IPSWICH Town manager Paul Jewell has defended his side’s negative approach at Barnsley, insisting a draw was a good result.

Without injured strike duo Paul Taylor and Michael Chopra, the Blues boss admits he set-up his side ‘to stop’ the in-form Tykes following three consecutive losses.

And while the tactic worked in a first half-half during which Aaron Cresswell opened the scoring, the visitors were left clinging on for a point following Stephen Dawson’s deserved equaliser.

“I think people who are not in the game might think that a point at Barnsley isn’t great for a team like Ipswich,” said Jewell, whose side are now just three points off the bottom of the Championship table.

“Every team is very good in this league though. Names don’t mean anything. How big the club is doesn’t mean anything.

“You’ve got to come to places like this and work hard. You’ve got to forget about past reputations and do it on the pitch.

“Barnsley are playing some really good football at the minute and so I matched them up (with a diamond midfield formation) to stop them. This is a point gained rather than two lost.”

With a ‘Jewell Out’ banner unfurled in the away stand before and after the game at Oakwell, the under-pressure Blues boss – whose cause was not helped by the enforced substitutions of midfielders Luke Hyam and Guirane N’Daw – added: “The pressure is there all the time isn’t it? Whether you win a game or lose a game the pressure is there.

“I live with that pressure. I don’t read newspapers or whatever they have these days, but I know you’re not going to be popular when you’re losing matches.”