TONY Mowbray felt his side did enough to claim the victory after last night’s 1-1 draw with Ipswich.

The Boro boss was left delighted with his side’s performance as they kept their play-off dreams on track in the face of losing centre backs Matthew Bates and Seb Hines by half-time at Portman Road.

Former Town favourite Mowbray said: “I thought the effort, desire and quality from our team probably warranted the three points. But you have to say that they’ve just won five on the bounce here and it’s a decent point for us.

“I can only pour praise on the players. There were some outstanding individual performances. I thought Marvin Emnes was great. I also thought Joe Bennett was out of this world. But it’s probably unfair to mention those two. We came here in difficult circumstances and got an excellent result in the end.”

But Town goalscorer Grant Leadbitter slightly disagreed with Mowbray’s assessment of last night’s action.

The midfielder, who missed a second half penalty before equalising Lucas Jutkiewicz’s opening goal, said: “The first half was a bit stop-start and I don’t think the referee helped in letting the game flow.

“But we came out in the second half and when we equalised, I thought there was only going to be one team who would win the game.

“But Middlesbrough came here and played very well. They are a good football team and that is why they are in the top six.”