IPSWICH TOWN: Blues manager Roy Keane insisted that there were only pluses to come out of last night’s Carling Cup third round victory against fellow Championship side Millwall at The Den.

Town at last ended their first-half hoodoo with goals from Tamas Priskin and Gareth McAuley and although the home team pulled a goal back in the second period through Steve Morison Ipswich go into the hat for the fourth round draw on Saturday.

They will be hoping for a home match having been drawn away in the last eight cup rounds they have been involved in with Keane saying that would be nice for the fans with 799 Blues’ supporters travelling to London to witness Ipswich maintain their unbeaten away record this season.

And Keane enthused: “It was all pluses for us this evening and I’m glad that we are through.

“Tamas Priskin scored a good goal, Andros Townsend showed his talent and pushed us forward while Luke Hyam and Reggie Lambe also were impressive.

“In fact I would be nit-picking if I could find any faults against a Millwall team that showed why they have such a good home record.”

Keane confirmed the last thing he wanted was extra time, and he added: “That would have been hard to take.

“We gave a bad goal away but other than that our goalkeeper Brian Murphy did not have a great deal to do.

“The way the players performed after I made eight changes has given me a headache before I select a team for Saturday’s league game at Scunthorpe with a number of them holding their hands up and asking me to pick them for the weekend.

“Our priority is to do well in the Championship but to do anything you need to put your bodies on the line and to show some spirit and this is what we did.

“It was not easy and perhaps I stopped the flow of play a bit with my substitutions, but it was important that certain players had minutes on the pitch and this was accomplished to add to a very good night for Ipswich Town.”

Keane is hoping to bring in a loan player later this week with Jack Colback a possible after his Sunderland team went out of the Carling Cup last night.

Keane added: “Following the results last night there could be something positive on a loan signing either later today or tomorrow.”

Sunderland manager Steve Bruce said last night that he did not envisage Colback being loaned out in the immediate future although it is still a possibility that Colback will spend the majority of this season on loan from the Premier League club.

Millwall manager Kenny Jacket was philosophical about his side’s defeat but he did say: “On the balance of play we were unlucky to lose.

“Ipswich were a very good side and you can see from their quality the progress that we have to make having moved up from League One last season.

“League points are obviously vital to us but this was a cup game and of course we had to go out and try and win it.

“The first goal was against the run of play and we then lost our way until the interval, conceding a second sloppy goal.

“We all hate losing but we went down fighting in the second half and if you are going to lose that is the way to do it.”