Wes Burns’ late headed winner against Portsmouth might not have been the greatest goal of all time, but it could be one of the most significant in Ipswich Town’s season.

Imagine for a moment that the Pompey game had ended in a draw. We would all be talking about throwing away yet another lead, our inability to beat our promotion rivals, and questioning our credentials as candidates to go up.

In other words, the post match inquests would have been packed with negativity. Not good.

So, thank goodness Kyle Edwards’ cross took a deflection, ballooned up in the air, and landed on Burns’ head just a couple of feet from the goal-line.

As a result, Ipswich have proved they do have the ability, and the bottle, to beat other top six teams, and have also shown that we can regain a lead as well as losing one.

So now we are able to talk positively about a terrific game played in bright sunshine, in front of a packed, passionate Portman Road. In truth, this didn’t feel like a League One game. Both of those sides should be plying their trade at a higher level.

What the game did demonstrate - yet again - is how strong our bench is. Having surrendered our lead for the second time, the game could easily have slipped out of our grasp, but our subs changed all of that.

Freddie Ladapo lashed in a simply superb goal with his first touch, and, as I’ve already mentioned, Kyle Edwards played a big part in our winner. I love the direct way Edwards runs at defenders. I think he will be especially effective coming on with half an hour to go, using his pace and trickery to terrify tiring fullbacks and centre halves.

I was critical of Ladapo in this column last week, but I take my hat off to him for his goal on Saturday. It was sensational. He absolutely lashed the ball home after a cross from the left. It was his first touch after coming off the bench.

Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to see Ladapo scoring loads of goals. I would love it. I’ve had plenty of egg on my face over things I’ve written down the years. A few more dollops aren’t going to make much difference.

So, everything in the garden is rosy, is it? Well, it is pretty good, as a quick glance at the league table will demonstrate. Scoring goals definitely isn’t a problem - we’re the division’s top scorers and we look to be bursting with goals.

It’s at the other end of the pitch where we have worries. Do you remember all those clean sheets we used to keep? Where have they gone? We’ve conceded two goals in each of our last three league games. That is out of character for a Kieran McKenna team.

Individual errors have crept into our game. We saw George Edmundson make a mistake for Plymouth’s winner, and against Portsmouth it was Luke Woolfenden who looked like he switched off in the move which led to the visitors’ first penalty equaliser.

It seems strange to say it, but I agree with Town fans who say we miss Cameron Burgess. For most of his time at Town, Burgess has been viewed as a stand-in defender. But just recently, before his horrible facial injury, he had become our best, most reliable defender. Get well soon, Cameron.

One slightly negative note from Saturday. What was all that nonsense with Town fans keeping the ball in the crowd? Yes, I know Pompey - like most visiting teams - tried to waste time virtually from the first minute.

I appreciate how infuriating that can be. But deliberately stopping play from resuming just isn’t funny. We don’t want to drop to that level. And it means referees add even more time, which happened on Saturday. We played nine minutes of extra time, as opposed to the seven signalled. Whinge over....

So, buoyed by our win over Portsmouth, we look forward to some highly winnable games, starting with tomorrow evening against Cambridge.

As I said at the beginning, the win against Pompey is hugely significant. It gives all of us - players, coaches, fans - real confidence that we are the real deal. That is massive.