Town manager Joe Royle hailed his team's 3-2 away win at Cardiff as the best performance of the season. Home boss Lennie Lawrence conceded after the game that his side had been out-played but the increasingly impressive Blues.

Royle felt his team thoroughly deserved the three points: "I don't think anyone could say we didn't deserve to win that one.

"I think it took 75 minutes before our keeper had to make a save, and I think that says a lot about the way we controlled the game.

"And the first half, considering who we were playing, was probably the best we've played this year."

The Blues' boss said afterwards that he was worried that the floodlights, which went off in the first half, might remain aout of action: "My big fear at half-time was the floodlights not coming back on, I thought Sam may have done a runner with the fuse."

"We knew fairly soon that power would be resumed and that the game would be finished and that's good to hear when you are 2-0 up.

"We let them back into the game with a penalty but when Bart-Williams scored I thought it was over but bad defending gave them a lifeline.

"But it's pleasing to come away and score three goals again, which is bad for a team who couldn't score in the first six games."

Royle felt that the win was even more important than the fine display: "We're becoming a force now. The performance was excellent but the result is more important. We're still playing catch-up and we shouldn't be six points behind the leaders.

"But after that I'm confident we can go higher. I said at the start of the season I expect us to be in the top two, and nothing's changed."

Cardiff boss Lennie Lawrence was impressed with the Blues but felt his side allowed Town to play: "They are a good side and they looked good but the way we played made them look better.

"We made a game of it in the second half when we started putting them under pressure but that's about all you could say.

"We all knew what they were capable of but we didn't do anything about it and as a result we were comprehensively out-played.

"A lot of it was to do with Ipswich's quality but a lot of it was down to us.

"We were chasing shadows in the first half and although we improved and could have nicked a point it would have been an injustice.

"We've given away a needless penalty and two bad goals from corners so it's a wake-up call for all of us. Now we need to go away and start again."

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