That was an excellent and very welcome win. Don’t listen to anyone who tells you the FA Cup is an unwanted distraction for a promotion-chasing team.
Whether it’s league or cup football, winning games creates momentum, builds self-belief and grows confidence, both among players and supporters.
Our victory at Wimbledon provided a timely morale boost, and avoided us being described as “without a win in six games.” That really wouldn’t have made happy reading.
Now we’ve got the fourth round draw to look forward to tonight, with all kinds of possibilities - a Premier League glamour tie, Norwich (if they win their replay against mighty Bristol Rovers) or perhaps a real minnow. Maybe a new ground for fans to visit.
It’s all part of the joy of a cup run. I always bristled at the ultra-pragmatic Mick McCarthy’s attitude to cup games. Year after year, he would pick hopelessly weak teams and we would exit competitions with not so much as a whimper.
I remember unwisely going to an early round League Cup tie at Portman Road, against somebody like Stevenage. It was August, still school holiday time, and the club offered a “kid for a quid” promotion.
There were huge numbers of youngsters there, many of them at their first game, no doubt. A perfect opportunity to recruit the next generation.
Inevitably, Big Mick’s weakened team surrendered to our lower league opposition, and the game was utterly devoid of any quality or excitement.
As we trudged from the stadium, I heard a little lad tearfully pleading: “Please don’t make me come here again.” Well played, Mick.
Thankfully, we are in a new era, and our enlightened manager picked a team on Saturday which was comfortably strong enough to see off League Two opposition.
Now it’s back to the day job and hopefully regaining momentum in the Championship. Of course it’s been encouraging to see us do some early business in the transfer window. We have strengthened the squad, but we all know where our biggest problem lies.
The harsh fact is that we do not have a like-for-like replacement for George Hirst at the club. His absence changes everything as far as Ipswich as an attacking force is concerned.
No coincidence that we have failed to score in two consecutive matches for the first time in the Kieran McKenna era. No coincidence either that the goal threat of Conor Chaplin and Nathan Broadhead looks much reduced.
As McKenna well knows, recruiting a quality target man in January is no easy task. Why will clubs willingly wave goodbye to decent strikers halfway through the season? Other clubs will be very aware of our desperation, and no doubt will play very hard to get.
It might be a lot later in the window before we can do business, which means we need to find a temporary fix. Broadhead or Chaplin up front? Possibly, but either would mean a major rethink of the way we play.
If anyone can come up with an innovative - perhaps surprising - solution to the conundrum, then it’s McKenna and his coaching team. It’s a tough one, though.
The other immediate challenge we face is the loss of our inspirational skipper for the next two games. Whenever Sam Morsy misses matches, the whole tempo of our game seems to change down a gear. We really miss his drive.
We simply can’t allow that to happen when we come up against decent teams like Sunderland, who are the teatime visitors to Portman Road on Saturday.
Let’s hope the cup victory helps us rediscover our mojo in the league - and that the heavy defeat in the north-east derby has the opposite effect on Sunderland.
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