Ipswich v Brighton: Blues Mick McCarthy believes it was about time his side were the beneficiaries of some good luck following this afternoon’s 2-0 home win over Brighton.

Town had been on the end of deflected goals against Reading, Leeds and Birmingham, but they broke the deadlock in the 20th minute today when David McGoldrick’s shot looped off the back of Keith Andrews and into the top corner.

McGoldrick then scored a fine solo goal four minutes later, with Brighton having strong penalty appeals waved away in the second half after Will Buckley’s shot appeared to hit Tommy Smith’s raised arms in the box.

“We had to beat them today, you don’t get anything easy from them, they’re a good outfit and they’ve got some good players,” said McCarthy, whose side are now up to ninth in the table following a fourth home win from five.

“They had a good start, they started better than us, missed a sitter. That’s this league. How many times do I say that? Last week they (Wigan) made saves or we missed chances. You’ve got to take chances when they come along and we did with a really good performance from Dids (McGoldrick).

“I know they’re screaming about a penalty. I haven’t seen it but personally I think it’s a great decision by the ref.

“I don’t know, I’m taking the Mick, of course, I’ve no idea until I see it. But, by the way, if it is a dubious one, it’s about time we got one anyway. How many deflections have flown in our bleeding net?

“At the time, I said we’d get a slice of luck because it would come around and if that’s our slice of luck, then great. But I won’t know until I’ve seen it.”

He added: “I thought some of our football was nice today. If you can win and entertain fans as well that’s great, but I’d settle for winning at any club wherever I am.

“There’s this fallacy about having to play sexy football. Rubbish, you’ve just got to win. Because playing sexy football and getting beat sees me driving out the gate with all my stuff, boxes piled up in my car, going back to (my home in) Bromley with the sack.

“Win; and then if you can put some little bells and whistles on it, fantastic!

“We’re getting better. I think we’ve retained the ball better than we have done in the past. I think we’re making little steps towards being a better team.”

On McGoldrick, who has now scored five goals in nine league games, the Blues boss said: “He was excellent today. I think you could go through the team and we’ve had a good, solid team performance – and you have to do that to win games.

“TC (assistant manager Terry Connor) marks them down and we check the marks every week and if you’ve got a team that’s got seven out of 10 all across the board, you’ve generally got a chance of winning.

“If you’ve got a few fours and fives, that’s when you get beaten. It’s all about marks afterwards, TC’s marks and I have a look at them.

“When you’re saying they played well, I think if you went through the team today you’d be saying the same about everybody.”

– See Monday’s EADT for reaction from two-goal striker David McGoldrick.