Colchester v Ipswich: Blues boss Paul Jewell was left pleased with another pre-season victory, but says his side must get better at killing teams off.

Michael Chopra’s brace saw Town lead League One hosts Colchester United 2-0 at half-time, but it could have been a far more comfortable margin had Lee Martin been able to convert a couple of good early chances and keeper Mark Cousins not pulled off an excellent save from Jay Emmanuel-Thomas.

In a similar story to the 3-1 win over West Ham last Saturday though, Ipswich allowed their opponents to come back into the match after the restart as Jewell made a number of substitutions.

Summer signing Clinton Morrison halved the deficit, with Town wobbling for a period.

“First half we were excellent,” said Jewell “We’ve had four gilt-edged opportunities and should have been out of sight come half-time.

“We created a lot of opportunities, we look like we’ve got a lot of good movement in the team, we passed the ball exceptionally well and look a danger every time we go forward. We’ve just got to work on killing teams off.

“We made a few changes second half and that made it a little disjointed.”

The Blues boss, who had slammed his side for ‘not being good enough’ following defeats to lower level Luton Town and Southend United, added: “I’m as bad as anyone in getting down at poor results, but you try not to get too carried away by them, just as I’m not getting too carried away by these wins against West Ham and Colchester.”

With Chopra taking his pre-season goal tally to six ahead of Town’s League Cup opener against Bristol Rovers at Portman Road next Tuesday, Jewell said: “It’s only pre-season, but there’s nothing like your goalscorer scoring goals. It’s not just that, it’s his general play too. He’s looked really sharp and fitter than this time last year.”

Meanwhile, Jewell revealed that he took off keeper Scott Loach and defender Luke Chambers at half-time purely as a precaution after they reported a tight groin and abductor respectively.

The Blues boss also confirmed that 33-year-old midfielder Jimmy Bullard was not named amongst a large bench for the second game running due to footballing reasons.

He said: “Jimmy is not in the squad at the moment, it’s as simple as that. There’s no point him sitting on the bench here just to play 10 or 15 minutes.

“He wants to play football, he works ever so hard in training every day, but at the moment it’s just not happening for him.”

– See tomorrow’s Ipswich Star for Jewell’s thoughts on potential new signings.