So to be as competitive as we were in the game is a big, big positive and another point and another game unbeaten and we move on.”

McKenna agreed that his side might even have won it in the closing stages: “We could have. We always back ourselves at Portman Road that that’s going to be the case.

“We think if we can make the game competitive, if we can impose ourselves on the game and it goes to the later stages, then we back that our fitness will always hold strong. And we know that the crowd will always give us the extra yard and the extra edge.

“We had a lot of set plays, some moments in the box where, credit to them, they stood up and defended the set plays very well, as they do, and we weren’t quite able to get it over the line.”

Regarding Delap, a signing from an initial £15 million from Manchester City in the summer, McKenna said: “A good day for him and he should be proud, I’m sure his family’s proud as well. He’s had a good start, all in all.

“As I’ve said, he’s still very, very young. It’s still a lot to be leading the line week-in, week-out, in the Premier League and there’s certainly areas for improvement still.

“He certainly has more consistency to come in a game and I still think he can improve a lot physically, mentally and technically and tactically as well.

“He’s still got some real growth to come, so to do what he’s done in the first handful of Premier League games, goals he’s scored, the way he’s shown that he can impact the ball in his hold-up play, his general play and some of his defensive work is really coming on well, but there’s still a lot to come. I think he’s developing well and we’re really happy to have him here.”

Aston Villa boss Unai Emery said Town were more like the team he had anticipated in the second half and McKenna was asked what he changed at the break.

“The goals were a setback as we’d put ourselves in a good position in the game and we just needed to adjust some things, step on a little bit more from our defensive shape,” he said.

“Villa had a couple of spells of possession which were longer than we would want at home and managed to control the game with the ball, so we needed to be more aggressive from our shape and take more aggressive decisions out of possession of when to jump and apply pressure.

“And we did that in the second half, which gave us more momentum in the game, more territory in the game.

“I still think in the first half we probably had the better chances, maybe created clearer chances than we did in the second half, but certainly in the second half we managed to control them earlier and pin them into their half a little bit more and were able to get a good level of domination in the game. But I think there were positives across both the first and second halves.”

The Blues boss admitted he was disappointed with the goals his side conceded, Jacob Greaves having made an error on the first.

“You always are,” he said. “Of course, the first goal is a mistake. We’re going to make them, everyone’s human, everyone’s trying their best, a lot of players are playing their first games in the Premier League and the ruthlessness of the execution to punish you when you make a mistake is really, really high. One mistake in an incident and it’s really ruthlessly punished by Aston Villa.

“But when make those, it’s important as a team how we collectively continue to keep going for the 90 minutes and help our teammate out by delivering a good performance that gets us something from the game. The pleasing thing is we’ve managed to do that.”

Regarding his team’s defending, he added: “I thought probably in the first half we were compact in our shape but we were a little bit passive in terms of getting out to the ball and everybody stepping out to the next opponent and being ready to pass runs onto the backline, and the backline squeezing the midfield line squeezing, so everyone could step on a little bit more.

“We pressed really high at times in the game, we defended on shape well at times in the game but there were a few spells in the first half where we were a little bit passive in our defensive shape and Aston Villa were able to circulate the ball more easily than we would want, especially in a home game.

“But, having said that, they created very, very few chances against us and they’re a team that have been scoring a lot of goals and no matter which way you defend, you’re going to have to defend a through ball to Ollie Watkins, you’re going to have to defend [Leon] Bailey coming in on his left foot and bending in an in-swinger, you’re not going to avoid those situations in the game.

“I thought how we played throughout, we really, really limited the amount of dangerous situations that we had to defend and I think we certainly could have defended the moment better.

“One, in terms of being a bit more aggressive in our shape, but two, whenever they were around our goal and they deliver a cross like that, we can defend it better and I’m sure we will as we continue to improve.”

Town, who are 15th in the table, have now drawn their last four matches with their only defeats still the losses to Liverpool and Manchester City.

Asked whether that elusive first win is close, McKenna said: “We feel like we’re really competitive in every game. Each game’s different, it’s not like inch-by-inch another two per cent and we get a win because next Saturday’s game might be completely different.

“We need to start from scratch every week but I think there’s more good things in each performance in general. Of course, it’s not always a linear line.

“I thought today, it was the most clear chances that we’ve created and that’s been something that we’ve needed to improve from the first games.

“Our execution, we’ve been getting into some really good positions, we’ve had some momentum and opportunity but we haven’t managed to create enough clear chances and today we did create some clear chances, so that’s a big positive.

“It’s another step. A first step for us is being competitive every week and going toe-to-toe with teams, being in the game until late on. You give yourself a chance then to get a win then or to get a point from the game and we’re going to have to try and fight to do that for all 38 games and the next challenge come at West Ham away on Saturday.

“It doesn’t get any easier, we know it will be another big test but we’ll go with a lot of the same characteristics as we did today and I’m sure the results at the end of the season will, hopefully, give us what we deserve by how we can develop this team and how well we can perform.”

Quizzed about Kalvin Phillips’s progress, the on-loan Manchester City midfielder having returned to the side after his minor thigh problem, McKenna continued: “I thought it was a good performance today. I think game by game he’s improving, his confidence was coming on the ball a little bit today. He’s been working really well off the ball.

“Of course, it was a shame for him to get the little injury that stopped his momentum, but I thought he stepped back into the team well today after only a couple of days’ training.

“He’s enjoying it, he’s enjoying being part of the group, he’s enjoying the day-to-day work and he’s proving that he can be an important player for us on the pitch.”

McKenna was asked whether there are any better English left-backs in the Premier League than Leif Davis with those in charge of selection no longer able to make the excuse that the former Leeds man is playing in the Championship.

“That’s obviously going to be for other people to judge and for Lee Carsley to judge at the moment,” he said.

“I think Leif’s strengths are clear to see. I thought today was probably his best performance.

“He wasn’t happy himself with his level last week, so I thought today was his best performance and I think he’s got fantastic attributes as an attacking left-back, who can cover distance down the line, deliver really good balls to forward players, both to feet and in crosses, and be a threat coming in at the back post.

“He’s got fantastic attributes, I think his defensive game is improving, it will improve over the course of the season, I think it already has improved over the six games with the lessons that he’s picked up in some of the early games.

“And I think he’s in a great place in his career. He’s 24, he’s playing his first year in the Premier League, he’s picking up experience every week in a team that support him well and if he keeps working then I’m sure he’ll show his quality over the course of the season.”

Meanwhile, McKenna was delighted that retired Arizona police officer and motivational speaker Jason Schechterle was present to take his record to four games unbeaten when watching the Blues at Portman Road.

Schechterle suffered serious burns in a road accident in March 2001, aged 28, only 14 months into his career as a police officer on the streets of Phoenix, and now speaks about his experiences, including to Town’s players and staff since the takeover in 2021.

“Is he unbeaten? Well played!” McKenna laughed. “He’s a great guy, we always enjoy it when he comes over.

“We know that that part of the ownership group and the link to firefighters and the Arizona pension fund [PSPRS] is an important part of our ownership group and Jason represents that really well as being a really important link to the values that we hold in terms of resilience and running towards adversity. He represents that well.

“He’s also a great guy, so every time he comes over we’re happy and the players who have been here like to meet him and the new players like to meet him, so it’s nice to have him here.”

Photo: TWTD

Linkboy13 added 18:24 - Sep 29 The Premier league is so much quicker and physical you have to sometimes adjust your game. I think one player in that category is Omar Hutchinson who is finding out you can't beat player after player in the Premier league they are just too quick and strong. He's had the ability to be a big player in the Premier league but his decision making has to be better. Maybe beating one or two players looking for the pass and then getting the return. One player who has surprised a few is Jack Taylor who always looks good when called upon and made a difference today.

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victorysquad added 19:15 - Sep 29 It was a good day for the whole club, we went toe to toe with a Champions League team and did enough to win it. That is down to the hard work on the training pitch, and everyone involved should take great pride in how quickly we have adjusted given the opposition we have faced so far.
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Wickets added 19:24 - Sep 29 Omar worked his cooking socks off today a tremendous performance in that regard . If we can show the effort we have been playing with and keep the togetherness in the squad we have every chance of survival.
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Dutchman1 added 19:43 - Sep 29 I don’t really watch much of the other teams but Villa were an excellent side, technically outstanding and Onana in the middle of the park was one of the best players I have seen at PR for a long time. And Ipswich matched them, including physically - O’Shea has a shiner for the ages. This is a team still some way off it’s peak but bravo to KM and all involved for keeping the points tally ticking over thus far.

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FreddySteady added 20:30 - Sep 29 Great performance and point. We didn’t press enough, especially in the first half, as our manager admits. Wonder why that was?
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Eeyore added 20:37 - Sep 29 Guardiola: "Txiki, recall that guy in January" ... " what do mean, we sold him !!?" Excellent result. We do make too many errors that gift goals. However the team spirit to recover from these is fantastic. We are great team to watch because we can come back and we can also win late on. Delap is looking like a bargain. The main plus was that we managed to dominate parts of the game. The wins will come. Looking forward to going above Man U next week

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Edmundo added 21:01 - Sep 29 Improving. Solid performance today. Maybe showed Villa too much respect first half, but could have won it in the end. Keep up the hard work!
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Daniel72 added 22:24 - Sep 29 I think our aggressive captain also played very well today.. we are holding our own and fighting hard.... Up The Ipswich!
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Vancouver_Blue added 23:00 - Sep 29 I know I’m a sentimental old sod, but I do feel sorry for Chappers, Woolfie & Burg.
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legoman added 10:59 - Sep 30 What an absolutely fantastic read. Everything was covered to help us all understand every single moment. What a fantastic coach/manager. Onwards and upwards.
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