Ipswich Town 2 Coventry City 1A DELIGHTED Blues boss Jim Magilton celebrated his third win in a row but played down the part of supersub Billy Clarke and instead pointed to the first goal as the benchmark Ipswich are striving for.

By Derek Davis

Ipswich Town 2 Coventry City 1

A DELIGHTED Blues boss Jim Magilton celebrated his third win in a row but played down the part of supersub Billy Clarke and instead pointed to the first goal as the benchmark Ipswich are striving for.

Mark Noble gave Town the lead before Elliott Ward equalised and then Clarke produced his magic once again to hit the Blues winner five minutes from the end.

Magilton said: "Our first goal was outstanding. It is exactly how we want to play. It was progressive football, pass and move with a great finish. It doesn't get better than that.

"But then we suffered a bit of nerves and they scored before our little mate Billy came on and scored.”

Billy may be the hero but Magilton is determined he will not get carried away and has ordered him in for training today along with the other substitutes.

Magilton said: “I don't want to say too much about Billy just yet. He is going to be anything he wants to be but at the moment we want him to keep his feet on the ground. He will be in for training in the morning and ready again on Saturday.

“He has been a revelation for us and has added something for us. We are lucky to have him and want to keep him.”

City's goal came after Town had made a defensive substitution which Magilton had no regrets about making even in hindsight.

He said: “It was a straight forward substitution because Fabian was tiring, they had brought on a new striker with added height and Richard Naylor has been outstanding for us while Alex Bruce has played well at right back.

“What is a centre half doing up there anyway to score the goal?”

Micky Adams blamed Andy Marshall for letting in Town's second goal and was disappointed not to get a draw.

He said: “We created enough chances to get something out of the game. It is better to be a lucky manager than a good one and Jim is certainly a lucky one at the moment.

“I'm not having a go at Andy Marshall because he has done well for us this season but he will be down in the mouth about the second goal.”

Full report, pictures and more in today's EADT