A DELIGHTED Paul Jewell heaped praise on debutant Jimmy Bullard, whose first-half rocket helped his new club Ipswich Town to ease their relegation worries at sorry Derby County.

A DELIGHTED Paul Jewell heaped praise on debutant Jimmy Bullard, whose first-half rocket helped his new club Ipswich Town to ease their relegation worries at sorry Derby County.

Bubbly Bullard, so full of running, marked his first game in a Town shirt, following his loan move from Hull City, with a terrific long-range strike to equalise Alberto Bueno’s early opener at Pride Park.

And it was skipper David Norris who rammed the final nail in Derby’s coffin with a 68th minute winner, his eighth goal of the season, to propel Town up to 17th spot, seven points clear of the drop zone.

“It was a good strike from Jimmy,” enthused Jewell.

“Jimmy gives us something a bit different, He wants to get on the ball all the time and he is so enthusiastic. He gives us a different dimension.

And all credit to David Norris. He kept going, I asked him to make those runs to join the front player.

“It was a good goal and I was pleased to see it go in,” added Jewell, whose side had also battled back from a goal down to beat Doncaster 3-2 in his first home game in charge 10 days ago.

Jewell continued: “I prefer not have to battle back from a goal down, to win the game, but it shows we have got a lot of character. I’ve told the players that we have won the game, but there’s so much more we could have done, which is an encouraging sign.

“We are showing little shoots of progress, but I don’t want to get carried away.

“I know Derby aren’t on a great run at the moment, but they haven’t got a bad home record and it’s a difficult place to come.

“They counter-attacked us quite well, but we stuck in there and we had that bit of luck that we need.

“By winning games, that breeds confidence. We aren’t used to winning games, and I think we should have killed the game off at times. We gave the ball away, which was just nervousness, and that will go with us winning more games.”

Derby have now lost eight of their last 10 games in the Championship, and are now only ahead of Town on goal difference.

Rams boss Nigel Clough rued; “Stephen Bywater came in straight away at half-time and put his hand up for the goal. It was a small mistake, but it changed the game.

“We started both halves well, and I thought we looked comfortable at 1-0 up.”

Match report - Pages 54&55