IPSWICH TOWN: Roy Keane had praise for his senior players after a weakened team beat Exeter City 3-2 after extra time in the first round of the Carling Cup at St James Park last night.

Ronan Murray forced his way into the reckoning for a place in Saturday’s Championship side to play Burnley at Portman Road with an outstanding debut.

He scored one goal – with David Norris scoring the other two and acting as skipper when Jon Walters went down with a virus yesterday morning to leave Ipswich with just six substitutes.

Keane, who has now seen his team come back from behind to win both matches this season, said: “My senior players on duty all led by example.

“The youngsters followed their examples and I think we deserved to win even though Exeter will believe they could easily have taken the game into penalties.

“Chuck (Norris) was outstanding and so was Grant Leadbitter, Brian Murphy, Colin Healy and Jon Stead, who had to battle away up front on his own.

“Both teams wanted to win, and I was impressed by the spirit shown by us and by Exeter.

“Young Ronan is the most natural goalscorer at the club and he has put himself in line for a place in the squad for Saturday’s game.

“It wasn’t even a chance when he headed the ball into the net.”

Keane revealed that Troy Brown took a knock and that he has joined the injury list and that was why he went off.

“Jon Walters went down with a virus in the morning and said he was not well enough to travel ,” added Keane.

“This meant that we had just six substitutes and that Chuck took over as captain.

“We went into the game looking to win and make progress and this is what we did.”

Keane indicated that a couple of loan signings could be in the offing with tomorrow or Friday a likely date, but that he had heard nothing further about Walters’ possible move to Premier League Stoke City.

“There is good news on Carlos Edwards as his groin problem is not as bad as we feared but Mark Kennedy could be out for longer than the three weeks we initially though after pulling a hamstring on Saturday,” said Keane.

The Town party flew back to East Anglia last night after the game and players will be assessed before Keane can name his side for the visit of Burnley at the weekend.